Painting with Naturally Dyed Ice | Discovering Liquids and Solids

Students painting with natural dye ice cubes

This is a suer fun, hands on project to explain liquids and solids to your children. Children will learn what happens to a solid when exposed to heat and the difference between a liquid and a solid.

What you’ll need:

• A freezer, or sheltered outdoor winter area

• Popsicle sticks

• Ice cube trays

• Paper (thick cardstock or watercolor paper)

For Dye I used:

• Green- Spinach, Mint, and Carrot Greens

• Blue- Blueberries

• Yellow - Turmeric

• Reddish Brown - Paprika (for a more vibrant red, beats can also be used)

Instructions:

How to make your dyes:

Note- the dyes will stain your hands, if you do not wish to get the dye on your clothing or hands, I suggest wearing gloves and an apron, or, clothing that you don’t mind getting dye on.

• To make your dyes, bring water to a boil in a pot on your stove top. Use a different container for each individual color. For vegetables, you’ll want about two cups of ingredients for every two cups of water. For spices you’ll want 2 tablespoons for every two cups of water.

• Once boiling add ingredients for each color to assigned pot.

• Boil for 1 minute, and bring to a simmer for 10 minutes

• Strain ingredients from liquid - be sure to catch all the liquid in a pourable container.

• Once you have your individual colored liquids, let them cool to room temperature

• Once cooled, pour into your ice cube containers

• Once slightly frozen I put my popsicle sticks in to be used as the handles for painting. Letting the ice slightly freeze makes it easier for the sticks to stand upright.

• Let freeze (I let mine freeze over night)

• Once frozen, grab your watercolor paper and start painting!

(Making dyes for painting is different then making dyes for clothing, which generally involves vinegar and/or salt to make dyes more permanent. For this project we skipped those ingredients)

Discussion Topics and Questions:

• Can you find items around your home that are solids? What about liquids?

• What makes liquids turn to solids?

• Why do solids turn into liquids?

• Is ice a solid or a liquid?

• What did the ice turn into when it melted?

Bird Seed Ornament

This is such a fun project and a great creative, motor skill and sensory craft! Bird seed ornaments, which will most likely also be enjoyed by other winter woodland friends as well, can be made overnight and hung the next day! All you need is some bird seed and a few other ingredients! If you’d like to make your own, follow the instructions below! Happy creating!

Bird Seed Ornaments:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup water

2 packets gelatin

3 tbsp corn syrup

3 cups bird seed

Items needed:

Parchment paper

Paper straws

Baking sheet

cookie cutters

Directions:

1. In a large bowl mix all in ingredients (bird seed being last)

2. grab a baking sheet and line with parchment paper.

3. Place cookie cutters on sheet

4. fill cookie cutters with bird seed mix. Be sure to pack down with a spoon or fingers, ensuring the mix is tightly packed inside the cookie cutters. Fill cutters to top.

5. Cut plastics straws in quarters and press into bird seed ornament ensuring it pierces all the way through the mixture, making a hole to layer pull strings through to hang.

6. place baking sheet with bird seed filled cookie cutters outside (if you live in a cold climate) or in the refrigerator for 5-6 hours or over night.

7. After ornaments have hardened, take them out of the refrigerator or from outside and place string through hole previously made.

8. Go outside and hang your beautiful creation! See if you can spot the different animal friends that stop by to say hi and grab a bite to eat!

Tip:

Making the string holes in the center of the ornament rather than towards an edge will help ensure durability.