Who doesn’t love yummy ice cream? Bring the ice cream theme into your classroom or home to provide sweet treats, motor activity fun, a range of literacy skills, and even math skills! This preschool theme will have your little learners wanting more sensory ice cream activities, an ice cream taste test, and books about ice cream.
Explore these 30 activities and save hours of time developing fun lesson plans and ice cream crafts for your preschoolers!
1. Ice Cream Fork Painting
Young artists will love painting the cone of their ice cream with a fork. This creative craft allows for fine motor skills when painting the cone and then gluing tissue or construction paper to the top to form the colored ice cream.
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2. Pretend Ice Cream Shop
Let their creativity shine as they build their own ice cream sundaes and cones with play-doh. This is a great hands-on play pretend activity for preschoolers. Use can use fun bowls and real kitchen scoops and tools to make this pretend ice cream shop more realistic.
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3. Share Your Cone
Pair this printable ice cream game with the children’s book, Should I Share My Ice Cream?. This is a great opportunity to build social skills by having discussions about sharing. Preschoolers can even make their own paper ice cream cones and practice sharing with a friend.
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4. Coffee Can Ice Cream
Bring the kitchen to the classroom and let preschoolers make their own ice cream. Don’t forget to taste test and add plenty of ice cream toppings to your finished product. Students can make their own ice cream sundae from the ice cream you make together.
Learn More: Happy Hooligans
5. Pom-Pom Painting
Utilize classroom resources and things you already have on hand to create these adorable works of art. Use a sponge to trace a triangle shape and practice scissor skills to cut it and use it to stamp the ice cream cone. Then, let little hands use pom-poms to paint the top of the ice cream cone.
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6. Ice Cream Alphabet Game
Playful learning activities are always a great way to bring fun into the classroom. This alphabet matching game also helps little learners to practice motor skills. Easy to make, this will be a fun addition to any preschool classroom as your preschoolers make their own ice cream alphabet cones.
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7. Ice Cream Scoop Names
This printable ice cream activity includes many skills preschoolers need to practice. They can cut, glue, and practice letter recognition as they build their own names, while also creating a cute craft.
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8. Ice Cream Order
This easy printable worksheet is a great way for preschoolers to practice putting items in order and deciding how to build an ice cream sundae or cone. They could color afterward as well. They could also practice counting the scoops they want to add.
Learn More: Parenting Chaos
9. Blind Taste Test
Taste-testing is always fun, but add a twist by having preschoolers cover their eyes or wear a blindfold. Let little ones try different flavors and use their palette to determine which flavor they are trying. You could graph the results with a pictograph.
Learn More: No Time for Flashcards
10. Puff Paint Craft
These adorable crafts are super cute to make! Let kiddos enjoy sensory play while making these puff paint creations. You can even add real sprinkles to it to make it a bit more realistic. Shaving cream, paint, and sprinkles make this craft easy to make and fun to do!
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11. Clothespin Ice Cream Parlor
Take a turn in a pretend ice cream parlor. Felt is perfect for cutting out the templates and making ice cream scoops and a cone for a fun play center. Your preschoolers can practice letter formation by writing down your order and clipping the ice cream scoops together to form a fun, pretend treat!
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12. Origami Ice Cream Cones
Origami is a fun, crafty activity that will help preschoolers practice fine motor skills by folding the paper into different creases. You can use patterned craft paper or plain paper and let preschoolers decorate their own ice cream craft.
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13. Ice Cream Letter Matching
This quick and easy printable is perfect for centers or independent work for students to practice matching uppercase and lowercase letters. Laminate a master set of letters and print out copies of the coloring sheet and you are all set!
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14. Ice Cream Dot Counting
This counting activity is fun for students and easy for teachers. You could actually do several activities with this printable. Students will enjoy dabbing bingo dabbers to make art, but in the meantime, they are practicing numeracy and counting skills.
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15. Ice Cream I Spy
These free printables are just plain fun! Preschoolers will enjoy playing I spy on their papers. They can circle the things they find and also practice counting. These would be good for encouraging conversations in small groups as well.
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16. Footprint Ice Cream Craft
Most little ones enjoy dipping their hands or feet into the paint to use their handprint or footprint to create a work of art! This footprint ice cream cone craft is sure to please. Preschoolers will enjoy making it and parents will enjoy seeing it.
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17. Handprint Ice Cream Cone Craft
Just like using footprints, preschoolers also love using handprints. These easy-to-make ice cream cone crafts will be a hit for preschoolers. They will get to cut, paint, and draw. This is a great activity for practicing fine motor skills.
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18. Cupcake Liner Ice Cream Cones
Cupcake liners, paper, glue, and markers make this activity one that is easy to put together. Preschoolers can cut out their cones, decorate their cupcake liners, and glue their artwork together. You could use paint instead of markers to complete the bottom of the cone.
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19. Paper Mache Ice Cream Sundaes
This activity will be a bit more involved and possibly messier, but tons of fun! Students can make the paper mache ice cream scoops and craft their own bowls. Then, they can make paper toppings and paint their ice cream scoops to look however they want!
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20. Ice Cream Coloring Pages
If you are tight on time, these free printables are perfect! Just print and let students color them. Fine motor practice and hand-eye coordination are great skills for the students to practice with this activity.
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21. Bubble Wrap Ice Cream Craft
What kid doesn’t love bubble wrap? Even most adults do, too! If you can keep them from popping the bubble wrap, let students paint the bubble wrap and use it to create this unique work of art!
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22. Ice Cream Scoop Addition
Add up the scoops with this cute little addition activity. It is color-coded and easy for young learners to count out pom-poms of the corresponding color and add them up. Students could also practice writing the number on the cone.
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23. Name Scoop
This is a great activity that will be good letter recognition, practice for spelling names, and fine motor skills. Students can match letters in their names to letters on stickers. Afterward, preschoolers can practice writing their names on paper.
Learn More: Oh Hey Let’s Play
24. Letter Writing Ice Cream Scoops
Print and laminate these ice cream-themed letter cards. Let preschoolers practice writing the letter they see in sand trays or make a sensory tray with sprinkles. As long as you don’t mind sticky little hands, these sensory trays will be a huge hit!
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25. Ice Cream Shape Match Up
This game is great for reviewing shapes and colors. Students can match the correct shape and practice identifying the color of each shape as well. This would be very easy to make. Simply print, laminate, and cut out.
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26. Ice Cream Volcano
Bring science to life with this fun experiment! Preschoolers will enjoy helping to make these volcanoes erupt with different colors. They can help measure ingredients and pour them into the cone to create a fun and foamy volcanic explosion!
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27. Ice Cream Play-doh Mats
These laminated sheets are perfect for center time or just independent practice. Let students practice rolling out play-doh balls to represent the number card they choose. You could also incorporate color recognition as well.
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28. Count the Scoops
This activity is a great way to bring realistic dramatic play into the classroom. Let preschoolers use a real ice cream scoop to count out the number of scoops for each number card. Let them practice adding scoops to the cone.
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29. Sprinkle Count
Laminate these number cards and let little ones roll out a play-doh ice cream scoop. Then they can add beads to represent the number card. The beads represent sprinkles. This is a great counting and number recognition activity.
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30. Ice Cream Cone Patterns
Print out the patterns and laminate them for your little learners. Then use a real ice cream cone to dip into paint and create the same patterns. This will be fun good motor and skill-building practice as they recreate the patterns.
Learn More: Busy Hands and Minds
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