In honor of National Ice Cream Day (July 15th) I wanted to share some sweet ice cream activities! During Preschool Language group we read “Should I Share my Ice Cream?” by Mo Willems. My two kiddos love Elephant and Piggie, and not only does this book go along with the ice cream theme it also talks about sharing!
Immediately after reading the book, I had a big bowl of cotton balls or “ice cream” ready for them to make ice cream “cones” with. My ice cream cones were simply toilet paper rolls, cut and rerolled to look like ice cream cones. They were a huge hit, so easy and free!! I mixed things up a little by adding in some craft pom poms in different colors. They served as our “flavors” and also provided a motivating way to get the kiddos identifying and asking for different colors or “flavors” to add to their cones.
Next, I gave the kids the opportunity to scoop some more ice cream and introduced “ice cream play dough.” I found a recipe for this on Pinterest but had to adjust and add quite a bit more cornstarch than the original recipe called for. My recipe was 1 container of vanilla icing mixed with 2 cups of cornstarch. It took a lot of mixing to get the dough to not be too sticky. I brought sprinkles that the kids could add to their bowls of ice cream which was a lot of fun! I used this for about a week and when the dough got too dry I just added a few drops of water and it was new again!
Finally, we practiced taking orders and sharing ice cream with each other with the Melissa and Doug Ice Cream set. It comes with its own menu, ice cream, and toppings. My preschool group loved this play set and it was a great opportunity to take turns, ask questions, identify colors, count scoops, etc.
Hope your summer is as sweet as this language group!
