This quick and easy popsicle craft is suitable for a range of ages and abilities and helps to improve painting skills and brush technique.
Using just a few household items and paints, we’ll make vibrant creations that look almost good enough to eat! The end result is a bright and delicious-looking nod to the past that allows us to remember the ice creams and lollies from our childhoods and share them with a new generation of young artists.
Once finished, they also make great props for other educational activities, games and dramatic play.
We hope you’ll agree that these ice lollies look super cute!
**As always, please supervise children at all times with activities like this. They may be tempted to put them in their mouths.**
Opportunities for learning:
• Practising brush skills.
• Fine motor development.
• Colour & flavour associations.
What you’ll need:
- Acrylic paints in a variety of bright colours (or Poster paints mixed with PVA glue).
- A pack of mini foam paint rollers.
- Coloured drinking straws.
- Coloured rubber bands.
- Paint brushes.
- A Pair of scissors.
Tips:
It’s a good idea to mix up the colours you want to use first, so that things don’t get too messy once you start painting.
You could also get your children to sketch out some designs first with coloured pencils and paper. Including an element of planning before undertaking an artistic project is great as it helps to develop critical thinking skills and promotes idea generation and creativity.
Once you’ve settled on a design for your lolly, it’s almost time to start painting.
Depending on which paint you use, it’ll take a while to dry. Make a few holes in a cardboard egg box (or something similar) and place the rollers on the end of your drinking straws. That way you can just stand the lollies up in the box on the end of the straws and leave them to dry for as long as needed.
Using a suitable brush, apply your paint to a foam roller with the design you’d like.
If you want a dripped icing or chocolate effect, mix some paint with a little PVA glue to thicken.
Then apply liberally to your roller. Apply just enough that it makes some nice drip effects, but not too much or it will dribble all the way down the roller!
To make your sprinkles, chop some coloured bands into small pieces with the scissors. This will make them look like real sprinkles.
Whilst the topping is still wet, sprinkle some over the roller so that they stick to the wet paint.
Finally, just insert the drinking straws and leave to dry. If you need to, apply a small piece of plasticine to stop the straws slipping out of the rollers.
Extension Idea:
Another fun way of pushing this further for more advanced learners would be to incorporate an element of graphic design into the activity. Perhaps you could design some packaging for one of the ice lollies? This could involve designing lettering that reflects the flavour (crunchy, chocolatey, minty, fruity, and so on). Maybe even a poster to advertise your new brand of ice lolly!
That’s all there is to it! We hope you enjoyed this fun popsicle craft activity, and we’d love to see how yours turned out. Why not share a photo by tagging us on our Instagram page? @moonbowworld
Before you go… If you had fun with this and want to try something a little more challenging, why not have a look at our Play Food Afternoon Tea activity? Make a realistic afternoon tea from sponges, cloths and a few household/craft items.
Finally, if you’re an educator, you might also be interested in this article about Using Pretend Food in an educational setting.