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You are here: Home / Winter Activities / Winter Fine Motor Activity With Watercolors and Ice

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Winter Fine Motor Activity With Watercolors and Ice

January 7, 2022 by Sheryl Cooper

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Inside: This winter fine motor activity is so simple, yet is packed with fun. Toddlers and preschoolers love using droppers to squeeze and release vibrant watercolors into bins of ice cubes!

Painting on ice is a big hit in our preschool classroom. It all started about six years ago when my assistant teacher invited our students to paint on top of blocks of ice.

Huge hit!

From there, we started finding different types of cake pans to freeze water in, such as a gingerbread man, a Christmas tree, and a Valentine’s Day heart.

This year I tried something different, involving more fine motor strengthening as the paint was DROPPED onto ice.

Our busiest children especially loved the action of this activity while focusing on transferring paint from the container to the ice.

It tied in perfectly with our snow and ice theme!

winter fine motor activity

Fine Motor

There are so many creative ways to add fine motor to different activities, getting the hands ready for writing.

No matter what area of the classroom I am working on, I think about how the hands will be involved.

get the hands ready for writing

I especially love anything that involves droppers.

Some examples:

  • Dropping Watercolors On Paper Towel
  • Squeezing Water Into Heart Containers
  • Dropping Paint On Shamrocks

So when I was looking for a winter fine motor activity, I wanted to use droppers again.

Pure fun!

winter fine motor activity

Putting Together a Winter Fine Motor Activity With Watercolors and Ice

Supplies Needed

  • Small tub
  • Liquid watercolors
  • Droppers
  • Ice cubes

A Note About Droppers

I like to use droppers with larger bulbs for our toddlers. The larger area allows them to start by using 2 hands, making it easier to squeeze and release.

(Here are the droppers we use.)

winter fine motor activity

Once their hands are stronger, I offer pipettes. It takes more control to use these, a great fine motor challenge!

Fine Motor Shamrock Art for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Setting Up This Activity

Place your tubs on a table and add ice cubes.

Pour liquid watercolors into containers and dilute with water, as desired.

Place droppers beside each container of paint and that’s it!

The Activity

Invite your children to transfer the watercolors from the container to the tub of ice.

winter fine motor activity

If this is your children’s first time using droppers, show them how to use the bulb to squeeze and release the paint.

It might take a few times to get the hang of it.

winter fine motor activity

The more times they repeat the process, the easier it will be.

We start using droppers early in the school year, such as with our farm animal water table. From there, they are used throughout the seasons with different activities.

Using Multiple Colors

We used four different colors for a color mixing experience.

winter fine motor activity

Since this was part of our winter theme, I stuck with cooler colors.

https://teaching2and3yearolds.com/preschool-color-mixing-activities/

This would be a fun activity to use with primary colors during the rainbow theme. I need to keep that in mind for March!

But for now, we had fun with the blues, teals and purples.

winter fine motor activity

Sensory Fun

Another reason I chose ice was for the sense of touch.

Several of the children stopped to feel the ice in their hands, exclaiming, “It’s cold!”

winter fine motor activity

Sharing Tubs

Since we had four tubs and nine children, not everyone could participate at once. When the first group was finished, we dumped the colored ice into the sink and added fresh ice for the next group.

winter fine motor activity

Clean Up

Cleaning up this winter fine motor activity is just as simple as the set up!

Simply dump the ice into the sink and rinse the tubs.

And, of course, you will need to clean your paint containers and rinse out your droppers.

But still, easy!

More Winter Theme Activities

Counting: Five Little Snowmen (Free Printable)

Color Recognition: Mitten Color Matching (Free Printable)

Literacy: Colors In The Cold (With Free Printable Props)

Circle Time: Snowflake Props (Free Printable)

Art: Winter Collage

Art: Snowflakes

winter fine motor activity

Winter Collections

Arctic Animals Activities

Winter Literacy Ideas

Snow and Ice Skill Building Activities

Winter Science Ideas

 

TPT Winter Dot Stamping Pack
TPT Winter Learning Pack
toddler circle time winter counting props

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Filed Under: Fine Motor, preschool, Preschool Fine Motor, Toddler Fine Motor, Toddlers, Winter Activities Tagged With: fine motor, preschool, toddlers, winter

About Sheryl Cooper

Sheryl Cooper is the founder of Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds, a website full of activities for toddlers and preschoolers. She has been teaching this age group for over 20 years and loves to share her passion with teachers, parents, grandparents, and anyone with young children in their lives.

Previous Post: « 15 Fun Preschool Winter Activities that Involve Ice
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