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[Childcare] 13 Recommended Summer Ice Craft Ideas

10 years as a kindergarten teacher / elementary school teacher / junior and senior high school teacher / childminderkepiko
Graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, Faculty of Music (now: Department of Music Culture and Education, Early Childhood Music Education major). In elementary school, my homeroom teacher was Jun Kusaba, a game researcher. After graduating from university, I worked as a kindergarten teacher for 10 years and as an after-school childcare instructor for 7 years, then took a position as a music teacher at an international school in Singapore. In addition to music education, I engaged in activities that introduced Japanese culture, traditional games, and recreational activities, working with many children. Later, through freelance writing, planning, and editing at Shogakukan, I met many delightful adults and experienced the joy of communicating and sharing. Drawing on the perspective cultivated in the field of education and my experience as an editor, I provide practical information with an emphasis on both input and output, mainly in areas related to music and children. My hobbies include instruments, singing, handicrafts, toys, drawing, traditional games, the outdoors, and books. My special skill is spinning-top tricks.
Nursery Teacher Mom Writertsukada moe
After working for five years at an after-school childcare club and three years at a nursery school, I began working as a freelance writer. I’m a mother of two children. Inspired by playing the flute in the school wind ensemble in elementary school, I joined a jazz club at university. I’ve also incorporated ukulele and piano performance into childcare. Playing, laughing, feeling sad, feeling frustrated—through all kinds of experiences, I want children to grow.

A fun craft that’s perfect for summer! How about making ice cream—the kids’ favorite? Here, we’ll share easy and fun ice cream craft ideas.

There are toy ice creams with beautiful colors and shapes, as well as ones you can enjoy for their textures.

We also recommend playing pretend shop with the ice creams you make.

They can be used for wall displays too, so enjoy making ice creams together while you play.

Make sure to spend time with the children enjoying cool, sweet ice cream! Since the children’s creations are treated as works, we use the term “seisaku” (production/creation) in the text.

[Childcare] Recommended for summer! 13 ice-cream craft ideas (1–10)

ice cream

[For 4-year-olds] Seasonal Origami: Ice Cream

ice cream

Let’s make an ice cream that tastes great in summer using origami.

Fold the origami paper into a triangle, then open it and fold the two left edges inward along the crease.

Reposition the paper so the white triangular section is at the top, and fold the bottom corner up to meet the top corner.

Turn the paper over and fold only the top layer downward.

At this point, fold it so that about 2 centimeters of the colored section above the white triangle remains visible.

Turn the paper over again and flip top and bottom, then slightly fold the top and both side corners inward.

Your ice cream is complete!

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[Age 3] Making ice cream through sensory play

Here’s a mess-free sensory ice cream craft idea.

Place small amounts of your favorite paint colors on a sheet of construction paper.

Using several colors will make the result look nicer.

Put the paper inside a zippered plastic bag, then spread the paint around with your fingertips.

Let the children play with it plenty so they can fully enjoy the texture of the paint.

Before the paint dries, cut out an ice cream shape right through the bag.

Add decorations on top or combine it with an ice cream cone, and you’ll have a unique finished piece.

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[Age 3] Colorful Ice Cream with Wet-on-Wet Painting

Make Ice Cream with Wet-on-Wet Painting! Easy 3D Craft for 2- to 3-Year-Olds

[Age 3] Colorful Ice Cream with Wet-on-Wet Painting

Shall we make a cool-looking ice cream using the wet-on-wet (bleeding) painting technique? First, make an ice cream cone out of drawing paper.

For 3-year-olds, it may be easier if the teacher draws the outline in advance and has them cut it out with scissors.

Next, crumple two pieces of kitchen paper into balls.

If you make them different sizes, it will look more like real ice cream.

Dilute some paint with water, then drip it onto the kitchen paper.

Watch how the colors bleed and spread.

Once dry, glue the paper ice cream cone and the kitchen-paper scoops onto a backing sheet to finish.

Adding decorations like beads to the ice cream also makes it cute.

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[Childcare] Recommended for summer! 13 ice-cream craft ideas (11–20)

Colorful Ice Cream Craft with Stickers (Age 1)

Sticker pasting is a great activity to encourage the development of fine motor skills in one-year-olds.

If you incorporate stickers into an ice cream craft, you’ll end up with unique, colorful creations.

First, the teacher should prepare ice cream cones and scoops out of construction paper.

Have the one-year-olds stick round stickers in their favorite colors onto the ice cream.

It’s okay if the stickers overlap or are placed unevenly—the goal is for them to enjoy the process.

Once the ice creams are decorated colorfully, paste them onto a backing sheet and decorate with the child’s name as well.

It will turn into a lovely piece that parents will be delighted to see.

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[Age 4] Ice cream with colorful toppings

Let’s make colorful ice cream with cute, pop-style toppings.

As a prep step, draw the shape of an ice pop on construction paper and have the children cut it out.

It’s a good idea to provide a variety of paper colors so they can choose their favorites.

Decorate in various ways, such as sticking masking tape in any shapes and painting over it, or rolling up pieces of colorful masking tape into small balls and attaching them.

Finally, glue on an ice cream stick to finish.

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[Age 4] Marbled Ice Cream

Using the marbling technique to make colorful, cute ice cream is also recommended.

For marbling, use special marbling paints.

First, fill a tray with water, drop in the marbling paints, and gently swirl them with a thin stick like a bamboo skewer or chopsticks to create a marble pattern.

Next, lightly float a sheet of drawing paper on the water’s surface to transfer the pattern.

Be sure to let the paper dry completely.

Cut the marbled paper into circles to make scoops of ice cream and attach them to a cone.

Write a name on a penguin made from construction paper and display them together for a cool, refreshing piece of art!

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[Age 5] Making play ice cream for pretend play

Here’s an idea for making 3D ice cream that’s perfect for pretend play.

Prepare some ice cream cups from a 100-yen shop or similar store.

Drawing patterns with color pens will make them look cute.

Cut construction paper into a square, then fold it like origami to create the ice cream shape.

Fold it into a square and open it, rotate, and fold into a square again.

Next, fold it into a triangle, rotate, and fold into a triangle again.

Use a squash fold to shape it like soft-serve ice cream.

Try painting it with watercolor or decorating it with beads to make a lovely ice cream.

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