Appropriate age group:
Preschool and Younger
Elementary School

Time needed:
Half Day

Type of weather:
Sunny

Description:
I saw some way cool paintings at school, on a bulletin board, and had to ask how they were made.

As it happens, the class was a young special-needs group, and the paints were leftover tempera paints, frozen into ice cube trays. On a sunny day, the kids and the teacher went outdoors, and the kids had a blast painting with the ice cubes! All sorts of interesting effects were created on the paper.

Other comments or suggestions:
I thought it was highly creative, and made excellent use of something that's routinely tossed out at the end of an art project.

Because tempera can be thinned with water and still have color, one might add a little water to the dabs of paint. That would make the cubes substantial enough to grab onto, and increase the 'water color' effects.