Creative Uses For Ice Cube Trays

We seem to have accumulated a lot of ice cube trays in my classroom and I use them regularly in many different ways. I thought I would share a few of these with you.

COUNTING AND PLAYDOUGH

I wrote the numbers from 1-10 on mini pegs and pegged them onto the sides of the ice cube trays. The children had to roll sausages from the playdough and cut the dough into small pieces. They then had to count the cut pieces of playdough and put them in the ice cube trays.

COLOUR MIXING IN ICE CUBE TRAYS

I filled the ice cube trays with coloured dye and let the children experiment with colour mixing to create beautiful paintings. Using the eye droppers is also a great fine motor skill.

FINE MOTOR ACTIVITY

After dying penne pasta, I put out tongs with the pasta for the children to fill each ice compartment. The children did one piece of pasta at a time which was also a wonderful counting activity.

PAINTING WITH FROZEN DYE

I froze some dye with little matchsticks as handles. The children had to start at number one and paint in order from 1-5 by painting over each number with each colour. They also painted all over the page- they are 3!!!

SENSORY PLAY

I got some recycled plastic bits from our local recycling supplier and let the children fill a variety of containers, including ice cube trays. Sensory play is one of their favourite things to do.

Thanks for visiting

Niccola