Activities to Celebrate Ice Cream Month

It shouldn’t come as a surprise (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) that July is Ice Cream Month. I think we all reach for this tasty treat more when it’s hot outside, and it’s definitely hot outside!

To celebrate Ice Cream Month you can head to your favorite ice cream shop, or make ice cream yourself (try this easy recipe with a science experiment built in from 123 Homeshool 4 Me) and sink your teeth into these fun ice cream themed activities.

Mrs. Plemon’s Kindergarten has a whole ice cream week, complete with children’s books to read, fine motor activities like placing cut up straw “sprinkles on a printed cone, gross motor skills like a relay, snack ideas (with ice cream, of course!) and sensory bins. So fun for a classroom or just a kid or two.

Look We’re Learning has a unit study on ice cream, too, which includes printable notebook pages, fun ice cream facts and a collection of ice cream themed activities.

Speaking of sensory bins, this ice cream dramatic play begins with a box full of tissue paper ice cream scoops that would also be fun to play with as a sensory bin. Get all the details from Entertain Your Toddler.

Or make a taste-safe sensory foam toddlers can play with, make ice cream cones with along with other supplies, or just squish in their hands. The recipe is from Powerful Mothering.

Give the classic erupting volcano activity a summery twist by using a cone for the, well, cone. Check it out at Kindergarten Worksheets and Games.

Yes, these are Popsicles, not ice cream, but this printable I spy from And Next Comes L is too cute not to share.

Read the Mo Wilems book Should I Share My Ice Cream and play an easy ice cream sharing game with this idea from Sunny Day Family.

Work with patterns with these printable ice cream sheets from Preschool Play and Learn. Use balls of playdough for the scoops to add a motor skill boost (or use tweezers and pompoms). Or use the do-a-dot worksheets from Tot Schooling to work on counting to 10.

I can’t resist throwing in a craft, too, so check out these adorable pompom ice cream necklaces from Handmade Charlotte. So fun!

Looking for more Pretend play? Check out these Pretend Play Icecream shops on Amazon.

I did a post earlier this year with activities and ideas for teaching the alphabet, but a lot or learning letters and recognizing them just has to do with seeing them and working with them a lot.

That means coloring, tracing, identifying things that start with different letters and more.

One way to reinforce the letters is through little activity books like these cute printable alphabet books from Life Over Cs.

These are available for free when you subscribe to her newsletter, and I’d say that’s well worth it if you have a little one (or a group of little ones!) working on the alphabet and letter recognition.

Each mini book includes a collection of things that start with that letter to color, color and read with words that start with the letter, tracing the letter, finding the letter in a grid and other coloring pages with objects that start with that letter.

These little books are super useful reinforcing the different letters and giving kids different activities related to the letters.

If you do a letter of the day or letter of the week you can use a new book for each one, and then keep the copies in your reading center or in a basket where kids can look at them again.

And of course you can add in all the other letter activities you like, go on a scavenger hunt for items that start with that letter, read alphabet books, practice writing letters in rice or with pompoms or playdough or whatever sensory activities you like.

You can grab the free printables when you enter you email address at Life Over Cs, and check out her other great alphabet resources and activities while you are over there.

Do you have favorite activities for teaching letters to kids? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo: Life Over Cs]

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