DIY: Ice Cream Pattern Game | Tinkerer Box Blog

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Ice Cream Pattern Game

Playful Learning

Ages: 3-5

30 minutes

Grownup needed

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A multi-skilled early learning activity that uses children's interest in ice cream to help them identify and categorise different colours, enhancing their colour recognition abilities. The game improves observation and concentration skills whilst developing fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. It also promotes logical thinking by teaching classification and sequencing concepts. You can even increase the difficulty to exercise memory skills!

Materials Needed

50cm×7cm cardboard
Paint
Coloured paper (matching paint colours)
white paper, scissors
Double-sided tape
Paint palette
Ruler
Pegs
Foam daubers
Pencil
Markers
Bottle cap

An assortment of craft supplies lies neatly arranged on a light wood-grain table. The supplies include a piece of brown cardboard, a sheet of light yellow paper, a roll of clear tape, scissors, a pencil, a white marker, a small orange sponge brush, a flower-shaped paint palette, several small tubes of paint or glue, a small white container with a lid, a ruler, and a handful of wooden clothespins. This flat lay image suggests preparation for a craft or art project.

Step-by-step tutorial

Step 1

Fold a white paper in half twice, then cut along the fold lines. This gives you 4 identical rectangular pieces of paper.

Two hands are shown cutting a piece of white paper with scissors on a light wood-grain background. The paper is folded in half and a dashed line is visible down the center fold, guiding the cut. The hands hold the paper and scissors, actively in the process of cutting along the line.

Step 2

Draw an ice cream cone at the bottom of each paper piece using markers, as shown.

On a light wood-grain surface, several strips of white paper are laid out. Three of the strips already have a simple, black line drawing of an ice cream cone at the bottom. A hand holding a white marker is in the process of drawing the same ice cream cone design on the bottom of a fourth strip of paper. This image suggests a crafting activity, possibly making bookmarks or decorative items.

Step 3

Choose your favourite colours and use foam daubers to stamp paint above the ice cream cones in sequence.

On a light wooden surface, a hand uses a small, round sponge brush to apply light green paint or ink to a drawing of an ice cream cone on a strip of white paper. The cone outline is drawn in black ink, and the green color is being added to represent the ice cream. In the background, other similar strips of paper with ice cream cone outlines are visible, suggesting a crafting project in progress.

Step 4

After painting ice cream on all four paper pieces, wait patiently for the paint to dry.

Four identical pieces of white paper are arranged on a light wood-grain surface. Each paper features a hand-drawn ice cream cone at the bottom, topped with a vertical stack of colorful circles representing ice cream scoops. The colors and order of the scoops vary on each paper. From left to right, the scoop colors are: blue, green, pink, yellow, light green; pink, yellow, light green, blue, yellow; yellow, yellow, pink, blue, light green; and yellow, pink, blue, light green, blue. These papers likely represent a crafting activity or a game involving color and pattern recognition.

Step 5

Take coloured paper matching your ice cream scoops, use the bottle cap and pencil to draw circles, then carefully cut them out with scissors.

Two hands are shown tracing circles onto light blue paper using a small, white plastic lid as a template and a pencil. Several lightly drawn circles are already visible on the paper to the left of the hands. In the top left corner, sheets of yellow, light green, and pink paper suggest these colors will be used for the circles once they are cut out. This image depicts a crafting activity, likely involving creating circular cutouts for a project.

Step 6

Attach the circular paper pieces to pegs using double-sided tape. Make at least 8 ice cream scoop pegs in different colours.

Two hands are shown attaching a light blue paper circle to a small wooden clothespin. Two other clothespins with pink paper circles attached are visible in the background on the light wood-grain surface. This image suggests a crafting activity, possibly making paper ornaments or decorations using clothespins.

Step 7

Take the 50cm×7cm cardboard, use a ruler and pencil to draw a 40cm×5cm rectangle, and cut it out.

A long, narrow strip of brown cardboard lies on a light wood-grain surface. Lines indicating measurements are drawn alongside the cardboard, showing it to be 40cm long and 5cm wide. This image likely depicts the first step in a crafting project where cardboard is being used as a base or structural element.

Step 8

Draw an ice cream cone on the rectangular cardboard using markers.

On a light wood-grain surface, a hand uses a white marker to draw an ice cream cone shape onto a vertical strip of brown cardboard. Another hand holds the cardboard steady. This image likely shows a stage in a crafting project where an ice cream cone design is being created on a cardboard base.

Step 9

Randomly select an ice cream card and recreate the ice cream pattern on your cardboard using the pegs!

Two hands interact with a cardboard ice cream cone craft on a light wooden surface. The cardboard has a hand-drawn ice cream cone at the bottom and several small wooden clothespins clipped along its length. Each clothespin holds a colorful paper circle, representing a scoop of ice cream: yellow, pink, light blue, pink, light green, and light blue from top to bottom. To the right, a separate piece of white paper shows a similar ice cream cone design with painted circles in yellow, pink, blue, pink, green, and blue, likely serving as a model for the cardboard version. This image captures a crafting activity, possibly a learning game for color recognition or sequencing.

Try This:

Increase the challenge! Give children 30 seconds to memorise the pattern on the ice cream card, then hide the card and see if they can recreate it.

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