We are having so much fun with the watermelon theme from my friend Alison’s summer reading program! I shared a super easy (2-ingredient) watermelon sensory play recipe the other day that you can find here if you missed it, and wanted to share this ICE sensory play idea that also incorporates fine motor skills! We LOVE playing with anything chilled, water-related, or icy in the summer time especially on those super hot days. We did patriotic-colored ice cubes over the 4th of July, and we rescued frozen sea creatures during our ocean play theme.

Before I get into the activity itself, I wanted to share the watermelon-themed BOOKS we’ve been reading throughout the week! I bought most of them this time around as our library didn’t have much selection in this category. I was so happy I did because we have been LOVING them!

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- Watermelon Madness
- This Watermelon is Not Round
- The Watermelon Seed
- One Watermelon Seed
- Down by the Bay

Now for the watermelon ice activity- I had the idea to dye some ice reddish pink with food coloring, and throw in some small black pom poms to act as watermelon “seeds.” It’s funny because as I was tossing in the poms, and especially when I pulled it all out of the freezer, the pom poms looked SO MUCH like blueberries. I was really worried that Tatum (2) was going to try eating them but I told her right away they are pom poms, not blueberries - and we didn’t end up having any issues. Be sure to give your kiddos a heads up in advance if they are blueberry fans. ;)

We have some ice cube trays that would have worked just fine for this activity but I chose to use some silicone baby food storage trays that we have because the ice comes out slightly bigger, and more rounded which reminded me more of watermelon for some reason. I used a round, greenish teal bin that I have (I think from Michael’s possibly), but found this cute, round, mint green tray that could be fun to use, too! You could always just use a clear plastic storage container and skip the “green/teal” element of it all. I ended up putting the small bin in a larger storage bin anyway so that the kiddos had a plastic to transfer the ice to, and a place to keep all the cups, scoops, spray bottles, etc. so it was all easier to carry outside.

So I’m sure the sensory aspect of all this is pretty obvious, but are you wondering how this incorporates fine motor skills? Two main words: SQUIRT. BOTTLES. I told the kiddos to try and melt the ice to get all the pom poms out and it was quite the challenge. I filled two mini squirt bottles with hot/warm water and the three of us all took turns and worked together to free all the pom pom “seeds.” I also included some scoops and spoons that are great for little hands and fingers working on hand-eye coordination transferring ice from one spot to another. There are always cups and containers involved in our sensory play, even if it just means raiding our tupperware drawer!

Squeezing those squirt bottles is hard work for those little muscles but it’s so fun for kiddos they don’t even realize they are “working.” We have melted frozen pom poms before which you can read more about here - there are so many different ways you can do it, and you can always switch up the color scheme depending on time of year, etc. The very best part about playing with frozen pom poms, is that once they do all melt out, you have POMS IN WATER which is one of our all-time favorite sensory play activities.

When you’re done playing, you can just pour out the water, squeeze out all the poms and lay them on a towel to dry. For the most part, they return back to their same old fluffy, puffy, normal little selves.

Hoping to get the rest of our watermelon fun up here on the blog for you early next week, but be sure that you’re also following along on social media as sometimes I share stuff there that doesn’t make it to the blog and vice versa. ;) If you think you want to try this activity, be sure to pin it so you can remember it later!

Check out our other themed activity posts here!
Ocean Activities
Zoo Activities
Frog Activities
Bug Activities
Apple Activities