Ice cubes aren’t just for chilling your drinks! They can be a fantastic addition to all sorts of games that are perfect for kids1. Here are 20 cool ice cube games that will provide endless entertainment for children of all ages.
1. Ice Treasure Hunt: Freeze small toys or trinkets inside ice cubes, and hide them around your yard or house. Give the kids “treasure maps” with clues, and let them search for their icy treasures.
2. Ice Cube Races: Set up a race track on a table using masking tape. Kids will blow on their ice cubes to make them slide along the track.
3. Ice Cube Painting: Create colorful ice cube paints by freezing watercolor paint or food coloring in an ice tray. Kids can then use the frozen paint cubes to create unique works of art on paper.
4. Ice Cube Relay: In this classic outdoor game, players race with an ice cube on a spoon and must transfer it to their teammates without dropping it.
5. Melting Ice Memory Game: Freeze pairs of objects (e.g., toy cars, marbles) inside ice cubes. Kids must find and match the melting cubes based on the objects inside.
6. Ice Cube Stackers: Challenge kids to stack as many ice cubes as possible within a time limit.
7. Freeze Dance: Players dance to music while holding an ice cube and when the music stops they must hold perfectly still while balancing the ice cube (larger ice blocks can be used for added difficulty).
8. Cold Hands Relay: For this relay race, kids must pass an ice cube from one hand to another using only their palms.
9. Icy Bridge Challenge: Create a bridge using two chairs and a pool noodle between them—players must balance an ice cube on the noodle and push it across the bridge without making it fall off.
10. Ice Cube Pick-up Game: Using chopsticks or tweezers, kids must pick up ice cubes and transfer them into a bowl or cup.
11. Ice Cube Tic Tac Toe: Draw a tic-tac-toe grid outside and use dark and light-colored ice cubes as the game pieces.
12. Icy Simon Says: Follow the classic Simon Says rules but add an icy twist by requiring players to hold an ice cube while performing actions.
13. Ice Cube Fishing: In a shallow bin filled with water, suspend ice cubes using strings or rubber bands—players must “fish” the cubes out using spoons or a toy fishing rod.
14. Ice Bowling: Set up an outdoor bowling alley using ice cubes as pins and a small ball as the bowling ball.
15. Icy Obstacle Course: Create an obstacle course incorporating various challenges that include carrying, balancing, or transferring ice cubes.
16. Colored Ice Cube Hunt: Freeze multicolored ice cubes and hide them around your yard for children to find. The player who finds the most in a set time wins!
17. Ice Cube Jenga: Create layers of ice cube towers instead of wooden blocks to create an icy version of Jenga.
18. Frozen Pictionary: Kids create images on a large sheet of paper using their colored ice cube paints, while others guess the image/topic being illustrated.
19. Ice Fashion Show: Give kids a pile of frozen wearables such as clothing items, toy jewelry, and other accessories made from frozen colored water—let them show off their unique icy styles!
20. Ice Puzzle Challenge: Create large puzzle pieces by freezing dyed water in different shapes and sizes—have kids fit the pieces together to form a complete puzzle.
