Frozen Treats, City Streets

From ice cream to popsicles to icie cups, New Yorkers know the best way to cool off in the city heat is with a frozen treat!  

Learn about New York City’s delicious history of ice cream and then craft some make-believe frozen desserts using upcycled materials and paper with Amanda Kingloff, founder of PROJECT K!D. 

Craft projects are geared toward families and kids ages 7 and up. Younger children may require adult supervision, and all families are encouraged to craft together. 

Materials and Steps

Ice cream cone 

• brown paper shopping bag 
• colored pencils, markers or crayons 
• glue or tape 
• colored construction paper 
• scissors 
• red pom-pom or red bottle cap (optional) 

1. Cut a brown shopping bag into a rectangle that’s about 11” by 7”. Draw diagonal lines with your brown marker, colored pencil, or crayon all the way across the paper, about ½ apart. Now turn your paper and draw them in the opposite direction, making a sugar or waffle cone grid pattern.
2. Holding the paper horizontal, roll it into a cone until it resembles an ice cream cone. Use tape or glue to keep it in its shape. Set it aside.
3. Cut your construction paper into approximately ten thin strips, about ¾” wide.
4. Draw any sprinkles or chocolate chips into the strips.
5. Glue or tape the end of one strip to the inside of the cone and glue the other end directly across from it. Hold them in place for a moment until you know they are stuck! Repeat by gluing the next strip in right next to the first, bending it over the first strip to glue across on the other side. Repeat until you have completed the scoop of ice cream!
6. If you have a red pom-pom, red plastic bottle cap, or even a balled up piece of red paper, glue a cherry right on the top!

Rocket Pop! 

• 2 toilet paper tubes (or 1 paper towel tube) 
• red, white and blue paint or construction paper 
• paint brush 
• glue 
• scissors 

1. Paint 2 toilet paper tubes white. If you don’t have a toilet paper tube, you can cut a paper towel tube in half. If you don’t have white paint, jump to step 2!
2. Once the white paint is dry, paint the top third of the tube red, and the bottom third blue. If you don’t have paint, you can cut white paper to the height of the tubes and either color with markers or crayons, or cut red and blue strips of construction paper.
3. Cut 2 popsicle stick shapes out of cardboard and glue them into each tube.
4. You can glue the two pops together to make a double popsicle!

Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich

• cardboard 
• cotton balls 
• brown construction paper 
• glue 
• scissors 

1. Cut 2 round shapes from cardboard, about 3” in diameter. You can trace a small bowl, cream cheese container, or just eyeball it! Since this is going to be a cookie, don’t worry about your circle being perfect. The imperfections make it appear more real! (Optional: cut out a semi-circle “bite” from each circle)
2. Glue about 6 or 7 cotton balls to one of the “cookies.” Glue the second cookie on top of the cotton balls.
3. Cut tiny pieces of brown construction paper and glue them to the top cookie layer and around the cotton balls (or ice cream)!

About PROJECT K!D 

PROJECT K!D is dedicated to offering families creative and inventive ways to spend unplugged time with kids. From DIY crafts to party ideas to home décor solutions, they mix traditional craft, upcycled, and household materials in surprising ways. Amanda Kingloff, the founder of Project K!d, has been creating lifestyle content for over 15 years. After her six-year stint as Lifestyle Director at Parents Magazine, Amanda published “the ultimate kids’ craft book” with Artisan Books, titled Project Kid. Two years later she published her second book, Project Kid: Crafts that Go! Amanda creates content for magazines, websites, and brands, encouraging kids to create the worlds they want to live in. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and two children, Oliver and Sommer.