Is your little artist starting to be more interested in drawing real things, and not just coloring from a coloring book or doing the toddler scribble? While they may not be quite ready for super detailed drawings, an easy place to start is an ice cream cone. If they know how to draw a circle, triangle, and some lines, they are sure to be a pro at drawing an ice cream cone.
Why Is Drawing So Important For Kids?
Kids love to draw, color, and paint. You probably have little pictures all over your house of random drawings that are special (yes, even the one that literally has one line on it). “Sweetheart, can I throw this away?” “No, it’s a picture of my favorite jump rope for daddy!”
This conversation happens at everyone’s houses, right? Even though all the paper (so much paper) is everywhere, encouraging their drawing is so important for their development.
Creating art can help with their fine motor skills. As adults, most of us don’t remember what it was like to first hold a pencil or a crayon, but it’s a hard skill to master.
It also helps with cognitive development. In order to draw, kids have to think of what they want to draw and be able to duplicate that on paper. Most adults have trouble with this skill, so it’s certainly no easy feat for children.
Drawing can help with language skills as well. Ask your kids questions about what they are drawing. You will probably hear the most creative stories! They will also love the one-on-one attention you give them.
Drawing Can Help Kids Build Bonds With Their Loved Ones
Is your little one a little slow to warm up when they’re around new people? Sometimes this can happen even if they know someone, but don’t see them often. Maybe they have an aunt or uncle that only comes around once in a while, so your child might not be totally comfortable around them yet.
Instead of trying to push the kid to answer all sorts of questions, find something that can make the little one feel comfortable, while still trying to engage with them.
Drawing is a great way for kids to build bonds with the grownups in their life. Try to let the little artist be in their own element and let the grandparents, aunt, or uncle go to them. If the grownup is especially good at drawing, they will likely amaze the child and make the interaction more comfortable for everyone.
Even if they are not good at drawing, just sitting down and doodling together may help the little one feel less nervous. Have the adult ask questions about what they are drawing. Your child will be proud to show off their creation, and it gets them out of answering boring adult questions.
If the only time your child gets to visit with their loved ones is on video-chat, this can add another potential wall between them and Aunt Lauren. Drawing together over a video-call can break up these walls and help them connect. It also helps little ones stay put for more than 30 seconds (oftentimes a daunting task) during these video-calls.
Step-By-Step Instructions
If you need help finding something to draw with your kids, starting off with something easy, like an ice cream cone, is a great first step. This drawing is so fun and most importantly, easy to follow.
If your kid knows how to draw basic shapes, they’ll be able to draw this. They will feel so proud of themselves when they are finished that they’ll want to show it off to anyone they can.
Okay, grownups, don’t think you are off the hook here. You should draw too! Do you remember when you were a kid and the joy that you felt when drawing? Why did we stop?
Well, kids usually stop drawing because they see the grownups in their lives stop drawing. Showing kids that drawing isn’t just for kids can help them foster their artistic ability beyond grade school.
Before you get started, open Caribu. There is a great step-by-step visual on how to draw an ice cream cone that you can use to go along with these instructions. Your little artist can pull it up and try it out while talking to grandma or even try it between calls.
Remember, no ice cream cone looks exactly the same. They are like snowflakes! You don’t have to worry if it doesn’t look exactly like the example or even what the other person is drawing.
Step One: Draw The Ice Cream
Once you are all set up and ready to draw, the first step is to draw the ice cream. Start near the top of the page. Draw a circle that is open at the bottom.
The best way to do this is to draw the letter C with the opening facing down. The size of your ice cream will determine the size of the rest of the drawing, so don’t make it too small.
Once you have the open circle drawn, connect the open points with a wavy line. This makes the simple open circle become a delicious scoop of ice cream! You know when you get an ice cream cone, and there is that little bit that hangs over the side? This is what that line represents.
Step Two: Draw The Cone
The next step is to draw the cone. Our cone is going to be a sugar cone. Do you know the difference between a waffle cone and a sugar cone? A sugar cone has very similar lines to a waffle cone, but sugar cones are generally smaller, crunchier, and have a flat top.
To make your cone, you first want to start out with a triangle. Your triangle should start at both sides of the ice cream and go down to a point. Your wavy line of the ice cream will be the third side of your triangle.
After your triangle is drawn, you need to make the signature lines. First, start with diagonal lines starting from right to left. You only need about two or three lines, depending on how big your cone is.
Next, draw diagonal lines going in the opposite direction. This can be a great time to teach your kids how to draw a straight line with a ruler if they are upset about their lines not being straight enough.
Step Three: Draw A Sauce
Now, it’s time for the toppings. First, let’s start with a sauce. This can be chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, strawberry sauce, or whatever kind of sauce you like. Starting around the middle of the circle of ice cream, make a squiggly line that goes across the circle.
Step Four: Draw A Cherry
What is an ice cream drawing without a cherry? At the very top of your ice cream circle, draw another little C that is pointing down.
The opening should be closed by the ice cream. Once you have your cute little cherry, draw a line coming out of it for the stem. You can have your cherry perfectly centered or put it a little off to the side. Don’t stress too much about this though, wherever you want your cherry is perfect!
Step Five: Add Sprinkles
Whether you call them sprinkles, jimmies, or hundreds and thousands, there is no argument that kids love sprinkles! These are the perfect way to finish your cute ice cream cone drawing.
You can make sprinkles by adding little dash marks to the sauce part of your ice cream. The type of sprinkles you add will depend on the color of your dash lines. If you want chocolate sprinkles, make brown lines. Are you looking for rainbow sprinkles? You can add lines in all different colors. Let your little one’s imagination run wild!
Step Six: Color and Share
The last step of your ice cream cone is to color it! You can color your drawing in any colors you want.
What is your favorite ice cream flavor? If it’s strawberry, you can color your ice cream pink. Do you like caramel sauce? Color your sauce a light brown. However your little one sees an ice cream cone in their imagination, have them color it that way.
Once you are all finished with your beautiful drawing, share it! You and your little one will have so much fun talking about ice cream and why they chose the colors they did.
Time To Get Drawing
If you are looking for a fun way for your kids to connect with loved ones, drawing is a great option! Drawing an ice cream cone is an easy starting point for anyone, and who doesn’t love ice cream?
The only thing left to do is to go out and get a real ice cream cone to celebrate a job well done!
If you enjoyed this drawing activity, there is more where that came from! Caribu has many different “How to Draw” pages, from different animals to different foods. Just open up the Caribu app to start creating your own special drawings together!
Sources:
The art of creating: Why art is important for early childhood development | MSU Extension
Bonding With Grandparents (for Parents) | Nemours Kidshealth