Orange Prints

This week I decided that I am going to do a string of projects and activities involving food in some way. Why? Well, first because I have tons of ideas involving food, and second because my kids love doing food related activities, and I want to feed off of that enthusiasm (no pun intended!). I have a bunch of activities and ideas in mind (some I made up, some I gleaned from books and some from other blogs like mine), so I don't know how long the focus on food will last, but stay tuned--we've got some tasty projects coming up!

For today's activity, we did orange printing, which I've seen recently on one of my favorite blogs, and in books as well. First, I took a small orange and cut it cross-wise. If you cut top to bottom, it will still work, but a cross cut gives it a much more interesting print. Then I dropped a bit of paint into three separate paper bowls. I set half an orange in each bowl and swished it around a bit to cover the entire bottom surface of the fruit. Then I let my kids have at it, using the oranges like stamps on white construction paper. I discovered the oranges were a little difficult for my two year old to grasp due to the suction of the orange to the paint, so I poked a fork into each orange for use as a handle.

The kids were intrigued that we were using food to make art, and enjoyed the novelty of using food in such a way. They also liked that the oranges smelled so juicy! The prints turned out really neat. All in all, this was an enjoyable little activity. And of course, we ended the activity by eating a nice, clean orange for snack!