Printing with Fruits and Vegetables - 18 months to 4+ years, 10 to 30 minutes - Children - http://maxpages.com/floridamoms/Crafts_and_creative_play

Materials:
- fruits and vegetables-apples, pears, green peppers, and onions
- tempera paint, either powdered or premixed
- heavy paper, at least 8 1/2 by 11 inches
- Styrofoam trays or disposable pie tins
- paintbrushes, one for each color if possible
- a kitchen knife
- newspaper, plastic tray. or place mat to print on, and extra news paper for drying finished work
- a smock or old adult-sized shirt for your child to wear

Cut fruits and vegetables in half through the center or core. With a brush, paint a thin layer of paint onto a styrofoam tray or pie tin. This way, if the tray is knocked over while your child is painting, there won't be a mess. Using the paint tray like an ink pad, press the fruit pieces into the paint and then onto the paper. For best results, cushion your child's paper with a layer of newspaper. The primary colors-red, blue, and yellow-are recommended for printing. Beginners may start with only one or two of these colors. For children three and up, this activity is also an opportunity to learn about how colors interact, so having color choices becomes important.

Printing with fruits and vegetables is a way for your child to take a close look at things that he eats every day. He can see that onions are made up of many layers, that apples have lots of flesh and a core with seeds, and that green peppers look very different on the inside and the outside. This activity encourages observation skills and an interest in how things grow.

More things to do:
Print a star! Cut an apple in half lengthwise, so that the stem is part of one half and the bottom of the apple is part of the other. The core of the apple in cross-section looks like a star.

Bird Feeder

Materials
- an empty milk carton, either paper or plastic, one pint or larger
- a utility knife or scissors
- a stick, 4 to 6 inches long
- yarn, string, or fishing line
- birdseed
- decorating materials (optional) such as: file folder stickers, colored tissue, applied with a brush and a glue and water mixture
- polyurethane or other acrylic coating ro preserve decoration, either in a spray can or for use with a brush
- newspaper for the work surface if you are decorating.

Activity:
First, use scissors or a utility knife to cut a round hole in one side of the milk carton. The hole should be 3 inches in diameter. Place the hole in the center of the carton, about a third of the way up. This is where the birds will feed.
Next, make two small slits in the shape of an X underneath the center of the hole. Leave about 3/4 inch of space between the hole and the X.
Finally, if you milk jug does not have a handle, poke a hole in the middle of the top lip of the carton. The hole should be large enough for a piece of string to slide through. Now your child is ready to help you with the rest of the construction.
Slide the stick through th X you made, so that it juts out from the carton. This will be the bird's perch. Tie a long peice of string to your milk carton, either to the handle or through the hole that you made in the top.

To decorate:
Decorate before you fill the feeder.

Your child can decorate the feeder with file folder stickers. A longer process, but one that yields beautiful results, is to collage with colored tissue and watered-down white glue. Mix three parts white glue to two parts water. The glue should be thin enough to be spread with a brush. Simply hold a piece of tissue in place and paint over it with the mixture.
To preserve the colors of the tissue use some type of acrylic fixative, such as polyurethane.

We did this project together as a family. Now we have a beautiful bird house that hangs in a tree outside, a memory of family time spent together, and birds to watch.

If you have a picture of your child and his/her craft from this page, email it to me along with the child's age and first name. I will be displaying these soon.shoppinmom@yahoo.com

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Page Updated Thu Sep 2, 1999 11:35pm EDT