Painting without a brush is one of my favorite thing to do with kids, especially toddlers who have a hard time controlling small paint brushes. This vegetable printing project is perfect for toddlers. We have painted with fly swatters, trucks, and other vegetables but this was the first time we have picked the fruit and veggies from our own garden. Using fruits and vegetables for art can have great influence on eating them as you will see. Don’t shy away from playing with food, especially if you have a picky eater.
- Gather your materials. You will need a few veggies and or fruits ( we used zucchini, carrots, an apple and potato) , paper, paint, paper towel, scissors and a dish or two.
- Start by pouring paint in the dish and I added pieces of paper towel soaked in the paint , this just helps stop the paint from glopping on too think.
- Add the cut veggies and fruit and call your little artist to check them out. She told me what each was and then told me who in our family likes and dislikes each. She was right. Kids are fascinating and are listening even when we don’t think they are.
- Start printing!
- I thought it was cool how she banged the carrots really hard and fast, but the rest were handled carefully.
- I moved the paper around as she worked because she is too small to reach the far side.
- After she was done vegetable printing, I cut up some apple and carrots for a snack.
- yummy.
Book to Read While Vegetable Printing
The Carrot Seed
Kristina says
Fun! She is adorable. I have a little toddler that would love this too. Thanks for sharing!
Miss Trayers says
What a fun project! I’m making a mental note to do this with my Kinders this year. It will serve as a vocab lesson too, since unfortunately they aren’t very familiar with many vegetables. Thank you for sharing the idea! 🙂
Jane McNallen says
Your daughter is having a great time, dipping those veggies! I also love the Carrots Seed book. Read it many time to my pre-schoolers. They loved it! Great and fun homemade idea Garden Vegetable Printing!
Danielle says
Your daughter is such a celebrity. Every time I’m looking for kid crafts, if I see her face, I know it’s a cool craft that my little girls will be able to enjoy. Thanks so much for all the great ideas and for making my day with that beautiful child!
Allison McDonald says
Oh thank you I am glad my ideas are reliable! I think she is pretty special but I am a wee bit biased !
villanova says
Have you tried celery? If you buy a standard celery ‘bunch’ (many stalks joined together at the bottom) & cut off those stalks an inch or so up, it makes a great ‘rose’ print, as each of the curved stalks looks like a rose petal. Plus, you can eat all the celery!