Art activities for kids with an easy stamping project

With the kids back in school we often have quite a few after-school classes. On those days when we are home in the evenings, the kids almost often request for art activities. Knowing that our once a week “at-home” day is coming up I had planned (!) a stamping project earlier during the day. My toddler especially enjoys all stamping projects. We have done cookie cutter stamping project, potato hearts stamping, forks stamping project, kitchen tools stamping. Today we stamp with lemons and oranges! This is the second time we have used fruits during play and learning time. Both the times we actually *ate* the fruits. Click to see how we have previously created a fruits sensory bin.

I did a cross section cut on a few lemons and oranges and used the back of a coffee spoon to scoop out the flesh from the fruits. ( You can always use a pairing knife for this job) While I was scooping out the flesh I also tried to gently squeeze the juice out from the fruits. Once I had emptied the fruits, I laid them to dry for a while.

Dry citrus fruits ready for some fun art activities for the kids.

I was really excited that we got to save the fruit before using them for stamping projects.

I set out papers, the fruits and paint for a fun open ended stamping project.We used water soluble acrylic paints, washable kids tempera paint, finger paint and liquid watercolors to see which one gave the kids the best experience during the art activity.

Both the kids were very excited to engage in this art activity! They were particularly thrilled about using the fruits with my toddler being the first one to notice that the “fruit inside is gone” Not missing a beat the 5 year old went ” Yes she removed them silly! We drank the orange juice remember!”

The kids went on to choose their favorite colors { opportunity to reinforce colors } and started stamping away. They quickly saw which paint gave them the best results. The water soluble acrylics were the BEST! They also saw that the lemons gave them the best prints in this stamping project. [ The 5 year old was the one making comparisons..]