Today’s sweet fruit summer art project is sure to brighten your day as we create slices of watermelon, oranges, and lemons using a potato masher. Little fingers will hop about as we stamp our favorite fruit slices using vivid fluorescent colors. Your senses will come alive as smell and taste are activated and incorporated into the art-making process. Get your taste buds ready and your creative juices flowing! This fun and fruity art project is perfect for a Summer theme in preschool and homeschool classrooms!
Want even more watermelon theme ideas? Continue the fun with a full week of watermelon play and learning with our printable lesson plans for home preschool and preschool.
Printed Fruit Summer Art Project for Kids
Art & Food
Before beginning this art activity head to the refrigerator and gather some fruit to inspect and study as inspiration for your artwork. Have an adult slice a piece of watermelon, cut an orange in half, and cut a slice of lemon. What do you see and smell? Can you find the seeds? Does it taste sweet or sour? Infusing food discovery into art-making adds another layer of fun and excitement to the art-making process.
Printing with a Potato Masher
I love to use familiar kitchen items in creative ways to make artwork. Potato mashers are the perfect tool as they are easy to grip, fun to use, and readily available! They work well for an art-at-home project, or incorporated into a painting station in the classroom. They can be used solely as a process art activity or combined with a craft project. The negative space in the potato mashers will create the perfect juicy fruit pulp in today’s art activity.
Watermelon Facts for Kids
- Watermelon is a large, oval fruit.
- Watermelons are mostly made up of water.
- The most common watermelons are red inside, but there are also orange, yellow, and white watermelons.
Orange Facts for Kids
- Orange is a round, citrus fruit.
- Oranges contain lots of vitamin C.
- Most oranges are turned into juice.
Lemon Facts for Kids
- Lemon is a fruit.
- Lemons are very sour.
- Lemons are often used in cleaning products.
Fluorescent Art Supplies
I love to use Crayola Fluorescent Tempera Paint for many art activities. The colors are so bold and vibrant! They are dazzling when combined with black construction paper, but can also work well with other colors. Today the fluorescent paints are perfect for our hot pink watermelon, vivid oranges, and bright yellow lemons. Some other art activities that use Crayola Fluorescent Tempera Paints are Flower Art Project using Kitchen Utensils and Silly Spider Art Project.
Materials:
- Construction Paper
- Glue Stick
- Scissors
- Crayola Fluorescent Tempera Paint
- Potato Masher
- Green Neon Oil Pastel
- Crayons
Step by Step Directions
1. Scribble Time
Use a crayon to scribble on the background paper to create interest and movement. My students love to “get the scribbles out” with this active and engaging activity. Sometimes it’s okay to scribble!
2. Circle Time
Trace the end of the potato masher onto black paper to make the watermelon.
Trace it onto yellow paper for the lemon and orange paper for the orange.
Important tip: Trace an additional half-inch around the circle to create the rind of the fruit.
Cut out the large circle.
3. Potato Time
Dip the end of the potato masher into the fluorescent tempera paint and stamp in the center of each cut circle. Let the paint dry.
Cut each circle in half to create slices of the fruit. Color the outside edge of the watermelon slice green to create the rind. You may choose to create a triangle slice of watermelon as well. Instead of cutting the circle in half, cut out a triangle shape.
4. Glue Time
Glue all of the slices of fruit to the background paper.
Talk About Art
- Identify the fruits in your artwork.
- Describe how your artwork would smell and taste.
- What is your favorite fruit?
Please tag @fantasticfunandlearning and @youngschoolartwithmr.g on Instagram. We would love to see your creative and tasty slices of creativity!!
CONNECT WITH VIN GIANNETTO
Learn more about Vin here on his author bio page. Follow along with him on Facebook at Young School Art with Mr. Giannetto and on Instagram @youngschoolartwithmr.g for art project ideas.
Fun Summer Art Projects for Kids
Click on the images below to see the full tutorial for each art project.
Get a Full Week of Watermelon Theme Learning and Play
Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.
This watermelon theme pack includes editable lesson plans and hands-on activities for a week full of math, reading, & science learning activities about the watermelon life cycle and watermelons.
Watch this short video to see just a few examples of the types of activities and printables included in this set:
This set includes active hands-on learning ideas and the following printables:
1) Watermelon Seed Counting Game
2) Roll and Color Watermelon Seed Math Game
3) Watermelons on the Vine Beginning Sound Sort (6 initial sounds)
4) Watermelon Word Family Building Activity Set (5 word families)
5) Watermelon Fractions Matching Activity
6) Watermelon Life Cycle Printable Chart
7) Ten Frame Watermelon Seed Counting Mats
8) Growing a Watermelon Emergent Reader (2 versions)
9) Watermelon Letter Matching Puzzles
10) Watermelon Life Cycle Sequencing Set
11) 0-35 Watermelon Theme Number Cards
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