Description:
Think of a design, cut it out of a potato and make a pattern.
Links to EYFS:
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Communication and Language
Physical Development
Mathematics
Understanding of the World
Expressive Arts and Design
Activity:
For this weeks activity we decided to make potato stamps. We started by asking the children to think of a simple design for their stamps. They then cut a medium potato in half with a sharp knife, making sure they had their safety glove on and that we were resting the potato on a firm, hard surface. Once they'd cut through the potato they drew their design on one half and then carefully started cutting out their shapes. This was quite tricky, required a lot of concentration and some help but was great for developing the children's fine motor skills. Once their shape was cut out the children dipped their potato stamps in various coloured paints and printed their patterns onto a sheet of paper.
Once the children had printed their patterns onto paper they wanted to make something out of the discarded parts of potato and came up with potato people! This involved joining potato body parts together using various twigs and small sticks to form arms and legs plus different craft materials for facial features. The children had a lot of fun doing this and became very inventive with their creations as you can see from the photos.
Home Activity:
Try making stamps out of other vegetables and find out which ones work better than others. You could try using a pastry cutter to cut your shape into the potato and then cutting around it. Are harder vegetables easier to carve a design into than softer ones? Ask the children why they think this is.
