Citrus Art Ideas

This week I'm spending my days with my 2-year-old daughter and an almost-3-year-old girl who was in my daughter's class. I've kind of had to shift gears when it comes to art projects, since I'm used to crafting with 4- and 5-year-olds. Because summer is right around the corner, I thought some citrus art would be fun! I used masking tape to make my lines on a small paper plate. I cut one piece of tape into three strips so they'd be thinner. I put one piece straight down the middle and then made the other two into an X.

I cut the plate across the middle, but you could also put tape across the middle and leave the plate whole. We used neon paint that I found at Michaels a couple years ago.

And the sponge brushes were given to me by a nurse when I was in the hospital for my daughter's birth. She found out I was a preschool teacher and asked me if I wanted them. Of course!

But I forgot about them until I cleaned out a closet not too long ago. They ended up being perfect for this project. I poured some paint onto another paper plate and the girls dabbed the paint on their plates.

They made one in each color, representing a lime, orange and lemon. When they were dry I peeled off the tape. Then I decided to paint the rim using regular tempera paint. I love how they turned out!

We also had some citrus fun by painting with jello! I mixed cold water into jello powder until it was a thick paint.

It smelled so good! The girls painted with the jello onto cardstock,

and as in the case of my daughter, on her hand!

It was very sticky, but the girls had fun. It dried with an interesting texture, too!

There's one more citrus idea I want to share with you, if this post isn't too long already. Back in February, my class made citrus prints for our Five Senses theme, but I never got around to blogging about it.

I cut up lemons, limes and oranges the night before we did this so they would be dried out. I originally planned on using paint with them, but it didn't work so well. Then I tried an ink pad and it was much better!

The neon ones are paint, the blue and purple are ink. So I cleaned off the fruit slices and put them all on ink pads, using all the colors just for fun. And the kids stamped away.

The notches in the top of the fruit gave the kids something to hold on to.

The prints were very detailed. I thought they looked so cool!

I should warn you, though, that they kind of ruined the ink pads. (Sorry, boss.) I think it was because I had to wash the paint off my fruit so they were damp. If your fruit is really dried out, I think it would be fine.
Hope you enjoyed these citrus ideas!