Potato Printing Shamrocks
Toddler Activities with paint are a great way to reinforce color and fine motor skills. Printing is an easy way to explore printing. We used a potato and carved our a shamrock to create simple prints. Potato printing is an activity great for young children.
Materials for Potato Printing
- Green and White Tempera Paint
- Large Potato (nice round shape works well)
- Two or three brushes
- White Paper (construction, scrapbook, cardstock or even sketch paper)
- Half of a potato
- Small heart or shamrock metal cutter
- Paint containers (small cups or plastic pallette)
- Paper towels
- Small Paring Knife (adult use only)
Adult Preparation: This sounds trickier than it is...it took about 10 minutes to complete the pattern.
- Cut potato in half.
- Plan your design visually so you have room for all three hearts. If you are using a heart cutter you will be making three hearts and a stem.
- Press the heart cutter about 1/4th inch into the potato. Press the next two hearts into the potato leaving the cutter in the third heart.
- With the paring knife, cut into the potato from the side about a 1/4 inch down. Cut until you knife touches the cutter. Using the tip of the paring knife, pop out the pieces around the cutter.
- Move the cutter back to the middle heart and repeat.
- After the three hearts are made, cut our a stem...or you can do this before you cut around the three hearts.
- Mix green with two different amounts of white to get a total of three shades of green.
- Have child paint directly on the potato with paint.
- Press onto paper making sure to help put gentle pressure without sliding for best print.<
Tips and Suggestions
- Having a brush for each color makes it easier to monitor.
- Put just enough paint...too much paint can make you lose the shape and the potato may slide a bit.
- Use a heart shaped cutter and have your child print their own shamrock by printing three hearts and using a brush for the stem.
- Cut a simple pattern in the potato like stripes and zigzags and watch your child have fun making printed patterns.
Toddler Activities involving use of paint are a great way to help develop fine motor skills as well as a great visual way to reinforce color recognition and even math concepts like counting.