Crunchy Carrot Painting!

We have been listening to the song 10 crunchy carrots by Charlotte Diamond this week.  To give us a visual as we're listening to the song, I attached 10 ACTUAL carrots to our flannel board with Velcro loops!  The children have been helping me take off carrots along with the song!   This has been a fun attention getter and visual prop to go along with the song.

Today, to extend this we decided to actually PAINT with carrots!  The children enjoyed exploring what they could do with carrot coins and large carrots.  They made lots of orange dots with the large carrots and used them to make marks on their triangle shaped paper.   After being shown how to make carrot "prints" with the carrot coins, one child also tried out this method of painting.

I am careful about what food objects we use for painting.  Most of the children in my room are not yet eating carrots and I wanted them to be able to explore more vegetables in at least some way.  I decided painting with them would be a good way to explore the vegetable in a way that did not include pressure to taste or eat it.

While we painted I made sure to emphasize the color word "orange" as well as the sign for orange (the link shows the version I use with the children).  "Orange carrots and orange paint!"  By the time we were finished, we needed to include; "orange hands!" 

This was a great way to introduce a new food item in a bit of a different and non-threatening way!  (don't worry- we plan to make carrot cupcakes later this week; so we will actually EAT carrots as well!)

I'm linking this post to the Sunday Showcase! (momto2poshlildivas.blogspot.com)