Are you celebrating the Chinese new year next week? I like to observe celebrations from around the world with the children as I think it open their eyes to diverse cultures, showing them how people around the world are different but how the basis of many traditions are very similar too. We like to make Chinese style lanterns (which are perfect for practising scissors skills) and eating a Chinese meal. This year, which begins on 3rd February 2011, will be the year of the rabbit so here’s an idea for a craft you could try:
Potato Printing a Rabbit
We used potatoes and carrots to print with to make our rabbit. (Seems appropriate to use carrots, don’t you think?) Carrot printing is great for younger children as the carrots are just right for holding in little hands. Potatoes are a little more cumbersome to hold but you can make easier for the children to grasp if you cut out a handle into the top – as shown in the picture.
This rabbit design provides the opportunity to mix in some maths, as we thought about what shapes we could use to make our pictures. We decided to make a picture using just two shapes: circles and triangles.
I used a knife to cut out a triangle from the carrots, the potatoes were simply sliced in half.
We also talked about size as we used a big shape to make the body, ears and carrots and a small shape for the head, nose and carrot leaves.
We enjoyed having a specific project – working out how to form our rabbits and follow our instructions to create the pictures – but it was great to add in time at for some free style printing too, to see what other designs we could come up with using the circles and triangles.
You can read more ideas here for celebrating Chinese new year with children and if you’re inspired to try some carrot printing you might like our heart stamps, which can be used for Valentine’s too.
How are you celebrating Chinese new year with your children?
happily shared with ABCand123 and Kids Get Crafty and PreSchool Corner and Craft Schooling Sunday and the Resource Centre and Tot Tuesday
 |
We have been planning to do a Chinese New Year craft, but haven’t quite gotten round to it… well we still have a little time. Your rabbits are GORGEOUS and love that you used carrots too! Perfect!
Thanks for linking to Kids Get Crafty!!
Maggy
[...] Rabbit craft [...]
[...] Rabbit craft [...]
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Early Childhood and play2grow, Charlotte B Jackson. Charlotte B Jackson said: RT @Teach_Preschool: Rabbit craft http://bit.ly/hsxPp9 #ece #preschool #teachpreschool [...]
We’re starting Chinese New Year this weekend (along with doing the RSPB Birdwatch and starting Storytelling week…phew!), I love these little rabbits..so cute! And a carrot has to be used, perfect! I would love it if you could link this post to Something for the Weekend next Friday as my theme is CNY (you could pop it on this week if you’d rather..or as well…or not at all…I’m waffling…sorry!
)
Hi Chris – I shall come over to link up x
I love this idea! I think we will “go” to China next week and will have to remember this one!
I love doing a Chinese New Year unit each year! I am blogging this week and next about the projects I do!
Sally
http://www.fairydustteaching.blogspot.com
That is way too cute! Great job! Kerri
Love this potato printing project! Thanks so much for sharing on Craft Schooling Sunday, so nice to see you regularly! All the best!
[...] case! And I just had to wrap up the features with this sweet and simple rabbit potato print from nurture store. How about potato printing these on some cloth napkins or a table [...]
[...] tennis ball 38. elastic 39. potato 40. pan 41. packing [...]
[...] Who doesn’t love learning about bunnies? With all of our focus on the large animals, it was nice to take a step back to the smaller ones. The library book to the left was a great introduction to the animal. The arctic hare has shorter ears than a regular rabbit and has an amazing ability to change fur color from brown in the summer months to white during the winter months. By doing so, the hare is camouflaged so predators don’t attack. Unfortunately, many of the animals we learned about were predators! As an art project to our learning, we potato-stamped some rabbit art based on the rabbits from Nurture Store. [...]