Your Child Will Learn
Use vegetables and fruits with edible paint to stamp on paper
Here’s What to Do
- Find a safe surface to do this activity, like the kitchen table or outside on your patio; cover the surface with plastic or newspaper if the surface requires protection
- Make or buy edible paints for an infant using pureed foods with bright colors, such as pureed beets, carrots, berries, or spinach (these foods will make a deep magenta, orange, red or blue, and green)
- Cut a few fruits and vegetable that can be eaten raw in halves; model dipping and stamping the halves of these foods into the edible paints onto paper
- Provide paper large enough for your child to create lots of marks and stamps with the edible paint (secure the paper by taping it down to the surface)
Put PEER Into Action
PAUSE
- This could be messy, so smile, laugh, and use a calm tone with your child as you prepare to do this activity together
ENGAGE
- As your child dips and stamps, ask “what shapes are you creating?”
- Avoid being forceful and follow your child’s lead if they gravitate toward certain colors, fruits, or vegetables
ENCOURAGE
- Your child may eat the materials and this is okay! That’s why you’re working with edible paints, fruits, and vegetables.
- Your child may play in the paint and struggle with making stamps. This is okay because the purpose is to experiment through play, so continue to model making stamps and your child will join you when they are ready
REFLECT
- Did your child like this activity? Were they comfortable with a messy medium to make marks? If you do this again, what will you do differently?
Not Quite Ready
Your child may hesitate to touch the edible paint and be unsure of the stamping process with fruits and vegetables, so modeling this activity will help them understand the purpose of making marks
Ready for More
Work with your child to create simple patterns with fruit and vegetable stamps
As Your Child Masters This Skill
The stamps will become more defined with spaces in between
Time to Complete
15-20 minutes
Materials Needed
Large paper, tape, pureed foods with bright colors that an infant can eat, cut halves of fruits and vegetables like strawberries, apples, and carrots