Preschool Tomato Craft

When teaching your preschoolers about vegetables, particularly tomatoes, you can prepare hands-on crafts for them to do. Hands-on crafts help young children build fine motor skills and they can enjoy learning about tomatoes while having fun. With a few craft supplies and your preschoolers, you have everything you need to teach them about the red, juicy vegetables.

For an easy craft project for preschoolers, print several tomato-coloring pages or give the children tomato-themed coloring books. Have the children color in the tomato pages using markers and crayons. Alternatively, allow them to use nontoxic paint to finger paint the tomatoes. Another idea is to print pictures of tomatoes and have the children use them as guides to freehand a tomato or tomato plant on a sheet of construction paper. Make the tomatoes sparkle by having the children paint on a layer of glue and sprinkle with red glitter.

Help your preschoolers make a plush tomato they can take home and show off to their parents. Cut knee-high stockings in half and give each child the foot end of a stocking. Have the children stuff the stocking with Polyfill stuffing or cotton balls. Help them tie a rubber band around the top of the cotton balls, which will leave the top part sticking up to resemble the tomato’s stem. Tell them to paint the round part red and the top part green. After the paint dries, the children can glue on googly eyes for decoration. Alternatively, the children can use a red sock and cover the top of the sock with green tissue paper.

Make a tomato fan using craft foam and wood craft sticks. Cut out a red tomato shape from the red craft foam and give one to each child. Also, cut out a green stem to give to each child. The preschoolers must glue the red craft foam to the top of the wood craft stick and the green stem on top of the tomato. For added decoration, allow them to glue on googly eyes or use a marker to draw a face on the tomato. They can use these as fans to cool off on a hot, summer day. Alternatively, the children can use the tomato fan as a bookmark.

Other tomato craft ideas include making a tomato with clay or making a tomato eraser. Give the children red and green clay to sculpt a tomato. If you use self-hardening clay, the crafts can dry overnight and the children can keep their crafts. The children can also make tomato erasers using red and green Sculpey clay, which is available online and at most craft stores. After the children design their tomato eraser, bake per instructions on the package. Preschoolers will have fun using their own homemade erasers.