Strawberry Craft - Great For Fine Motor Skills!

We had a blast picking strawberries yesterday... and will be eating strawberries for days to come, I'm sure! If you've never gone to pick strawberries before, I highly recommend it! Since they're ready in late May, the weather is beautiful and it's not too buggy out! This was a fun activity for my kids, ages 3 and 6, myself, and my mom so all ages can do it! The place we went to was so clean and nice - I loved it! Check out Gieringers Orchard in Edgerton, KS. I can't wait to go back in July for blackberries, blueberries, and peaches too!

Later that afternoon, I came up with a fun craft for my kids to do - Giant Strawberries!  I did some prep work while my kids were playing: I cut out a giant strawberry shape and leaf shape from red and green card stock for my son (age 3), and drew out a pattern of those shapes on red and green card stock for my daughter (age 6) to cut out on her own. Then I gave them each strips of black construction paper to work with.

My daughter first cut out her giant strawberry shape and they both glued the leaves to the top.  Making the strawberry seeds was the fun part - and great practice for fine motor skills! Encourage your child to tear their strips of black construction paper into tiny seeds.  My son also practiced cutting with scissors (a great first cutting project!) to create his seeds.

Use regular glue to attach your seeds. This is a good time to practice using only small dots of glue on your strawberry instead of the typical huge globs that kids tend to make!

Right now these giant strawberries decorate my refrigerator, but you can also laminate them to use as fun summer place mats! (The strawberries were cut from sheets of 12x12 card stock.)