A Terrific Book & Lemon Squeezed Art!
After reading Emily Jenkins “Lemonade in Winter: A Book About Two Kids Counting Money” we decided to create some Lemon Squeezed Watercolor Art! We used real money & lemons. I’m excited to walk you through how we made this unique art, so let’s get started…
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Summary of “Lemonade in Winter: A Book About Two Kids Counting Money”
“Lemonade in Winter: A Book About Two Kids Counting Money” by Emily Jenkins and illustrated by G. Brian Karas is a terrific book about a sister and brother who decide a freezing cold snowy day is perfect for setting up a lemonade stand. After much persistence & convincing of their parents, along with ingenuity in finding money to fund their idea, they get to work. They shop for the ingredients, make the lemonade (and limeade), and set up their lemonade stand all on their own. As it turns out they were right, it was a great idea.
This fun book highlights counting money throughout, as well as utilizing different strategies to make a sale. They advertise by shouting a catchy jingle, they entertain by doing cartwheels to draw attention, they have a sale (which of course leads to a different way of counting their earnings 😉 ), and lastly decorate with balloons, pinwheels, & flash lights spotlighting their set up, lol. Such a clever story that also helps kids learn about money…highly recommended!
How We Made Lemon Squeezed Art…
We tend to keep the activities as simple as possible around here. We’re not interested in complicated or costly. We are also all about fostering independence. For this activity we photocopied two $1 bills so we could see the front and back at the same time, 4 quarters (to help reinforce 4 quarters equals $1), 2 dimes, 2 nickels, and 2 pennies so that we can see the front and the back also. We used our at home printer and the same thick cardstock paper we use for almost every art project we do.
Then I had my daughter match the real money to the photocopied money while reinforcing the names of the coins, which can be quite tricky to remember.
Next came the fun part…watercolor painting the photocopied money! My daughter was surprised by this idea and found it very exciting to be able to color the money however she wanted to. 🙂
Lemon Squeezing?
Once we were happy with our watercolor work, she cut the lemon in half. We each began squeezing drops of lemon juice onto our wet/damp watercolor paintings. The idea to use lemons came from KitchenTableClassroom.com which is a fantastic site full of amazing art projects created by a fellow homeschooling parent who also happens to be an art teacher! You can find the post that shows not only lemons but 8 other watercolor techniques for any age here.
The lemon juice does not produce immediate results, but once it dries you will notice that where you squeezed the lemon juice it will have bleached the watercolor from that spot. It doesn’t take much lemon juice at all and you could totally take turns passing around 1/2 of the lemon if you wanna save the other half for something else. If you’re doing this with young children or anyone who has difficulty determining how much strength they should put into something, I would suggest squeezing the lemon before giving it to them so that it doesn’t pour onto the paper. Another great option would be to give everyone a chance to squeeze the lemon into a cup, then use a dropper to suck up the lemon juice and drip it onto the paper.
The colorful painting along with the smell of lemons is uplifting and can really brighten a winter day! I hope you enjoy this activity as much as we have! If you do this (or any of our activities) I’d love to see, please tag us on Instagram @Parentingnotperfection
Wait?!? Am I Supposed To Be Making One Too?
I highly recommend getting hands on and doing art projects with your child. If you’d rather not, thats okay too, but please do not correct anything they do. If you want the art to look a certain way – make your own.
Especially if your child is little, its okay if it doesn’t turn out the way you imagined. Maybe its what they imagined. Also, its a process. They are learning. They will learn more through trial and error than if you correct them or do it for them. All they will learn if you “help” is that they didn’t do a good enough job on their own or they can’t do it; not exactly the message you want to give your kid. Am I right?!?
Believe me, I know it can be really challenging to let them make “mistakes”. Try doing the project along side them. It will allow you to focus on your own work, give them appropriate modeling of how to use the materials, and show them that you like art too! A lot of what I talk about in “What about the Sensory Mess?” applies to Art projects as well, you might wanna check it out! I love how each art has its own identity. I would suggest Lemon Squeezed Watercolor Art if you’re looking for a fun and unique art activity to connect with your child.
If you’re looking for more winter themed bookish play, you might wanna check out our Bunny Slopes, Walking in a Winter Wonderland, Penguins Don’t Wear Sweaters, or Snowmen at Christmas posts!
Materials We Used
- “Lemonade in Winter: A Book About Two Kids Counting Money” book (from the library or buy it here)
- Money (to make a photocopy of)
- A black and white photocopy of money on cardstock paper
- Cardstock paper
- Watercolor paints
- Paintbrush
- Water
- Dog dish to hold the water
- A lemon
- A tray
Click HERE for Free Printable copy (Email Subscribers Only)
How to Make Lemon Squeezed Art?
- Lay the money on the photocopy machine & make a copy onto cardstock paper.
Optional – You can have your child match the real money to the black and white copy of the money. - Use watercolor paints to color the black and white photocopy however you desire.
- While the watercolor paint is still wet/damp, squeeze drops of lemon juice onto the photocopy.
- Allow time to dry – the drops of lemon juice will bleach the watercolor in those spots and create a cool effect as you see pictured in this post.
Click HERE for Free Printable copy (Email Subscribers Only)
Wait, There’s More…
I believe you can easily strengthen communication skills and foster independence all while playing and connecting with your child. To help you do this; I’ve created a FREE printable for each activity called, “Communicating & Connecting”.
It will give you a list of suggestions I’ve found very helpful as a Mom & as a special education teacher; to help you build lifelong skills. Please don’t feel obligated to do everything on the list (but if you do, you’re a rockstar 😉 ).
As a Thank You for subscribing; this is a special FREEBIE for our Email Subscribers Only. 🙂 Click here if you’ve already subscribed. Otherwise, Sign Up below to get the password & access to our entire FREE Printables Library today! 😉
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