Crafting with Potatoes

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How could we not have a potato head craft on this site?! It evokes strong nostalgia for sure. I think I was just as excited as my kids about making a potato person. Plus, you'll be using almost only vegetables to create your potato head. That was a first for me. My youngest snacked on the 'supplies' the whole time too, which I'm not mad about at all 🙂

This craft also provides a great opportunity to share some fun facts about this meal's featured ingredient:

🥔potatoes🥔

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Potatoes are a leading vegetable crop in the United States and Idaho produces more potatoes than any other state.
You can make so many things with potatoes! To name a few...french fries, hash browns, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, potato bread, scalloped potatoes, potato soup, tater tots, chips.
Eat the skin! Potato skin is super high in Potassium. Potassium helps to regulate blood pressure and keep our muscles healthy.

The cool thing about this craft is that there are no specific guidelines and kids can pretty much do whatever they want. Let them decide which veggies they want to use, and where. The instructions below provide some suggestions, but really it's up to your kids. If you're pairing this with the Catchall Potato Skillet Recipe, make sure you buy some extra potatoes and also set aside some veggies for your kids to craft with while you cook. If the kids want to use frozen corn on their potato creation, just thaw it in the microwave before they start working away.You may have to monitor the kids a bit while they carve the veggies with a safe knife.

Now, all of this being said, your kids' potato creations could end up looking like anything. My three year-old's final product looked way more like one of Delia Deetz' creepy sculptures in Beetlejuice than a potato head 🙂 Just let them do their thing and be creative. If nothing else, this craft gives them the chance to examine and play with vegetables, and that's pretty rad.

We have paired this craft with the Catchall Potato Skillet recipe and hope you do too!

💡Overview💡

Featured Ingredient: Potato

Corresponding Recipes: Catchall Potato Skillet & Potatoes Four Ways

Skills supported: Fine motor (cutting, drawing, fastening veggies to potato with toothpicks), following instructions

✂ supplies ✂

Potato
Curious Chef Kid-Friendly Knife
Veggie ingredients from our Catchall Potato Skillet Recipe (onion slices, red pepper, mushrooms, & frozen corn)
Toothpicks
Markers

📝instructions📝

Consider setting up the craft before you start cooking so your kids can get to work right away.

1. Decide how you want your potato head to look. Below are suggestions, but you can do anything!
2. Have toothpicks ready to attach the veggies to the potato.
3. I decided to use the onion slices as hair, a slice of red pepper as the mouth, 2 pieces of frozen corn for the eyes (thaw them in the microwave first), and bigger mushroom chunks for ears. Let your children use a kid-friendly cutting knife* to shape the veggies how they'd like.
4. Then use markers to draw in the leftover features. For example, I drew a nose and added eyelashes to the corn eyes.
5. As a final touch, add toothpick arms and legs. You can even stick on chopped pieces of red pepper or mushroom as hands and feet.
6. Once all the features are in place, you may have to cut the toothpicks shorter. Note that this step is NOT a task for kids. Toothpicks are not easy to cut.
7. Make sure you autograph the back of your work of art!