We’ve been having lots of learning fun with lemons. We tasted them, stamped painted with them and lots more. We even made lemon treats. Here are some fun ideas for you to do at home with lemons!
Social Studies: Where do lemons come from?
Ask your child Where do lemons come from? and discuss. It’s always fun to hear things from their perspective. Here are some interesting lemon facts:
- California and Arizona farms produce 95% of the entire U.S. lemon crop.
- Lemon trees bloom and produce fruit year-round.
- Each tree can produce between 500 and 600 pounds of lemons in a year.
Field Trip:
To get started on these projects you need lemons. Take a field trip to a grocery store, a farm, farmers market, a lemon tree in a friend’s backyard, your refrigerator or own backyard and get some lemons.
Math Skills & Language Arts: Explore the lemons
What color are lemons? How do they smell?
Ask questions and encourage your child to do the same. Cut a lemon. What shape do you see now? How many sections are there? How many seeds can you find? Count them. Sort them. If you cut another lemon do you think it will have the same number of sections or the seeds? Find out. How does a lemon taste? Sweet, sour, good, bad, dry, wet, warm, cold…
Grow a Lemon Tree
Plant some of the seeds in a pot or in your yard. Water twice a day and watch them grow. Count how many days it takes for the seed to sprout. Measure it regularly and chart its growth.
Art: Paint An Invisible Picture or Write a Secret Message
You’ll Need:
- Tooth picks, cotton swabs, brushes or something similar
- Lemon juice
- Paper
- Heat source like an iron, a light bulb, a toaster, hair dryer or even just the sun.
Draw your picture or write your secret message:
- Dip your utensil in the lemon juice and draw your picture or message. Be sure to dip the brush often.
- Allow the paper to dry until you can’t see the writing any more.
- Hold the paper over a light bulb or a toaster or dry with a hair drier. Move the paper often to make sure it doesn’t burn. As the sugar in the lemon juice caramelizes the picture or message will magically appear.
Lemon Stamp Art
Cut a lemon in half. Dip the flat part into paint. Then press onto a piece of paper.
Outdoor/PE/Gross Motor Skills:
Can Mommy or Daddy juggle lemons? Play catch with a lemon. Roll a lemon.
Cooking Project: Home Made Lemon Scented Play-dough
- Ingredients:1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup salt
- 1/2 cup water
- Yellow food coloring
- Tablespoon of lemon Juice
- A sprinkling of lemon zest
- Combine flour, salt, water, lemon juice and zest in a bowl and mix with a spoon. Add more water or more flour to get the mix just right – mushy and pliable like dough. Roll into a ball in your hands and test the consistency.
- Put the ball back in the bowl and add the yellow food coloring. Kneed the color into the dough.
- Play with it! Smell it! You can even eat it!
Science Projects:
Do lemons sink or float?
Fill up a bucket, glass or other vessel with water. Discuss and make your predictions. Drop a whole lemon in the water to find out. Will the same thing happen with a bigger lemon? A smaller lemon? When the lemon is sliced? When the lemon is sliced even smaller?
Lemon Juice and Baking Soda – Fizz Chemical Reaction
Take an empty soda bottle and fill it about half way water and the juice of a couple of lemons. Add a small amount of baking soda and watch it fizz. Add more see what happens. Add some food coloring. Put a balloon over the top and see what happens.
Spanish:
- Lemon – limón
- Yellow – amarillo
- Invisible – invisible
- Sour – agrio
Wow! Did you ever think you could learn so much with lemons!? Try it with something else too. Learning never stops. Everywhere you look and everywhere you go there are always learning opportunities for children and adults. Keep your eyes and ears open and always be willing to stop and explore.
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