Homeschool Craft Project - Making Polly Potato-Lady

Polly Potato-Lady is a fun and easy craft you can do with children. She makes a cute decoration, and can be a great learning tool for a unit on shapes or on vegetables. Here's how to make her...

Supplies:
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Brown paper grocery sack (you can make several from one full-size sack)
Construction paper (variety of colors, most can be scraps)
Glue or glue stick
Scissors
Optional: googly eyes

Step 1 ~
You'll start by deciding how big you want your Polly Potato-Lady to be. You can make a wall-sized lady from an opened-up grocery sack, or make a dozen or more smaller ones out of one sack. A easy size to start with, is one about six inches tall. That's a handy size to work with for a first try. Cut your potato shape out of the brown paper grocery sack. It should be sort-of an oval, but with a few lumps and dips, because most potatoes aren't perfectly oval.

Step 2 ~
Decide what colors you want to decorate your Polly Potato-Lady's face with. For mine, I used white circles about an inch in diameter, with smaller black circles, for the eyes. (Experiment with the placement of the black circles to change her expression.)I used a scrap of red construction paper for her nose, and a bit of pink for her mouth. You could also give her ears if you wanted too.

Step 3 ~
Use your scissors to cut out the shapes you've decided on, and then use your glue or glue stick to attach them in their correct places. If you're using googly eyes instead of paper eyes, glue them on now, too.

Step 4 ~
Pick some paper to make your Polly Potato-Lady a hat. I used green and gave her a flower on her hat. You could use the color of your local school or team, or something seasonal, or just any color you like. Experiment with different hat styles; a beret, an elf stocking cap, a derby hat, etc. Cut out the hat and glue it in place.

Step 5 ~
Finish off your Polly Potato-Lady with a nice jazzy scarf or a necklace cut from construction paper and glued into place. A series of small white circles makes nice 'pearls' on Polly!

Step 6 ~
If you're making these as a group project, be sure to write each child's name on the back of their Polly Potato-Lady! Use this as an opportunity to talk about the shape you used to make them, and discuss potatoes!

Be sure to hang your Polly Potato-Lady up where you can enjoy her and people can see what a nice job you did making her!

If you haven't made your Polly Potato-Lady a friend yet, be sure to read Making Patrick Potato-Man on Associated Content.

Please click on the author's name (above the article) to read more of her work on Associated Content.