One of my favorite projects for the holidays is to make clove studded oranges. This is a suitable home or school project for kids of varying abilities with an adult ready to help if needed. Manipulating the small cloves is practice in small motor development.

Level: 3 and older

Supplies needed:
Small oranges
Whole cloves
Yarn lengths, 2 feet long each to tie up oranges for hanging

Have a completed clove studded orange set on the work table so the kids can see what the finished orange will look like.

Give each child a small orange.

Place a pile of whole cloves in a plastic bowl in front of each child's work space.

Demonstrate how to poke the skin of the orange with the pointed end of the clove.

The oranges can be studded (poked) at random or in lines of latitude or longitude around the oranges and then the space in between filled in. The cloves should be pushed in along their stem portion with the crown portion left exposed.

Point out the smell of cloves to the kids. Let them know that their orange will smell like cloves when it is done and for a long time afterward when it is hanging.

After the oranges are fully or mostly covered with cloves take 2 lengths of the yarn. Surround the orange in the longitude direction, with the 2 strands of yarn spaced evenly apart. Tie a knot in the yarn at the top of the orange, and then again near the ends of yarn so you have a loop for hanging.

As the orange dries out, it shrinks in size. This shrinking pulls the cloves very close together.

I like to hang the clove studded oranges on my Christmas tree after they have dried out. This really adds the spicy Christmas smell to the room.

This is a simple, but fun project!

For offline reading

Kinesthetic Math and Language Lessons -
You´ll find 33 beginning and advanced kinesthetic math and language lessons in 78 pages for kids of all abilities in grades K-6, including teaching all ages the one-hand alphabet with large photos of the letter shapes.


And, for ages 2 to 5, more than 10 kinesthetic learning lessons, plus rhythms, dances and exercises in this workbook Rhythms and Dances for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Article by Susan Kramer