Materiels

• Enough grapefruits or large oranges for your class*.
• Blue non-toxic paint.
• Shapes or outlines of the continents of the world.
• Non-toxic white glue.

Construction

Start by pre-washing the fruit to remove any residue on the outer skin as well as anything like wax that will prevent the water base paint from adhering to the surface. Set aside and let air dry.

Have students paint their fruit using a blue, non-toxic, water base paint like Tempura or other similar style paint. Fruit should be allowed to thoroughly dry before applying the cut-out shapes.

After the paint has dried, you will end up with a blue water world without any land features!

Create patterns for the continents on either ordinary bond paper or on full sheet (8" x 10 1/2") printer labels. You can print them a solid color or just the outline of the continent and let the students color it in themselves.

Have students cut out the patterns of the continents and, using a little white glue, apply them to the grapefruit. I used Avery labels for this and they went on easily without the mess!

The finished project is a small version of globe that the student has created for themselves that helps them to understand some basic concepts about the earth including:

• The Earth is a round shape
• The Earth is covered mostly with water
• The is covered with seven land masses known as continents.
• The names and relative locations of the continents

* You can substitute other objects for the globe such as plastic balls or circular blue ballons.