For preschools and kindergartens! Ideas for making roasted sweet potatoes
At the end of autumn, when we start to feel the chill little by little, eating sweet, fluffy roasted sweet potatoes warms both the heart and body.
Many preschools and kindergartens probably include sweet potato digging or roasted sweet potato parties as autumn events.
So this time, we’re sharing plenty of craft ideas themed around roasted sweet potatoes.
Incorporate crafting before the sweet potato digging to spark children’s imaginations and build anticipation, or do crafts afterward to reflect on the event and deepen their interest.
If you time the activity for days when sweet potatoes are served at lunch or snack time, it can also support food education.
Try using these ideas in your childcare setting in a variety of fun ways.
Since we’re introducing ideas that make use of children’s free expression, we refer to them as “crafts” in the main text.
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For preschools and kindergartens! Ideas for making roasted sweet potatoes (1–10)
Baked sweet potatoes made from old newspapers and origami
Let’s make roasted sweet potatoes using old newspapers and origami! Here’s how: crumple up newspaper into the shape of a roasted sweet potato, then stick wrinkled origami paper on top.
When wrinkling the origami, be careful not to tear it.
The crumpling helps develop children’s fine motor skills.
It might be fun to make roasted sweet potatoes in different sizes.
Also, if you let the children use their imagination when attaching the origami, the result will likely be a set of unique, individual pieces.
Roasted sweet potatoes made of origami
Recreate a freshly baked sweet potato split in half with origami! First, crease along the diagonal.
Use one diagonal as the vertical axis, add several perpendicular creases, then flip it over.
Fold various parts inward to shape it more like a sweet potato, flip it over again, and you’ll have the form of a halved roasted sweet potato.
Color the white sections yellow so they look like the inside of the potato, and you’re done.
For extra realism, make a paper bag to hold the sweet potato using brown origami paper! The steps are a bit detailed, but if you love origami, give it a try.
3D roasted sweet potato made with origami
This is a craft project for making fluffy roasted sweet potatoes that you’ll start craving from autumn to winter! Tear a purple sheet of origami paper—the “skin”—in half along the diagonal, then crumple it to add wrinkles.
Take a yellow sheet of origami paper for the “flesh,” crumple it as is to create wrinkles, and wrap it around a balled-up tissue to shape it like a sweet potato.
Wrap the inner piece with the purple origami you tore earlier, secure it with clear tape, and you’ll have a delicious-looking roasted sweet potato that looks just like a freshly cooked one split in half! It would also be great for pretend play as a roasted sweet potato vendor.
For Preschools and Kindergartens! Ideas for Making Roasted Sweet Potatoes (11–20)
Pop-out roasted sweet potato
A unique craft idea features a roasted sweet potato popping out from a campfire.
You can make the mechanism using two paper cups and twine.
Since the mechanism involves making holes, it’s best for the teacher to handle that part.
The children can draw campfires and roasted sweet potatoes on the cups, or cut and create them with origami! It’s really fun to pull the string and see a piping hot sweet potato pop out from the campfire, and the kids will likely be absorbed in playing with it.
You can also stack three or more paper cups, or adapt the design with seasonal motifs for even more fun!
Potato-finding Game
In autumn, you see more trucks selling stone-baked sweet potatoes.
These days, sweet potatoes are fairly easy to get year-round, but they’re definitely tastiest in season.
Let’s enjoy autumn with a game called “Sweet Potato Hunt”! First, use yellow and brown paper to make something that looks like a baked sweet potato.
It’s more fun when it looks realistic, so observe pictures or photos carefully before making it.
Fill 3 to 5 cardboard boxes with lots of shredded newspaper, and hide the baked sweet potato you made in one of them.
Whoever finds the sweet potato wins.
It’d be fun to play on a day when sweet potatoes are on the school lunch menu!
Roasted sweet potatoes in drawing
Sweet potato digging is a classic autumn event at kindergartens and nursery schools.
If you capture those memories in a painting, you can display it at home, and when you look back later, it will let you feel your child’s growth! Let’s draw sweet potatoes using art materials like paints or pastel crayons.
Encourage children to fill the whole page freely with big and small sweet potatoes, vines, and more! Once they’re done, put the artwork on display and enjoy the feeling of an autumn exhibition.
It would also be fun for everyone to share and talk about their sweet potato digging memories.
Torn-paper collage sweet potato
These torn-paper roasted sweet potatoes are perfect for an end-of-autumn craft.
Use red, purple, and brown construction paper or origami paper, tear it by hand, and glue the pieces onto a sweet-potato-shaped base.
If you crumple and soften the paper before tearing, it becomes easier for children to rip—give it a try! For added dimension, you can also shape a sweet potato out of newspaper and then cover it with colored paper.
This craft idea brings out children’s expressive creativity and is sure to make autumn events even more enjoyable.