Nature painting

The beauty of natural paint making is the freedom the children have to follow their own intuition. You can use a wide range of natural resources to paint with including leaves, twigs, flowers, feathers, pine cones and shells.

This is a wonderful, open ended creative activity. Mathematical concepts are strengthened as the children explore the measurements and quantity of the resources through the combinations they create. Those all important motor skills are constantly being exercised through the selection and manipulation of the resources and by using knives, pipettes, mortar and pestles etc. The activity also provides a deeper knowledge and understanding of natural objects, including food. Children are encouraged to think carefully about the shapes, textures, taste and smells of their ingredients and consider whether they are how they expected them to be inside.

Some ideas

Greens and yellows:

- Red onion skins

- Grass

- Nettles

- Spinach

Reds, pinks and purples:

- Elderberries

- Blackberries

- Rose hips

- Sloes

Browns and oranges:

- Onion skins

- Turmeric

- Old tea bags

- Soil