MAMA Children’s Activity Post: Nature Treasure Painting!

We’ve spent a lot of time outside in the woods collecting “treasure” these last few weeks, so we decided to use all of these fantastic finds to create some messy art, and what better place to do it but outside in the sunshine!

Equipment:

– Plastic activity mat.
– Old clothes/aprons.
– Variety of paints (water based, non toxic).
– Paint pots.
– Canvas.
– Paper/card.
– Treasure!! (aka sticks, pine cones, leaves, flowers, stones, long grass etc!).
– Paint brushes (to use alongside the treasure).
– Wipes.

Step One; Preparation.

We did this activity out in the garden. I set up two large plastic mats and put out the paints, paint pots, brushes, canvas and card. My son and I then piled up all the treasure we’d collected and also went round the garden and found some other exciting things to use (fresh flowers, grass and leaves). My son then squeezed out the different coloured paints into all of the pots. If you have younger children you may need to do this part.

Step 2: Painting with nature, surrounded by nature!

I showed my son how to dip the “treasure” in the paint and use it to make marks on the canvas/card. He got it quite quickly and enjoyed making lovely patterns. In between he also kept running round the garden getting new things to try out!

We painted the canvas first as this was to be a Father’s Day gift so I wanted the paints to be the brightest (my son has a tendency to mix up all the paints as activities go on!).

After the canvas and between games of football/bat and ball, he also did some experimenting on some card. His favourite things to paint with appeared to be all of the different sized sticks and the pine cones! I loved the freedom being outside gave us – even if some of there grass got a little painted in the process!

Step 3: Tidy, tidy, tidy up!

We left our paintings in the sun to dry and saved any unused treasure for next time! We wiped down the excess paint and then were doing some water play so we were clean quite quickly. Had a bath later however as somehow some paint had ended up in our hair!

So now you have some beautiful nature paintings you can give as a personalised gift for the upcoming UK father’s day or for any other special occasion!