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Home / Early Learning / Painting With Nature

Painting With Nature

Shared by Mary Catherine 8 Comments

painting with nature and kids, kids painting with nature

While waiting at the bus stop for Engineer, the other kiddos usually have fun running around outside.  They also enjoy playing in the gazebo that’s by the bus stop, and they always enjoy checking out the trees nearby.  Recently, they’ve taken to collecting pine cones, acorns, and sticks to incorporate into their play.  We’ve pretended to be forest animals hunting for acorns, the sticks have been turned into swords and walking sticks, and we’ve even brought some items onto our porch as part of a sensory activity.

kids in nature, kids painting with nature

Well, this time Girly Girl suggested we paint with what we could find while waiting for Engineer’s bus.  So Girly Girl, Captain America, and Little Hurricane set about collecting acorns, sticks, and branches with pine needles still attached.  I focused on finding a few acorns as well, just because I didn’t want to be left out.  😉  When Engineer got off the bus, he didn’t even bat an eye that my arms were full of all these materials.  He’s used to this by now!

kids painting with nature, painting with kids, nature collage

After a snack and some down time, the kiddos wanted to try painting with the items we collected.  Girly Girl and Engineer were the most interested in it, as was Snoopy when he came by later.

Table of Contents

  • Materials for Painting with Nature
  • Nature Painting
  • Done-for-You Preschool Resources

Materials for Painting with Nature

Since we already gathered lots of items for this project on our nature walk, we only needed a few more things to pull this project off. Here’s the full list of things we used along with some other material ideas (I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post):

  • Pine cones
  • Acorns
  • Sticks
  • Leaves
  • Feathers
  • Flowers
  • Rocks
  • Construction paper
  • Sparkley red paint
  • Sparkley green paint
  • Sparkley blue paint
  • Assorted tempera paints
  • Paper plates
  • Assorted paint brushes
kids painting with nature, painting with kids, nature collage

Nature Painting

Engineer and Girly Girl started out by dipping items in the paint, then making prints on white paper.  They tried this with the acorns, the pine cones, the sticks, and the pine needles.

kids painting with nature, painting with kids, nature collage

After making prints with the various materials, they decided on another tactic — just painting what we’d collected.  They really got into painting the pine cones and the acorns!  Engineer was especially focused on the best way to get the acorns decorated the way he wanted.  Snoopy joined in as well, once he’d arrived.

kids painting with nature, painting with kids, nature collage

From there, Engineer decided he wanted to create a 3-D work of art.  He used the paper he’d already painted on as a base, then added the painted items on top of that.  He used some extra paint to act as a glue, and he made sure I knew he wanted the acorns, sticks, and pine cones to stay stuck on the paper.  It cracked me up that he explained his artistic vision to me — he must be so used to me saying “tell me about what you made”!

kids painting with nature, painting with kids, nature collage

What are some non-traditional items your children have painted with recently?

Shared at Kid’s Co-Op, The Educators’ Spin On It’s After-School Link Up, Discover and Explore

Done-for-You Preschool Resources

Planning meaningful lessons for students week after week while balancing other teaching responsibilities and a personal life can be a daunting task. That’s where Preschool Teacher 101 comes in to save you time!

Preschool Teacher 101 has created some amazing preschool lesson and activity plans that will be perfect for your classroom. Click on the images below to learn more about some of our great nature themed resources!

Preschool Flowers Lesson Plans
Flowers Lesson Plans
Forest lesson plans
Forest Lesson Plans
Tree Lesson Plans

Join The Pack from Preschool Teacher 101 today for exclusive access to our content. We have a variety of membership options to suit your needs.

Filed Under: Early Learning, Preschool Arts and Crafts

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  1. JDaniel4's Mom says

    February 22, 2013 at 11:07 am

    What a wonderful way to paint!

    Reply
    • MaryC says

      February 22, 2013 at 11:29 am

      Thanks . . . the kiddos sure enjoyed it! And my place is now decorated with bright, sparkly pine cones and acorns!! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Emily says

    February 22, 2013 at 5:22 pm

    I used to make these in elementary school, and we still put them on our Christmas tree as decorations. What a wonderful past time; I remember I had ALOT of fun making them!

    Thanks for sharing, Mary. And great of you to join the blog hop this week … can’t wait to check out more craft ideas. 🙂

    Reply
    • MaryC says

      February 22, 2013 at 5:35 pm

      Thanks for stopping by! Maybe we’ll have to make more come Christmas-time! 🙂 Thanks for hosting the blog hop . . . it was fun “meeting” new people.

      Reply
  3. Katie says

    February 22, 2013 at 5:26 pm

    Hi Mary Catherine!
    I wanted to stop by and thank you for linking up with us at the “Linkin with ladies” hop yesterday! I hope you enjoyed reading some new blogs and hope you can join us again next week!
    Thanks again,
    Katie~
    http://dysfunctionsjunction.com

    Reply
    • MaryC says

      February 28, 2013 at 1:33 pm

      Thanks so much . . . I did enjoy that linky! In fact, I think I’m late to link up again this week…whoops! Going to check on that now! 🙂

      Reply
  4. Laney says

    February 22, 2013 at 5:59 pm

    hey there hun. happy Friday and happy weekend. hope it’s a great one for you. i couldnt figure out how to follow you back. so you may have to just follow me or something.

    Reply
    • MaryC says

      February 22, 2013 at 6:10 pm

      No worries . . . my blog is in transition! Thanks for popping by. Yay for Fridays!!!!! Hope your weekend goes well.

      Reply
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My name is Mary Catherine, and I love to share meaningful {and fun} learning activities for kiddos! Feel free to browse and stay awhile!

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