Tree Painting with Toddlers and Preschoolers

Well, the title of the post pretty much says it all!  Last week we held an impromptu art playdate with some friends.   I wanted to do an activity that was different, open-ended,  and easy-to-set-up.  This tree painting activity did the trick!

Let's Paint the Trees together!

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We've done a bunch of interesting painting activities over here on the ol' blog (like the ones below):

• Spinning Marker Art
• Fizzy Ice Painting
• Indoor Snow Painting
• Toy Painting
• Tortilla Painting
• Scrape Painting
• Giant Tricycle Art

But we've never painted trees before!  Here's how we did the activity:

Let's Paint Some Trees!

First we first wrapped a tree with a giant roll of white paper. (We used masking tape to tape the paper up to the tree.)

Then, we poured out some tempera paint onto different trays and handed the kids several paintbrushes, tooth brushes, and rollers to use. 

My son usually has a pretty short attention span when it comes to crafts.  But there must have been something special about the activity, because they painted for 15-20 minutes.  

Perhaps it was the size of the canvas?  The outdoor setting?  The variety of painting tools?  The act of making collaborative art?  I don't know what it was, but it was really wonderful to see the kids painting away.

Happy making, friends!