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The Empowered Educator

Inspiring ideas, training and resources for early learning.

Getting creative with Paperbark….

by The Empowered Educator 3 Comments

We have had quite a few storms come through recently and the winds have blown a lot of bark and branches off of our large eucalyptus trees…luckily no damage but i did notice the twins have enjoyed picking up the bark when playing outside and bringing it over to me to ‘discuss’!

We are lucky to live in an environment surrounded by trees and bird life and this has led to a real interest in nature’s gifts for the girls. The love to collect flowers, gum tree pods, wattle seeds, branches, twigs, leaves and now bark while playing outside.

I decided to foster this interest and incorporate the bark into some easy water painting….and the toddler twosome really enjoyed it! I used just water with vegetable dyes and made them slightly more concentrated than i normally would. Then outside with the paint pots, brushes and our trusty painting tray!

This is the trunk of one of the trees we collected the fallen bark from…it can come off in quite large strips but is easy to tear into some more manageable size pieces…..
I put a few pieces on the tray along with brushes and just stood back to see what the girls might do….
Tara immediately decided that some of the smaller pieces made great brushes for the paint pots….
She got a little ‘concerned’ (as only a toddler can!) at one stage because the bark wouldn’t come back out!
Then went back to the brush to begin painting the bark pieces…as well as the paper of course….
Both enjoyed dabbing at the bark with their palmer grips and then ‘swishing’ back and forth on the paper watching the colours run together….
 Ruby trying to get her bark ‘brush’ back out…a lesson in spatial awareness here unfortunately, he he!!
 There was much exclamation and investigation as the colours really began to cover the paper and run into each other and onto the bark….
 Tara also decided that a few of the rocks she collected earlier would look better painted too!
To extend the activity i placed some paper towel around the tray and the girls enjoyed dabbing with the brushes to make patterns…the watercolour soaked in very quickly so it was an entirely different experience to the paint running freely around the tray!

A very easy activity and one to try if you have some bark or other natural materials lying around just waiting to be discovered. While they are painting it is a great opportunity to discuss different textures, colours, where the materials came from and what else you could do with them! I enjoy letting children create collages of materials from nature too but at the moment the girls aren’t really into the pasting stage just yet!

What do you have lying around outside that could become tools for a masterpiece?

Have a lovely weekend all xx

Filed Under: Ideas for Painting Play, Outdoor Learning

« Ditch the cling wrap!
Twin Seed Planting… »

Comments

  1. MissMOE says

    24/02/2012 at 6:37 am

    What a great activity—it covers so many bases. And looks just plain fun.

    Reply
  2. katepickle says

    25/02/2012 at 1:54 am

    oooh looks like SO MUCH FUN!

    Reply
  3. Valerie @ Glittering Muffins says

    15/08/2012 at 7:05 pm

    That’s a great idea! Thanks for linking them to “Around the World in 12 Dishes – Australia”

    Reply

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Jodie
Hi, I'm Jode, Mum to 3 girls in Australia, and an early childhood educator, presenter and consultant.
I share ideas, inspiration & resources for play based, inquiry led learning
Find out more about me here...

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