Dandelion Painting

It's that time of year again when now that the grass is green the dandelions are popping up too. I have to admit, even though I know they are a weed, there is something so summery about seeing those bright yellow bursts all over the yard.

Of course, the boys love to pick them. And in addition to picking them, we've discovered how great they are for painting with. They make awesome designs!

Materials
Dandelions
Washable Paint
Paper

This activity works really well with a good sized handful of dandelions, which is perfect for little hands to help with. 

Put the paint into shallow dishes that are large enough to fit a small hand with a dandelion. In this case, our kids' painting tray worked really well. 

Kiddos then "dip" the flower bud side into the paint color of their choice and then gently press the bud onto the paper. 

This creates a colorful "burst" of paint. The first time we tried this, we used just one color per flower, but mixed a whole page with colorful images. 

On our most recent painting experience, Little Brother got really creative about dipping the dandelion bud into two or three colors before printing it onto the paper. His colorful bursts were even more colorful, and reminded me almost of tie dyed images. 

We used white card stock for our recent painting experience, so that we can turn the prints into homemade greeting cards. But it would be fun to think of other ways we can use this printing process. 

So before you pull up a dandelion today think about which toys a s kiddo might want to see today. 

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