Beautiful Branch
This craft was one of those ideas that I had and hoped I wouldn’t regret. Food coloring , small eye droppers that squirt and a toddler could have been a recipe for disaster but not only did we have fun and survive , how awesome are those leaves? I was planning on posting this next week but couldn’t wait to share. We have been talking a lot about the changing colors we see on our tress but this could also be used for a fun garland if you don’t want to make a branch.
- Gather your materials. You will need some coffee filters, a large piece of construction paper ( white or brown), red, yellow and green food coloring, eye droppers,3 small dishes , water ,crayons, scissors and glue.
- Start by drawing a branch .
- Have your child color the branch they can add more branches if they like too!
- While they do that draw leaves on the coffee filters.
- Pour some water along with the food coloring into the small containers, pop the eye droppers in ( one per color)- a big tip put a thick fabric place mat under your child when they are doing this step. It will absorb the coloring so it doesn’t get on other things. Of course this will stain it so do not use your new William Sonoma ones !
- Using the eye dropper drop the colors onto the coffee filter leaves.
- Use multiple colors for each leaf if you want. Using an eye dropper is intricate and helps develop your child’s fine motor skills.
- Let dry- ours dried over night.
- Cut out the branch
- Cut out the leaves
- Add glue to the branch
- Add your leaves and let dry.
14 Responses to “Food Coloring Leaves”
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Can you share where those eye droppers came from? We used food coloring to make butterflys last week and using just the little bottles was a disaster! Watering it down would have been the way to go!
The droppers we used are awesome because they have no glass and have no small parts, however you can only really use them 2-3 times at most, they aren’t sturdy.
Here is a link where you can find http://www.discountschoolsupply.com
Hope that helps!
I would think water colors would work too. What do you think? Can I ask how old is you son now? Just want to compare to my grandson’s age. He is 2 3/4.
Same age! He will be 3 at the end of November.
Watercolors would work beautifully!
Fun project. I like the idea of watercolors too; maybe it would dry faster. Fun way to talk about the leaves. Maybe in the coming months we can just gather colorful leaves and glue on the the branch.
I love this idea. I am going to try this one next week.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Allison McDonald and Kathryn Petro Harper. Kathryn Petro Harper said: RT @NoFlashCards Fall Leaves are fun to play with but even more fun to make! http://bit.ly/1Yq6sq [...]
I adore this leaf project. I’ve got to loosen up and let the girls get into messy craft projects.
Don’t beat yourself up it’s hard to loosen up, just get old clothes, lots of towels ready and nothing that could be ruined within 10 feet !
This was fun! Thanks!! We couldn’t find the eye droppers (I’ll have to bookmark that link) so I improvised and put the food coloring in a little cup and let him paint with it.
I was afraid any tree I drew would look funny, so I traced his forearm and hand and used that as our tree. I figure that’s a good excuse for a tree that doesn’t really look like a tree
That is so smart, good thinking!
I also save the medicine droppers from the pharmacies as they are always so nice to give extra–just an added tip and they’re free.:)
I had one of my student’s mom come and make these with us. They turned out so pretty. Thanks for the idea.
[...] Food Coloring Fall Colors /* */ Posted in Acorns, Age 2-3 years, Age 3-5 years, Age 5 and older, Age Under 2 years, Fall Crafts [...]