Tu B'Shevat Plant-Brush Painting

Today to prepare for Tu B’Shevat we did Tu B’Shevat Plant-Brush Painting and made a pretty cool mural and definitely had lots of fun in the process!

What You’ll Need

Kraft paper
Tape
Washable paint
Assortment of plants
Clothespins (optional)
Popsicle sticks (optional)
Glue gun (optional)

Putting It Together

First, collect different plant materials. We collected some leaves and sticks from trees, some flowers, some berries, some herbs that had bolted and some pinecones. Find whatever you have available, it will work!
Decide how you want to turn the plants into brushes. Some we left as is (like the pine cones). Others we clipped with a clothespin and quite a few we glued to popsicle sticks.
Start painting with your Tu B’Shevat Plant-Brushes!!

Finished & Loving It!

Some of these plant-brushes functioned like real paintbrushes and others were more like stamps. Whatever way they worked, the kids got right to work dipping or pressing them into a plate of paint then painting however they wanted on the kraft paper.

The kids loved the process of seeing how different plants made different designs and would work in different ways, sometimes a function of the plant itself and sometimes because of how they were trying to paint with it. It was a really fun and interesting experience!

It also allowed us to talk about how thankful we are for all kinds of plants and how Tu B’Shevat is such a special holiday to celebrate our appreciation.

I put this activity on the wall to add some fun benefits of vertical work, helping build those little muscles and enjoying doing art in a different way. You could easily set this up as an individual craft with paper on a table. And it’s wide open to whatever plants you are able to find and use. If you’re in a snowy place you might have be quite creative and I’d love to hear what you discover!