Two Ways to Create Tu B'Shevat Resist Art Murals

This week we worked on Two Ways to Create Tu B’Shevat Resist Art Murals. Our first one was a tape resist mural focused on the Seven Species, the special foods that you eat during Tu B’Shevat seder. We fell in love with tape resist art after seeing Busy Toddler post her amazing Thanksgiving mural. We did one for Hanukkah and it was so much fun that it might have to be something we now do for every holiday!

For our second mural we used some of our nature collection to do a Plant Resist Mural. We’ve never done this before and weren’t quite sure how it would turn out but wanted to see how it compared to the tape resist process. My daughter especially liked the plant resist art because she thought the designs looked like flowers 🙂

What You’ll Need

Kraft paper or posterboard
Painters tape or Bam Tape
Leaves
Paint
Paintbrushes

Putting It Together

For the Seven Species Tu B’Shevat Resist Art Mural, cut and tape a large piece of kraft paper or posterboard to the wall.
Create the seven species out of tape directly on the kraft paper. This can be a bit challenging, especially for the rounded parts of the fruit (like the dates and olives). I folded over some of the edges to give a more rounded look. But this does not have to be perfect!
Tape off sections for a more geometric look.
Pour different colors of paint and invite your kids to paint each section!
Once dry, carefully peel away the tape and enjoy your Seven Species Tu B’Shevat Resist Art Mural!
For the Plant Tu B’Shevat Resist Art Mural, tape a large piece of kraft paper or posterboard to the wall.
Use tape loops to tape leaves onto the paper. We made little designs with our leaves but the leaves can be placed however you want.
Tape off sections for a more geometric look. We chose to just have the mural remain one big background section to the plant art.
Pour different colors of paint and invite your kids to paint each section or just paint it all one color like we did.
Once dry, carefully peel away the leaves and tape and enjoy your Plant Tu B’Shevat Resist Art Mural!

Finished & Loving It

When the kids peeled away the tape and leaves (also a good fine motor skills activity!), they were so excited to see the final products and so was I! We did the big reveal of these Two Ways to Create Tu B’Shevat Resist Art Murals right as Shabbat is about to begin, such perfect timing!

The Seven Species Tu B’Shevat Resist Art Mural is a great way to discuss what the seven species are and can serve as an easy reminder in preparation for Tu B’Shevat and during the seder itself. Since the mural is on the wall, it’s easy to glance over and jog the memory for what these foods are. I love when holiday decorations so easily double as learning cues too!

The Plant Tu B’Shevat Resist Art Mural is of course another way to incorporate nature into Tu B’Shevat decorations and learning, which of course is a wonderful way to discuss a holiday that focuses on our environment.

Both of these murals are on the wall because I’m a huge fan of kid-made holiday decorations. There are also numerous benefits to vertical work. Kids’ muscles work differently, it promotes shoulder/elbow stability, bilateral coordination, spatial awareness, midline crossing, and pencil grasp. It’s also fun!

If you don’t want to paint on the wall (totally get it!), you could use an easel to get the same positive benefits of vertical art work. You could also break each of these murals into smaller individual items on a single sheet of cardstock or canvas. The learning and fun art process is still there and the end result will of course still be beautiful 🙂