Natural Dye Painting

     We had fun making our natural paints today.  We used blueberries, strawberries, pumpkin puree, and cooked spinach to make our wonderful dyes.  I asked the children what color each fruit would make before we started our activity.   I gave the children various cooking tools to mash their fruits and vegetables.  The children loved pressing, mashing, and stirring in the different strainers as juice poured into their bowls catching the colorful juice.  This was the favorite part of the activity as they were able to scientifically experiment with the different fruits and vegetable.  Then we got out our paintbrushes and created masterpieces with our natural dyes.  Cade tried a crazy way of painting holding one foot in the air and holding his bowl in another hand while painting with his other hand. Quite impressive multi tasking!  Alexandra painted creative shades of blue and purple which looked like a sunset at dusk.  What a great way to involve the children in making our activity paint.  They took great pride in making these natural dyes.  Cade and Alexandra meticulously cleaned the fruit pulp from each of the strainers at the sink and left our mashing tools sparkling!