Tropical Leaf Stamping with Preschoolers

7/18/2022

Tropical Leaf Stamping with Preschoolers

Preschoolers love leaves. They love jumping in piles, collecting all different types, and even love painting them. Well, who says that painting them has to be a fall project?!? There are some super neat tropical leaves that your preschoolers will have a blast learning about and it's a great activity to include in your Pirates & Tropical Island Theme.

The good news is you don't have to live somewhere tropical to create this fun artwork. The local craft store is the perfect spot to take your preschoolers to grab a collection of different leaves to paint. Find a few favorites and a couple different shades of green paint and follow along with this easy step-by-step tutorial.

Supplies:

Artificial tropical leaves, assorted shapes & sizes

Washable paint, any desired color
Sponge brush
Paper: heavy, construction, or manilla paper. Card stock also works great

Teacher tip: This activity requires little support from teachers which means you can tell your preschoolers the steps and let them freely paint. We recommend using empty egg cartons or a paint palette for paint. .

Let's Get Started!

This is a perfect art process that preschoolers can do on their own with little to no help. Preschoolers will start by using their sponge brushes to completely cover their leaf with paint. Sometimes preschoolers need a reminder how a little paint goes a long way.

Once the leaf has been completely covered in paint then they will place the painted side down onto their paper and then they will press firmly onto their leaf until they are certain they pressed every part down.
If your preschoolers are struggling to manipulate the large leaves, the leaf could also be left with the paint side up and place the paper on top and press down.

After they have pressed down enough and are certain they are ready to lift, slowly remove the leaf from the paper and then ta-da....the perfect leaf imprint is there.
Half prints or smeared prints also make for great images especially when multiple prints are done on one page.

They can repeat this cycle over and over with the different shapes and sizes of the tropical leaves. It's such a fun way to make your own leaf prints. Craft leaves make this easier for preschoolers to do independently as they tend to be more sturdy than real leaves. When you're all finished, have preschoolers help you wash the craft leaves in the sensory table or sink so you can use them again and again. Now you can turn your classrooms into tropical paradises with this quick and easy project.

This would also be a fun activity to try outside with sidewalk paint!