# Save the Trees Blow-Painting Art
> Blow drops of thinned brown paint through a straw to make tree trunks, dot on green fingerprint leaves, then add clouds, sun and grass for an Earth Day scene. It's an easy way to start talking with preschoolers about why trees matter.
- URL: https://www.funlittles.com/earth-day-crafts-trees/
- Ages: 3–6 yrs · Difficulty: easy · Mess: medium
- Time: prep 10 min, activity 30 min
- Works for: one-on-one, small group, whole class · one batch serves about 4 kids
- Skills: fine-motor, oral-motor, art, nature-science, environmental-awareness, conversation
- Cautions: ingestion-risk

## Materials (one batch)
- 1 sheet Chart paper
- Water colors in brown, green, blue and yellow
- Water (household)
- 1 piece Divided tray or small cups for paint (household)
- 4 piece Small spoons (household)
- 1 piece Drinking straw (household)
- Collage materials (optional)
- 1 piece Marker or crayon (optional) (household)

## Safety
- Paint is not for drinking. Show kids how to blow OUT through the straw and never suck in. Practice blowing on a hand first.
- Give each child their own straw and don't share straws.
- Lots of blowing can make little ones light-headed. Let them take breaks.
- Supervise finger painting and wash hands afterward.

## Before you start
- Thin the water colors with a tiny amount of water and put one color in each section of the tray.

## Steps
1. Place a few drops of brown paint near the bottom of the paper.
2. Blow on the paint through a straw at an upwards angle to make a tree trunk.
3. Need more trunk? Add another couple of drops and keep blowing until it reaches the height you want.
4. Dip your index finger in green paint and dot-dot-dot leaves around the top of each trunk.
5. Place drops of blue paint at the top and blow them into clouds.
6. Add a yellow sun in a corner.
7. Paint green grass along the bottom of the picture.
8. Write "Save our trees" on the finished picture.
9. Talk about why trees are important: they give us food and give shelter to birds and critters.

## Tips
- Talking about our planet is a mighty big concept for a 4 yr old to grasp, so start small. Use the activity to talk simply about the parts of a tree, then move on to other ideas later.
- Link it to things you've done as a family, like apple picking or vegetable gardening, to show that trees and plants give us food.
- Make every day Earth Day. There are so many chances to talk about new ideas casually during walks, play time and oh-so-many drives in the car.
- Thin the water colors with only a little bit of water so the drops spread easily when you blow.

## The original post by TurkeyMom (2013)

Talking about our planet is mighty big concept for a 4 yr old to grasp. So I decided to start small with an easy art activity for kids. Why not break the whole saving the concept into small idea which we can start at home. Art activities are a wonderful way to ease kids into a very complicated concept for a preschooler- We are talking about Earth Day. If the whole idea is to create awareness, then this can be considered "Mission Accomplished".

- A chart paper - I used one fourth the size.
- Water colors - thinned out with a tiny amount of water.
- A straw
- Collage materials

We used the blow paint technique for most of this art project. We have made cute and simple **[Valentine day cards](https://www.funlittles.com/valentines-day-cards/)** in the past using the same technique. To start our project, I thinned out some water colors with a little bit of water.

[](https://www.funlittles.com/?attachment_id=7730) I placed a few drops of brown paint on the sheet of paper and we just blew on it with a straw in an upwards angle.

[](https://www.funlittles.com/?attachment_id=7733) This Earth Day activity which was also an easy art activity gave us a good opportunity to talk about trees. We simply started to talk simply about the morphology of a tree and moved on other ideas later.

[](https://www.funlittles.com/?attachment_id=7729) Coming back to the art activity, if you need more trunk add a another couple of drops and keep blowing with a straw until you reach the desired height. Simple isn't it? Now to add the leaves we simply used our index finger. Good old finger painting, dot-dot-dot ! How easy is that?

[](https://www.funlittles.com/?attachment_id=7734) It isn't an earth day activity until we make a full-blown scene. We went on to add grass, clouds and the sun to create our simple art project and that created room for another conversation about the importance and what do they do for us.

[](https://www.funlittles.com/?attachment_id=7726)

[](https://www.funlittles.com/?attachment_id=7728) So now for the big question. How do we explain the importance to a four yr old? Why is it important to save our trees? 1. Trees/plants are important because they provide us food - talk about an activity that you have done as a family, apple picking or vegetable gardening. 2. Talk about how trees provide shelter for the birds and critters. 3. You can create many trunks and create a forest scene and talk about deforestation. 4. Importantly we have decided to make every day Earth Day and not wait until a special holiday to bring these things up. There are so many chances to talk about new ideas casually during walks, play time, oh-so-many drives in the car.. Finally our earth day art project all finished up.

[](https://www.funlittles.com/?attachment_id=7732) Thanks for stopping by our little space here. We encourage you to stick around and take a look at [**couple of**](https://www.funlittles.com/paint-with-spaghetti-brooms/) our [**popular posts.**](https://www.funlittles.com/animal-resist-painting/)

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