Painting for Kids

How to do Painting with Branches for Kids

January 26, 2025

For a fun sensory experience for kids, try painting with branches! Simply dip a branch in paint and use it as your paintbrush.

Updated February 2025

As process-oriented art goes, painting with pine boughs and other evergreen branches is up there with fingerpainting and squeezing playdough.

Painting with branches is all about the process. It’s about the sensory experience—the prickly needles and the fresh pine smell. It’s about exploring how this unique tool paints. Kids can stamp, paint, or splatter to see how it transfers color to paper.

This activity encourages curiosity as kids discover new ways to make marks with nature.

How to do Painting with Branches for Kids

MATERIALS

Pine branches (small to medium-sized)
Tempera or acrylic paint
Paper or canvas
Paper plates or paint trays

INSTRUCTIONS

Prepare the materials
First, go for a nature walk and gather some pine branches. You can use all the same kind or try different varieties of tree for different textures.

Trim any overly long stems to make them easier for kids to hold. You can attach them to clothespins to create a better grip for little hands.

Pour your paint onto paper plates or shallow trays.
Paint!
Dip a pine branch into the paint and stamp, roll, or drag it across the paper. If you are outside or don’t mind the mess, you can also flick the branch onto the paper, like you would with splatter painting.

Encourage kids to layer colors, make designs, or use different motions to see what patterns they can create.
Let dry
Let your painting dry completely before displaying it.

This is such a fun and easy painting activity. We love doing it on big rolls of easel paper and then using the paper for wrapping paper at the holidays!