Have fun with an active painting activity using conkers or chestnuts to rock and roll over the paper! Lots of fun and produces beautiful, abstract art for framing or turning into cards, wrapping paper or collage material for future projects.
We have recently collected the most enormous basket full of conkers, the seeds which fall in spiky husks from the great big Horse Chestnut trees in lots of British parks. [I think they may be known as horse chestnuts or buckeyes in other parts of the world.]
We have set test out for everyday play, sorting and rolling on our Autumn nature discovery table, but we have so many it seemed a shame not to use them in some art activities too!
To do this art activity you need: a washing up bowl, (or any shallow bowl or tray with edges), some ordinary kids paints, a handful of conkers and lots of sheets of paper (that will fit inside the base of the box/tray.)
They placed the paper in the bottom of the bowl, squeezed some different colours of paint directly onto it, then simply dropped 4 or 5 conkers in and rolled them around like crazy!
As the conkers travel through the paint they pick it up and transfer it all over the paper in a lovely, unpredictable variety of lines, colours and patterns and the colours blend together to make some beautiful marbled effects.
With lots of paint it made a gorgeous colour and pattern swirled effect, and when they tried with less paint the zig-zagging line patterns were clearer.
Because it’s such a fun and quick activity, which involves lots of movement (and laughs!), they were able to produce many paintings, one after the other in quick succession. It would be lovely to try monotone versions using simple white on black or glitter glues added into the mix for sparkle!
I think we will use these for cutting into birthday cards or wrapping small presents with.
See our extensive Art and Craft activities collection for more fun ideas to try at home with kids!
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