Mess Free Sensory Leaf Painting

Who loves mess-free activities?

Well I’m sharing with you this super easy and exciting Mess Free Sensory Leaf Painting activity! It’s fairly quick to prep, no fancy materials (though it looks fancy for sure) and kids will have a blast using their fingers to spread the paint making a beautiful, festive Autumn Leaf!

My kids both had a ton of fun! They loved spreading the paint, mixing it between each other and creating a stunning array of colors. And I loved that it was a simply…”toss in the end” with no effort on my part. No brushes to clean, no tables to scrub, no clothing to soak! 🙂

More Autumn activities you’ll love

Materials For Mess Free Sensory Leaf Painting:

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Instructions:

Start by cutting out a large leaf using the craft knife out of cardstock, choosing a desired color. It doesn’t have to be perfect, I simply free-handed with a pencil first and then cut out.
Next, squirt a bit of each washable kids paint color into the sandwich bag and close, getting all of the air out.
Now, tape the top (part with the zip) onto a piece of cardstock, making the baggie right in the middle. Then tape each corner.
Place the cardstock with the leaf cutout over the sandwich bag and also secure with tape. You can secure directly onto the table as well so it wouldn’t move.

Time for some fun 🙂 Spread the paint using fingers all over to color in the leaf!

What is my child learning and improving?

Creativity
Fine motor skills (using fingers to carefully spread the paint getting all of the corners of the leaf colored in)
Sensory play (feeling the paint inside the baggie, using fingers, etc.)
Hand-eye coordination (using the fingers to spread the paint making it go where the child wants it to go in correspondance to hand movement)