Spring time bloom print with broccoli

Broccoli Print Blossom Trees

Over the weekend the trees have suddenly started to blossom and a certain little girl is totally enamoured with them because they are PINK! Wherever we walk or drive a little voice chirps up every few moments “Ooo look, another pink tree!” I’m in love with the awe and wonder that comes with this stage of childhood and wish it would never end.

We did a little art project to make our own pink trees for displaying inside and used half a broccoli stem and some finger paints! I’ve been wanting to see what effect you can make from printing with broccoli for a while, but now that spring is here the time seems right so we tried it out and it works really well!

You need to cut a broccoli stem in half, from top to bottom. Cut it as straight and evenly as possibly so that when it lies facing downwards it lies completely flat on the paper.

Dip it into brown paint, lift up and press evenly onto paper to create a perfect tree print! (If you don’t have brown paint mix red, blue and green together.)

Cute! Now we wanted to add pink blossoms as that is all that is showing on the trees at the moment, so C dipped her finger tips into two shades of pink paint and dotted the blossoms all over the tree branches. If you want to add leaves then use green too!

One wasn’t enough so she went on to make some more backed onto different colours for contrast.

The finished prints!

This one has lots of blossoms blooming on its trunk too, so it seems 

And here are all four set out together. It would be lovely to make a four seasons version of this for each stage of the year, from bare branches to blossoms, leaves and fruit to snow-laden!

This activity is good for:
* creativity, imagination and experimenting with a range of tools and media
* manipulation of small tools/ materials (fine motor skills)
* science: talking about seasons/ growing/ spring/ life-cycles/ flowers