What a thrill making Garden Art Sticks with a group of fifteen 5- and 6-year olds! I found this idea on a wonderful blog called Sweet Things and thought it would be a great project for our Kindergarten class to make for our school’s bi-annual auction.

My dear adventurous Mother ( affectionately known as Cuckoo Grandma by my children) happens to love garden art so she agreed to help. She gathered a bundle of shapely beach sticks that were already sanded smooth from being tossed in the ocean and sand. Once they were completely dry (I let them sit in the dry place a few weeks), I painted them with a couple coats of white acrylic primer. After that, they were ready to carry to the school Art Room and let the kids slather on bright acrylic paints however they desired.

STEP 1: Here is how they looked after the first step (white acrylic painted on each stick):

STEP 2: Paint Bright Garden Art!

Here is how they turned out:

The kids did such a great job. They seemed to take extra care since this was something special to raise money for their school. It was a bit messy but everyone did their best and I love the finished Garden Art Sticks.

Things were getting more and more messy as they painted but most of the kids wore aprons.

That is, all of the kids except for this dear boy (mine):

I was concerned that parents would be upset if their kids came home with stained clothes because acrylic paint doesn’t wash out. Then I realized it was only my sweet kid freely wiping his painted fingers onto shirt and pants… oops.

Step 3: Be proud of Garden Art!

The ladies love my little guy. One particular friend likes him so much she painted a spot of his hair blue! Thankfully he liked it–I suppose it matched his paint-spotted shirt perfectly by the end of this lesson. Kindergarten rocks… no sticks!