This week preschool had the chance to make and use their own paints using natural resources, such as cinnamon, paprika, herbs, tea bags and cocoa powder. We enhanced on our sense of smell, discovering different fragrances from the herbs and spices, which provided us with this exciting opportunity, to make our very own autumnal paintings.

To begin we identified which herbs or spices we had, and then sprinkled each into the paint trays. We then added corn flour as a thickening agent, and also a few drops of water to make the paint paste. We used our noses to identify whether there were any scents we knew already, and there were a few, being the cinnamon and cocoa powder. Using a variety of herbs and spices, provided different colours for the children to explore with and create their lovely artwork.

We began creating artwork using the ‘paints’ and discovered that some of the spices were much more vibrant than others, such as paprika compared to tea bags.

To further extend our autumnal play, the children had the chance to explore a tuft tray filled with leaves and conkers, the children had collected outside of nursery. We added extra spices again to the water trays and corn flour, and the children enjoyed using the cascades to create a conker run into the sensory themed water tray. The children engaged with one  another, offering ‘cinnamon tea,’ ‘conker pies’ and ‘lemon or lime jars of jam!’

The children have enjoyed exploring their senses with these activities and even asked to do it again soon! Well done preschool!