Mess-free Earth paintings

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With Earth Day coming up on April 22, these mess-free Earth paintings would be a great craft to do with young children this year.

Note: For more kids-friendly ideas to celebrate Earth Day, see my Earth Day Activities for Kids page.

To make these mess-free Earth paintings, you’ll need the following materials:

Washable tempera paint – blue
Washable tempera paint – green
Paper plate
Clear plastic covering (e.g., plastic grocery store bag or plastic cling wrap)
Optional: Tape to secure the plastic covering

Start by squirting a few drops of blue paint on the paper plate. This is a good opportunity to discuss with your children that most of our planet is covered in water, particularly in the form of oceans. The blue paint represents water.

Next, add some squirts of green paint as well. Discuss how the green represents the land masses on our planet, especially those of our seven continents.

You may wish to mention that kids should use less green paint than blue paint, because more of Earth’s surface is covered in water than in land.

Once your child has finished adding paint, cover the paper plate with plastic. I found it really easy to simply insert my daughter’s plate into a plastic grocery bag from the store.

Because I only had one plastic bag, for my son’s plate I placed a layer of cling wrap over the top and used tape to secure it to the edges to the bottom of the plate to hold it in place.

With the plastic wrap in place, I invited my kids to use their fingers to spread the paint out so it covered the entire surface of the plate.