Editor’s note: The following post was originally published on Green and Clean Mom. “Green & Clean Mom can inspire you to try a little harder, be a catalyst for change and to offer you some new tips and news on how to be the green, sexy and sassy mom…I know you are!”

Using nature to help children understand the environment and the world around them, it’s fun and crucial. Children learn through experimentation. Doing, feeling, smelling and experiencing the world around them is the best way for them to make connections and learn. This spring when the green grass begins to show itself I plan to use this fun activity that I’ve used dozens of times as a preschool teacher. I will make paint from green grass.

Children love art but when it’s combined with science, it’s even more fun!  If your child ever wonders why they get grass stains this is a great opportunity to teach them. Words like chlorophyll can suddenly enter their vocabulary and you might think you have a mini genius on your hands!

Using left over grass cuttings take a biodegradable plate and some recycled paper. Place the grass onto the plate and the paper over the grass. Have fun and let your child step and twist, careful to not ripe the paper. The paper will turn green and your child will have made a grass painting! Explain to them that this green paint is really chlorophyll and that it is inside the grass but when we use friction like rubbing the paper or sliding to catch a ball with our jeans on, the chlorophyll comes out of the grass. This is what stains our clothes or makes the green grass paint!

Read more at Green and Clean Mom!