Hapa Zome = leaf dye. Have you tried it?  It's an excellent hands-on activity to do with young children! Ours turned out so beautiful I just had to share!

All you need is some flowers or leaves, fabric, we used calico and a hammer.

We work outside whenever possible and this is a great activity to do outside, in-between those April showers. We put a waterproof tarpaulin on the grass and work on some nice large wood pieces. 

We arrange our flowers in between two pieces of fabric or fold the fabric over, however, you can place the flowers on a surface like the wood piece and put the fabric over the top.

Then we just tap, tap, tap with the hammer. Not too hard and not too soft. This would be completely ok to do with a toddler with some supervision. It's really easy and really satisfying! 

Once you feel you have tapped or hammered each flower and leaf you can open the fabric and reveal your art work! The dye has actually transferred on to the fabric.

We peel off the flowers and leaves but they can also be taken off once the fabric has dried. So easy and so beautiful! 

Although we did ours on a large scale outside, I can see it would be possible to present this on a tray in a classroom or on art shelves. The results are instant which is more interesting to a young child than something like using a leaf or flower press. You don't have to hammer very hard so it also teaches the child hand and arm control. It could be used as an extension to learning about leaves and flowers. We found this a lovely way to spend our afternoon together, collecting flowers and leaves and then creating!