Kids' Activity: Painting and Hiding Rocks!

Looking for a fun, creative project to do with your kids? Look no further! Painting rocks is a great project to do with kids, and gets everyone in the community involved.

It’s not just grabbing rocks and painting them, its children being inspired by what they see in nature, making their artistic vision come to life, and then spreading their vision and joy with others. 

What you’ll need:

• Your choice of paint (acrylic is good, but since it stains permanently then some type of tempera or paint markers might be a better choice)
• Varying sizes of paint brushes, if using loose paint
• Rocks

Step 1: Go on a rock hunt! Head out to your backyard or a local park or forest with your kids, and let them choose rocks that speak to them. Finding fun-shaped rocks that look like something and can be painted into animals, rainbows, etc. are a lot of fun. You can also find flat rocks to paint scenes on, depending how intense you want to get, but any kind of rock will do! You can choose any size, but we recommend no bigger than your fist.

Step 2: Bring the rocks home, rinse them off in water, let them dry completely.

Step 3: While the rocks are drying, prep your painting area if you haven’t already! Lay down old newspaper or cardboard, grab old t-shirts for smocks, get your paint utensils and some bowls of water.

Step 4: Once the rocks are dry, paint one side of them however you’d like! You can paint landscapes, smiley faces, flags, scenes, animals, uplifting quotes, or whatever speaks to you in the moment.

Step 5: When done with your artistry and the paint is dry, write on the back of the rocks something to the effect of “Keep me or rehide me for the next person to find!” You can also find local social media groups in some states that do this regularly, and you can post a picture on there saying you are hiding them and where.

Step 6: Go out to your local park or neighborhood and hide them in plain sight near trees, rock walls, etc.!

This is a fun way to bring your community together, because this can be contagious and more people may start doing it! Then your kiddos will have fun going to local parks or on walks in the neighborhood, and finding rocks other people have painted and hidden. If there is no local social media group for your area, start one yourself and get your friends in on it! Some rocks may even be found by travelers and brought home, and it’s fun to see a rock travel to somewhere else like another town or state.

What did you choose to paint? Do you have a rock finding/hiding social media group for your area? Let us know in the comments!