If you’re looking for a creative outdoor activity for kids, making food painted rocks is such a fun project. These painted rocks look just like pretend fruits and vegetables and make the perfect addition to a mud kitchen or pretend play garden.
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Our inspiration for this project actually comes from our mom. She loves combing the shores of Northern Minnesota looking for the perfect rocks, and over the years she has painted entire sets of food rocks for our kids’ mud kitchens. From strawberries and carrots to avocados and eggs, each little rock becomes a piece of pretend food that sparks hours of imaginative play.
This simple nature craft is easy for kids to help with and turns ordinary rocks into durable pretend food for outdoor play and is the perfect accessory for a mud kitchen!
Nature based play is so important for child development and we love that this activity encourages our kids to get outside! If you are looking for other nature crafts for kids you will love this rainbow flower nature weaving and this leaf printing activity!
Why We Love These Food Painted Rocks
Food painted rocks are a great addition to mud kitchens and pretend play spaces. Here is some of the ways our kids play with these:
- cook and serve meals in their mud kitchen
- create pretend grocery stores
- harvest “vegetables” from their play garden
They are also incredibly durable and can stay outside year round!
Supplies Needed
- Smooth rocks
- Paint pens
- Acrylic craft paint
- Small paint brushes
- Foam paint brushes
- Paper towels
- Water cup
- Optional: clear sealer
Tips For Choosing The Best Rocks
Look for smooth, flat rocks, often you can find these along shore lines of lakes
A few shapes to look for:
- oval rocks for lemons
- round rocks for tomatoes
- slightly pointed rocks for carrots
- larger flat rocks for eggs
How To Make Your Painted Rocks
- Wash The Rocks– clean the rocks with water and let them dry completely.
- Choose Your Food Design– Pick a fruit or vegetable you want to paint, remember simple shapes work best.
- Paint the Base Color– Use acrylic paint or paint pens to add the main color of the food you are painting. Examples include: Orange for carrots, yellow for lemons, red for strawberries, brown for potatoes
- Add Details– Once the base color is dry add details to your food, this may include seeds, stems, leaves and texture lines. We prefer using paint pens during this step.
- Seal (optional)– If the rocks will live outdoors in a mud kitchen or garden we recommend using a clear sealer to help protect the paint
Food Painted Rock Ideas
Fruits
- Strawberry
- Lemon
- Tomato
Fun tip: Strawberry rocks are also a great addition to your strawberry patch. Birds sometimes will peck the rocks first and leave the real berries alone!
Vegetables
- Carrot
- Potato
- Pickle
Breakfast Foods
- Egg
- Avocado
Remember, you can keep adding to your collection over time too!
Making food painted rocks is such a simple craft, but it opens the door for so much imaginative play. Whether your kids are cooking up a mud pie feast or running a pretend farmers market, these little rocks quickly become favorite mud kitchen ingredients.
This activity is so fun to do so be careful, you might just end up with a whole collection of painted food for your outdoor kitchen once you get started!
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