Choose your feathers. Although you may be able to find some feathers on the ground, craft stores sell fake feathers in a variety of sizes and colors.
Wash any feathers that you collected outdoors. Place feathers in a bucket of warm soapy water and gently rub the feathers with your fingers to remove any debris. Rise feathers in a second bucket of warm weather and set them on paper towels to dry.
Help children paint one side of each feather with a thin layer of paint. Rather than dunking feathers in bowls of paint, use paint brushes. These will cover feathers with a thinner layer of paint so the feather shape can be seen on the finished print.
Instruct the children to gently press the painted side of each feather onto a piece of paper. Slowly peel the feather off the paper to prevent smudging the image.
Repeat this process with different colors of paint and different sizes of feathers. Children also may layer multiple feather prints on top of one another to see what happens when colors are combined.
Give each child a small bowl of paint and another piece of paper. Children can dip the ends of their feathers into the paint, then use the feathers as paintbrushes to create more pictures.