“Children have a natural affinity towards nature. Dirt, water, plants, and small animals attract and hold children’s attention for hours, days, even a lifetime.” Robin C. Moore and Herb H Wong
Nature is important because I look at it as a natural stress reliever. For example I use nature as a place for me to get away from stress. If I am stressed I will often go for a run or a bike ride on a nearby trail. This allows me to clear my head and think clearly and often find solutions to my problems. Nature also has a natural calming about it for me. When I am in nature I often just feel way more relaxed then I do in any other environment. This is important to know because lots of people have a hard time dealing with stress and often cannot deal with it when even just going for a walk in a natural environment will do wonders for that stress.
I also find nature important for children because they often get lost in technology and slow but surely lose their ability to be creative. When children are in nature they are at their most creative and using and developing their minds which is huge for their development into young adults. - Dan Bown
Nature is important because I look at it as a natural stress reliever. For example I use nature as a place for me to get away from stress. If I am stressed I will often go for a run or a bike ride on a nearby trail. This allows me to clear my head and think clearly and often find solutions to my problems. Nature also has a natural calming about it for me. When I am in nature I often just feel way more relaxed then I do in any other environment. This is important to know because lots of people have a hard time dealing with stress and often cannot deal with it when even just going for a walk in a natural environment will do wonders for that stress.
I also find nature important for children because they often get lost in technology and slow but surely lose their ability to be creative. When children are in nature they are at their most creative and using and developing their minds which is huge for their development into young adults. - Dan Bown
OUTDOOR CRAFTS PAGE
Photo by: http://timwalkermedia.com/updates/leaf_project/leaf-owl-flat.jpg
Natural Collage
Goal
The goal of this art project is to get children to discover and explore finding pieces of the earth that they can then create a collage with.
Steps
Materials/Resources
Leaf Pond Art
Goal: The goal of this art project is to get kids to discover and find a variety of different leaves in nature and to create different patterns and shapes of their own in a picture, similar to what they have seen when a leaf drops on a pond.
Steps:
Materials/Resources:
Natural Paintbrushes
Goal: The goal of this art project is to get students to create paintbrushes out of natural objects and get creative with using natural paintbrushes to create their own art.
Steps:
Materials/Resources:
- Paint
-Leaves/Pine needles
- Small sticks
- Paper
- String
- Scissors
- http://learncreatelove.com/?p=7491
Goal
The goal of this art project is to get children to discover and explore finding pieces of the earth that they can then create a collage with.
Steps
- Create a scavenger hunt list with pictures that has several items the students will need to find to add to their collage.
- When explaining how the scavenger hunt works, have a discussion about being respectful of the earth and not pulling anything living out of the ground because it is harmful to nature.
- Have student’s work in partners or a small group to work together to find the items and put them in their own plastic bag.
- In the classroom, have student’s chose a piece of recycled cardboard that has two holes punched into the top to create their collage. Explain that they will use liquid glue to put the items on the page, and that they can create any type of collage they want, only using the items they collected from the scavenger hunt.
- Let the collages sit over night to dry.
- Have students or help connect string to the top of each collage so that students can hang on their wall at home.
Materials/Resources
- Liquid glue
- Paint brushes
- Recycled Cardboard
- Plastic bags
- Whole punch
- Scissors
- String
- Scavenger hunt sheet
- Items from nature (example – twigs, different coloured leaves, different shaped rocks, man-made items, pine needles, bark, etc.)
- http://rainbowswithinreach.blogspot.ca/2012/04/earth-day-resources-for-children.html
Leaf Pond Art
Goal: The goal of this art project is to get kids to discover and find a variety of different leaves in nature and to create different patterns and shapes of their own in a picture, similar to what they have seen when a leaf drops on a pond.
Steps:
- Bring children to a near by pond or body of water.
- Explain that we are going to be looking at different leaves and watch the patterns they make as we drop them on the water.
- Get students to go find a leaf, reminding them to be respectful of the environment and only chose leaves that are already on the ground.
- Let students drop their leaves onto the water and discuss different patterns they made.
- Get students to go around in partners and collect 5 leaves that they would like to use for an art project.
- When back in the classroom, show students the demo of what they are going to be creating.
- Have them glue their leaves onto paper, and draw different shapes and patterns off the leaves, similar to what they saw on the water.
- Let dry overnight.
Materials/Resources:
- 6 leaves
- Construction paper
- Liquid glue
- Pencil crayons/crayons
- Plastic bags
- A body of water
- http://almostunschoolers.blogspot.ca/2011/10/concentric-leaf-shapes.html
Natural Paintbrushes
Goal: The goal of this art project is to get students to create paintbrushes out of natural objects and get creative with using natural paintbrushes to create their own art.
Steps:
- Get children out in nature and get them to identify different types of leaves from trees.
- Reminding them to be respectful of the environment, get children to collect a handful of different leaves (pine needle leaves work best), and a few sticks.
- Back at the classroom, get students to lay the string out on a flat surface.
- Get students to layer the leaves around their stick until they have a good sized brush.
- While still holding the leaves/sticks, gently lay it down onto the string. Let go slowly, and most leaves should stay in place.
- Tie the string together (more than two times works best)! Dip brush in paint.
- Let kids explore with splattering, stroking, dabbing, or whatever else they can think of to create a beautiful masterpiece!
Materials/Resources:
- Paint
-Leaves/Pine needles
- Small sticks
- Paper
- String
- Scissors
- http://learncreatelove.com/?p=7491