Art In The Wild
The Field Trip Newsletter #14
As a child, I went to a summer camp in North Carolina. Some of my very best memories were from there. It was a very rustic camp, with no air conditioning, and no glass on the windows, only screens. Some days it was cooler from where it sat in the Blue Ridge Mountains and other days we couldn’t jump in the lake fast enough because it was so hot. It was those latter days when we would find a place in the shade or near one of the brooks to do crafts, quietly daydreaming amongst our camp friends.
Before it gets too hot, let’s get outside and quietly create with our children.
Art In The Wild :
10 Activities To Get You Outside and In the Wild
Found Nature Art: At the beginning of the lockdown, when we were home all the time, we were searching for things to do with Tom. Taking a page from Justine Blakeney, we made nature faces. It’s so fun and somewhat therapeutic. You simply just gather bits of nature and create faces. You could glue the items down if you want to save them, or you can do like we did and that was to just take photos of the faces. Below are a couple of the ones that we made.
Here are a few more ideas to carry you through spring into summer. Please remember, there’s no right or wrong way to any of these activities.
Leaf Study - Find a leaf and have your children draw a large version of it. Have them notice the lines of the leaf and the way that it lays on the paper. For older children, you could have them also draw the shadows that the leaf makes.
Nature Prompts - Taking a drawing of your child’s or have them draw a new one, incorporate found bits of nature into the art. For example, rather than drawing trees for in the art piece, use a small limb of a bush. Or flower petals as a sunset or clouds.
Leaf Printing - Look for a branch or leaf that is sturdy enough for this project. Something like a magnolia leaf would work great! Paint the back of the leaf and press it onto paper, creating a print of the leaf.
Snake Sticks - Have your child find any stick that they think looks like a snake: the less bark, the better. Paint will work better on smooth branches. Create a snake face on one end and either create a new type of snake or make it realistic to snakes that you know exist.
Clay Fossils - Pressing found nature into the clay will give you the feeling that you are creating fossils.
Shadow Tracing - Find a good spot in dappled light and let the shadows fall onto the paper. Have your child trace the trees on the paper.
Nature Paintbrushes - Gather about five different sticks and then look for different items to tie to the end of the stick that will serve as the brush. Maybe flower, leaves, or tall grass. Make a guide on paper to see the strokes all lined up together.
Nature ABCÂ - Create the ABCs from found nature. Move letter by letter to create the whole alphabet.
Leaf Threading - Put your most beautiful leaves on display which is great for strengthening fine motor skills. With a stick and a string attached, thread leaves onto the line. Once you have a good length to your garland, you can hang it on the porch ceiling or in front of a window inside. Seeing how the light catches it only adds to the beauty.
I’d love to see what you and your child create together. Share pictures of your projects in the comments. Besides a little paper, these are mostly free activities, which is a plus in my book. - Erin
