Think Like an Insect

Insects are so cool! Their bright colors, patterns, and bold eyes make them fascinating to examine. Why not encourage your kids to look more closely at these critters? Have them get down on the ground and try to imagine life as an insect. They can write stories or draw pictures from this perspective.

 

 

Have the kids use magnifying glasses to examine the insects they find carefully. Create enlarged, abstract pictures of a single section of an insect (for example, its eyes or a portion of its pattern) . They can paint, draw, or color these. They can use wax crayons to separate the parts and then paint it in with watercolors. If you have ever done this, you know that the watercolor paint won't stick to the crayon and a neat effect is created. The possibilities are endless!

 



Making Masks with Leaves!

I thoroughly enjoy collecting leaves that have fallen from the trees any time of the year. There are so many different shapes, colors, and patterns to be found. On the 4th of July this year, I walked out in the backyard to find an adorable little Screech Owl perched in the tree as it rained all around us. He let me walk right up to him as he stared back at me with his large, bright eyes. It was after this wonderful encounter that I came up with my most recent idea- making an owl mask from found leaves! First, I collected my supplies: leaves picked up on walks, string, a cardboard container from last night's dinner, glue, and scissors.

I cut a cat-like shape out of the cardboard to act as my base and then I cut holes for eyes and attached string so that the finished mask could be worn. After doing this, I began strategically gluing on my various leaves in a pattern that I felt mimicked the feathers of an owl.

This is a great project for kids slightly older than mine. Bug would not let me put the mask on her to model it, let alone participate in the project (she is only one after all). I was quite pleased with the final product. One could also use a watered down non-toxic glue mixture to varnish the leaves, similar to decoupage.  What a great seasonal project for Autumn, or art project to integrate into a unit on animals.

 

Finger Painting with the Garden

Okay, so my daughter (aka Bug) LOVES to play with her food. She will grab it off the spoon and smear it everywhere as she laughs and laughs. The problem is I want her to eat her food and not play with it. I was trying to come up with a way she could finger paint without using paint, since she still puts everything in her mouth and most paints (even clay based, natural ones) aren't too good for one to eat. I have a teeny-weeny garden (that I am working on expanding- that is a later post) and sometimes I have an excess of things, or they go bad before I pick them. Today, I decided my basil needed a haircut. If Bug were a little older, I would have her help me trim the basil and clean out vegetables, etc.

Once I gathered the basil, I pureed it in a small food processor with a little water. Once pureed, I poured the green goodness into a bowl and added flour slowly until it was thickened. I did the exact same thing with some beets that had gone bad. The beets created a pretty bright fuchsia color! 

While the overgrown portion of the basil and the slightly rotted beets were not ideal for cooking anymore, they were perfectly safe alternatives to real paint for Bug's first explorations in finger painting. Had she eaten any of the paint, she would have been perfectly fine. She had an absolute blast and it was not hard at all to clean up! You could also dry the artwork in the sun and laminate it if you wanted to save it for the fridge or wall. What a great extension activity for a home, community, or school garden!

 

 

Looking for Patterns in Nature

Patterns are EVERYWHERE in nature and there is a lot of beauty to be found in these patterns. What better way to teach kids about shapes and patterns than to take a walk outdoors and try to find them? You can focus on any combination of shapes and/or patterns you choose. I uploaded a few more examples from my own wanderings below. If your kids are old enough to use a camera, have them photograph what they find. You can also have them draw, paint, and journal their discoveries as well. One cool example from a blog called The Imagination Tree (theimaginationtree.com) is to have kids create their own land art inspired by Andy Goldsworthy. Check it out here: Great Andy Goldsworthy Activity from The Imagination Tree.