Kids love to craft with materials they have gathered themselves. The beauty of nature gives them the opportunity to explore, engage their senses, and use their fine motor skills to collect and create art.
Nature items and water colors are inspirational to children for creating art. You can help your child do the following:
1- Gather and collect nature items such as flowers, different shaped leaves, small rocks, and unique looking plants.
2- Work with a small canvas or a sheet of paper.
3- Use scissors to cut up some of the plants.
4- Glue the nature items on the paper/canvas to make collages.
5- Use watercolors to paint around their nature items.
Listening to their explanation and their creative process is fascinating!
Another idea for making art with natural materials is to inspire children to sew. Your child can make a “leaf heart” for a sweet gift. She/he can do the following:
1- Collect green leaves - the bigger the better.
2- Cut two leaves into hearts of the same size. (It would look great if you can keep the stem of the leaves in the middle.)
3- Place two of the leaf-shaped hearts on top of one another and hole punch them near the edges, with the holes being a couple inches apart from each other.
4- Sew two of the leaves together with yarn (be careful not to get too close to the leaf edges because it will rip.)
5- Prepare a message for someone they love and gently place it in between the leaves before you finish sewing.
*Thank you Mother Natured!