Week 1: Thinking Tree Art & Nature Program

We have a wonderful new program here at Little City Farm this fall.  For the next 12 weeks, we have expanded our kids nature-based art classes into a one day long program each week.  The Thinking Tree Art & Nature Program is an exciting day each week, where about a dozen children aged 6-12 spend time outdoors to focus on hands-on learning that brings various aspects of nature-inspired art-making together.  The children are engaged in outdoor cookery using local seasonal veggies and on occasion we will also use our wood-fired outdoor oven for some baking.  We work on herbal botanical activities focusing on getting to know one main herb each week.  We have fibre arts activities, and life drawing sessions based on the collections and findings from our walks.  We enjoy herbal tea from the garden and a warm soup together at lunch each week, made from scratch and prepared by the many hands in our group.

This week we made a fabulous potato-leek with loads of herbs from the garden; made simple plant presses and collected flowers to be preserved for a future art project; worked at sketching our favourite animal and dream home/neighbourhood; collected a series of small found objects from our walk to a nearby community garden; had circle time to get to know each other and brainstorm how we want to best work together to make this a great experience for everyone.  We look forward to seeing this program unfold as we move through the autumn season together.

Here are a few snapshots of the first day:

Waldorf-inspired art classes with kids

We've had some busy, fun weeks with our Waldorf-inspired art classes!  The kids have been trying their hands at felting wool, pottery and peg dolls - the more tactile and messy, the better! Here are a few photos of what has been taking place in the weekly sessions, and the many busy hands that have been at work: 

Waldorf-inspired art with kids: working with clay!

I think this class was the highlight in our kids art series so far!  Who does not love getting their hands into cool damp clay?   We printed leaf patterns from leaves we had collected outdoors, and shaped the clay into pinch pots, beads and other shapes - the kids let their imaginations run wild.  We used air dry clay, which is a little bit more fragile when dried, but it is so easy to work with that it makes a quick satisfying project for little hands.  They could choose to paint it later at home.

The older group of our kids also worked with wooden stamps to print beautiful patterns for necklace pendants or ornaments.  They could have easily spent several hours working on their projects!  Seeing the enthusiasm from all the kids, we will include clay work in our next round of art classes for sure.

New classes start January 15, 2017 - and registration is available here.

Waldorf-inspired art classes for kids: wool felting

Last week the kids in our Waldorf art classes tried their hands at another wool project - wool felting.  Working with soft wool roving in vibrant colours is always a favourite kids activity.  The tactile nature of wool felting is soothing and relaxing, and the art that comes from it is always beautiful even for a beginner. 

In the class we talked about where we find felted wool in our lives - maybe as coasters, under table or chair legs, made into warm waterproof slippers or winter boot liners, wool diaper covers for babies, and even (in some cultures) traditionally made into houses such as the amazing wool yurts in Mongolia in which whole families can live!

There are many ways to felt wool - any which of us hasn't done some accidental wool felting at least once when we shrink a favourite 100% wool sweater in the wash?  The basic idea with wet felting is to use hot water, soap, and friction, to bring the wool barbs together tightly into a wool mat.  The more friction or agitation, the tighter the wool felt will become.  There is also needle felting in which a sharp felting needle is used to poke at the wool barbs to bring them together.  We used several techniques with the kids - the younger group wet felting using a simple ziploc bag method (see below), and the older group used bubble wrap and mat rolling method (see below).  We used white wool roving as our base "canvas" and layered colours on top.  There were such lovely art pieces that came out of this, and most of the kids could have keep going long after class was over. 

How to wet felt with wool:

Ziploc Bag Technique (great for younger kids)
a) Lay out base wool roving (white) on a table.  Mist with hot soapy water.  Press firmly down with both hands on wet wool to flatten.
b) Layer any coloured wool into a pattern as desired on top of the white wool roving.  Mist again.
c) Place wet wool into ziploc bag, then flatten it out as best you can before sealing the bag.
d) Agitate the bag, pressing, pounding and rolling it, to felt the wool.
e) Take out wool, let dry on flat surface.  It will tighten up and shrink a little as it dries overnight.

Bubble Wrap & Mat Technique (great for older kids)
a) Lay out bamboo sushi mat, and cover with one piece of bubble wrap that is a similar size to the mat.
b) Now lay out while wool roving on the bubble wrap, and mist with hot soapy water.
c) Lay out colours of roving into a picture or pattern as desired.  Mist again. 
d) Carefully roll up the sushi mat around the bubble wrap and wool. 
e) Agitate the wool by rolling and pressing the mat as firmly as possible.  The longer this is done, then more felted the piece will become.
f) Unroll then let wool art piece dry on a flat surface.  It will tighten up and shrink a little as it dries overnight.

Petals & Roots - Kids Herbal Club finale

We had four great weeks with a group of kids here, exploring the world of herbs, herbal remedy making, and harvesting wild foods as part of our first Petals & Roots Kids Herbal Club.  During this series the kids learned about safely identifying herbs (by using our senses, stalk shape, leaf pattern, flower, etc), how to carefully and respectfully harvest herbs, and how to store and dry them, how to incorporate wild herbs into our meals, and how to make a few basic remedies. 

We packed the days with hands-on activities, including harvesting the particular plants we were talking about.  We made green smoothies with dandelion, cold frescas with mint, steeped sun tea with lemon balm, sketched plants in our journals, transplanted herbs into pots to take home, had a herbal scavenger hunt, built simple plant presses that fit in a backpack, and made an all purpose healing salve with plantain.  Hopefully this series sparked a continuing interest in the wonderful green world for these kids, an understanding that these wise and useful plants are all around us and we simply need to pay attention, learn and practice.  It was amazing how simply sitting with the plants (while sketching, or harvesting) was a special part of each week.  We don't slow down and do that often enough.

Here are a few photos of the creations from our last day together - edible flower cupcakes, topped with an assortment of edible herbs and flowers from the Little City Farm garden (we did a little tour around the garden and found 20 types flowers that were ready for eating today, including: dandelion, sage, lavender, chive, calendula, marigold, thyme, kale, fennel, clover, violets, heartsease, and rose petals!).  What a lot of beautiful creations (and adventurous eaters!), and a nice reminder of the vibrancy, joy and colour that herbs can bring to our life through our food (food as medicine). 

We hope to offer this Petals & Roots Kids herbal series again in the fall, focusing on herbal roots, seed saving, and other fall-related herbal projects.