Week 2: Thinking Tree Art & Nature Program

Week 2  - Thinking Tree Art & Nature Program

Weather: mix of sun and drizzly rain
Soup made by the kids: Creamy Carrot & Garden Herbs (thyme, basil, oregano, fennel)

Handmade projects today:

• wool felt bunny pin (practice embroidering/stitching)
• botanical sun prints on paper using collected leaves and flowers
• branch weaving

Art lessons today: 

• charcoal (light and shadow) using found natural objects (e.g. pinecones, sumac, milkweed seeds, leaves, branches, seed pods, snail shell)
• working with sketching different perspectives (a bunny as the subject)

Other highlights:

• walk to community garden
• brewing Fall Flowers herbal tea over the fire
• strawbale circle time
• making strawbale slides, chairs, games and other straw pile fun
• nectarine crumble as snack
• weaving a yarn web together as example of the strong web we are creating in this program

 

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: