Children's Art Day

Today our theme is ‘Children’s Art’. I will be particularly focusing on ‘Art in Nature’. It will enable us to have less screen time and gain more appreciation of nature and the outside world! Hello! My name is Sarah and I am a children’s author and teacher. I love sharing stories and poetry so look out for some I have especially written for today. I have some great activities using nature and art as my theme so lots of fun ahead! I will also have Derek the Alien who will be helping out too! I can’t wait to show you what we have planned! Grownups: You will be able to look closely at plants and insects outside so share the names of the flowers with your child and show them where to find tiny insects, looking at their habitat. In addition, with safety in mind, it is well worth telling your child what not to touch too, such as stinging nettles.

Where are the Mini Beasts?

Mini Beasts are wonderful tiny creatures that can be found in all sorts of little places in the garden. Sometimes they are even found wandering into our homes too! Today we are looking at some pictures of a few of those familiar mini beasts and I will read a poem which I have especially written for you.

Grown Ups: Take your child into a garden or a local park and lift up a small rock, turn over a log or look between the branches of a tree. What would your child see? Perhaps you might have a few pictures of the insects you could find so tick them off once you have spotted them!

Painting Stones

Find some small rocks or stones and carefully wash off any dirt. Take a look at the different shapes and sizes or colours. Do any of them look like something familiar? Perhaps one might look like a butterfly? Have some pictures handy to look at when deciding how you will turn your stone into a beautifully painted mini beast.

Grown Ups: Take your child into a garden or a local park and lift up a small rock, turn over a log or look between the branches of a tree. What would your child see? Perhaps you might have a few pictures of the insects you could find so tick them off once you have spotted them!

Aborigine Style Painting

Have you ever wondered how the Aborigine people of Australia painted those beautiful pieces of art? They used natural things from the environment around them. Sand, soil and rocks were used to create the colours in the paint. Sticks were used to ‘dot’ the colour onto the painting and this reflected their life and nature around them. Have a go at making your own Aborigine painting using either your finger to paint or a cotton bud!

Grown Ups: Show your child some pictures of Aborigine paintings and see if they recognise the animals in the pictures. Talk about where Australia is and show your child pictures or video of the Aborigine people.

Nature Pictures

Time to go outside and pick a range of different types of leaves and flowers. Choose large and small leaves, choose petals and blades of grass in addition to pieces of bark for your picture. Using all these different natural things you are going to make an amazing picture totally unique to you!

Grown Ups: You may need to use scissors to snip a range of items in your garden. Explain to your child the importance of being gentle with the flowers and plants and taking a little of everything rather than a whole plant. You can discuss what picture they wish to create. Do they want to create a beach with a yellow flower as the sun? Or a boat with the sails made of leaves? Have fun creating but don’t just let your child do one. Have a go yourself!

Extension

Using a range of natural things, plus card, felt and any other materials that need to be recycled, pictures could be created side by side. One a country scene and the other a town scene. Grownups: An older sibling could create the one picture and you could help the younger one create the other.

Mollys' Minibeast Hotel After having a day of creating wonderful things, what better time to snuggle up under a warm blanket to listen to a story. I have created this one just for you! Grownups: You might suggest to your child that together you could do the same as Molly and her mum and make a mini beast hotel.