Hi Families!

With autumn in full swing and the guarantee of pleasant weather lessening, our next challenge is coming up with new and enticing activities. A few weeks ago, I knew I wanted to do some variety of self portraits but I was not entirely sure about involving myself with paint on this day (white shirt.. disaster waiting to happen).

There's a lot of buzz around using natural materials in classrooms and a variety of out of school care programs, so I thought to try self portraits, but using natural materials. There were mixed reactions, some were disappointed that it wasn't slime - a popular activity as of late - and some intrigued. We ventured out to the park and followed the fence along the putting course, collecting acorns, pine needles, pebbles, fallen leaves and sticks. What I liked about this activity was that it was a way to get the kids outside, as some of them are dedicated art-doers so they might not visit the park as often. I think the kids could appreciate there were little to no guidelines so they could build themselves on paper however they chose, with whatever materials they found from outside. We briefly talked about what kinds of materials would be ideal: pine needles for hair, acorns for noses or heads, sticks for arms and legs...get their creative juices flowing.

Check out some examples below! I was impressed to see how much effort they put in :)