Introduction

There has been a dramatic shift in childhood activity from outdoor play to indoor activity in the space of one generation. Research has found that one in ten children today play outside once a week or less. There is an emerging body of local and international research linking childhood contact with nature with a range of health and wellbeing benefits, including:

Positive mental health outcomes
Physical health benefits
Enhanced intellectual development
A stronger sense of concern and care for our environment in later life.

This activity is all about getting students outside to connect with nature in a fun and engaging way. They will be inspired to create a piece of eco-art..

Activity outline

Take your students outside and walk around the schoolyard or a local park seeing how many different colours, shapes and textures you can find in nature. Encourage children to stop and observe, touch and feel objects along the way (although discourage the touching of insects or turning over large stones or pieces of wood). They should feel the texture of bark and leaves. Look at the colour and patterns of flowers. Compare the shapes of different leaves. Look at shadows, clouds, flowers, seedpods, tree branches and pebbles on the ground.

As students explore natural objects, they should select one item to bring back to class be to used as inspiration for their eco-artwork. Note: Ensure students do not pull things off living trees or bring back animals to class.

Back in the classroom

Warm up activity:

Get your students to fil in the Student Worksheet. They need to use words to describe what kinds of shapes, patterns and textures they found. Discuss with your students what colours they saw. Did they see different coloured greens on plants, different coloured petals, seeds and berries? How did things feel? Did they feel soft, smooth, rough, lumpy, prickly hard, warm, cold, etc.?

Eco-Art:

Provide students with a range of art supplies. Students are to create a drawing or painting that has been inspired by the object they collected from the nature walk.

Conclusion

Get your students to present their artwork to the class and explain what their artwork means to them.

Eco-Art

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