Do you have weeds in your garden? Do clover flowers pick their stubborn heads in your lawn? Let your kids use them in their play and crafts! That’s right: summer is a great time to use nature in creative ways. Here are some ideas.
- Make a plant soup or salad. Bring out toy pots, and pans, add water, leaves, and flowers, and let them cook.
- Make a vase for flower arrangement. It’s easy to use a yogurt container, small plastic bottle, or even toilet paper tube to make a vase for flower arrangement. Your child will have fun decorating the vase with markers, scraps of colorful paper, and stickers.
- Create a masterpiece. Kids can use flowers, leaves, and even grass blades to create their own landscape. All these natural materials can be easily attached with scotch tape. Provide your children with additional tools too (like markers, crayons, etc.) to let their creativity soar.
- Create a portrait. Remember Arcimboldo’s portraits? Your child can make a portrait inspired by Arcimboldo’s art with natural materials from your backyard. Show him one of the paintings and offer him to arrange flowers, leaves, and other materials into the portrait.
- Create art with sand and small shells. While visiting the beach, don’t forget to gather a few small shells, pebbles, and even some sand. It’s fun to use them in a craft. Elmers glue should work well for attaching both sand and small shells. Alternatively, sand could be replaced with whole wheat flour.
Check out Outschool for art and music classes as well as summer camps. All classes include stories and crafts.
Kids Inspired by Classical Music and FineArt 