Nature Art Sculpture

Nature is combined with real human features, developing empathy, knowledge and aesthetics for living things through art.

Part One

The children will learn:

Prepare:

A container to put the collection of natural materials.
A structure such as a sturdy box, a tube or any other idea you have to build the sculpture from.
Large paper
Pens for drawing

Age: This activity is perfect for any age, and multi-age groups.

This is a fabulous way to help children think creatively and become more involved in the artistic process.

Tell the children that today we will be going on a nature walk.
Tell the children that we will be using the things we collect to make a sculpture!
Ask the children to predict what kinds of things they think they might find on the nature walk.
Make a plan with the children for what kinds of things to collect and think of how many of each leaf, twig, stone, seed etc to collect.
Draw a picture together of how the sculpture might look like.
Go on the nature walk and collect things from nature

Looking Back:

For question 1, have a plan for what kinds of things you will be collecting and why. You can draw up a plan, have pictures of things to collect, or any other ideas you come up with the children.
Having a plan helps the children collect things from nature sparingly, and not to disturb the beautiful, peaceful natural surroundings.
Careful not to pick fresh flowers, leaves and twigs off the trees, caring for the habitats of living things.
Conduct when going on nature walks can be incorporated into Montessori‘s grace and courtesy program.
Take close up photos of interesting aspects of nature that can be used as inspiration for the art project later.
Go to a place where the children are familiar with, that way they will be focused on the task of collecting and feel comfortable with the familiarity.
Tell the children that if they need more materials ‘we can return another time’. That way they can relax and enjoy exploring.
For question 5, if you will be using a box, show the box to the children, and use it to plan the project. See the picture below of how the sculpture might look.

Concept by Maria Grujicic (Malena, The Petaled Poet)

Looking Forward:

The idea to keep in mind as you work on this project with the children is to guide them towards combining the artistic expressions in the One Little Caterpillar book. I will explain what I mean by this as we work through the project. For a glimpse of what I mean, look at the featured image of this post and look at the page with the cloud in the One Little Caterpillar book.
You can use the work of other artists for inspiration as well, and develop this into a broader unit of art study on the children’s favorite artists. How far you will extend the work, will depend on your group.
Keep a sample of what the children collected on the nature walk.
The children can practice drawing the things they collected from nature.
The children can use their drawings and collections to study nature.
The children can label, sort and categorize their collection how they’d like. E.g. Leaves, twigs, small stones, flowers, and seeds, or based on color and texture.
The children can make their own nature collage using their collection, or their own miniature sculpture.
Go on another nature walk to supplement what the children already have.
Have art work of various artists that you are studying displayed.