Natural Materials

Since October 2013 the children have been exploring natural materials. Represented in our next few blogs will be the documentation and photos of this exploration.

We went on many walks in the forest that surrounds the Centre, and took the children to Rebecca Spit, gathering leaves, sticks, shells, moss, pine cones, small branches and fungi. The children delighted in the movement of the leaves: kicking, gathering, throwing and covering themselves with them.

As the children crushed the leaves we saved them. At this point, we were not sure where this would take them and we were excited to follow their lead.

The children continued to explore with their bodies: dancing in crushed up leaves, twirling, making their bodies large and small, drawing in the leaf "powder" and dropping it on their heads as rain. They described it as powder, and nice and cozy like a pillow.

Play in this way allows the children to discover the properties of the materials to the fullest.
We, the teachers wonder if the transformation of the materials will have an impact upon the children. We ask ourselves these questions; Will it transform their view of Natural Materials? Will they have a different view of Natural Materials?

The Maple leaves transformed easily and the children discovered that they could draw in the fine fragments that fell through the sieves.
Some early compositions using the things we had collected: