Kitah Gimmel’s Nature Creatures

The children’s interest in Nature and Sculpture led us to this week’s provocation. The children were presented with natural materials in various shapes, sizes, and textures to use to create a Nature Creature. They were also given googly eyes, tacky glue, paint brushes, and a square tile to use as a work surface.

The children first chose from the larger materials: driftwood, pine cones, tree bark, seed pods, and large leaves to use as the body of their creature. Next, they gathered smaller materials from the various jars and baskets to use as arms, legs, hair, facial features etc.

The children were then asked to lay out their collection on the tile and plan their creature before gluing it together. Some children wanted to create monsters from their own imaginations, but several children constructed birds, and even a few crocodiles.

This project allowed the children many opportunities to problem solve. While assembling materials together to create body parts, we occasionally had to come up with different ways to attach them together. In a couple of instances Morah Jessica offered twine, when glue wasn't holding well enough.