WHERE CHILDREN'S ART MEETS THE OUTDOORS
The Children's Museum is one of the best places to go when the weather outside is cold or rainy. Our local Children's Discovery Museum has a fabulous "Nature Art" Room that is the next best thing to being outdoors and so, inclement weather turns into another way to "celebrate the outdoors inside!"
Children creating art from nature in the Nature Art Room at the Children's Museum
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Child-Woods-Children-Nature-Deficit/dp/156512605X
The Nature Art Area pictured above is a large indoor room at our local Children's Museum and the idea can be brought to just about any environment.
The "idea" is to create art from a collection of objects found in Nature...however, the art is not glued or painted or nailed together! Here's the sign at the entrance to this beautiful Nature Art Room:
So, the idea is to arrange & rearrange to your heart's desire and then leave your nature art creation for the next person to enjoy.
As you can see, I took photos of the nature art that my grandchildren created at the museum. And, the museum also provided paper and colored pencils for the child artists to draw their creations so that they could have something to take away with them.
Here are the links for two of the SF Bay Area children's museums:
http://www.baykidsmuseum.org
https://www.cdm.org
I have been to Children's Museums all over the world! Just look up Children's Discovery Museums in your area.
I curated a Nature Art Tray for my Montessori Outdoor Classroom and it was a big hit! The children created Nature Sculptures that were held together with ribbons or pipe cleaners so that we could hang them.
On rainy days, the PreKinder class really enjoyed taking the Nature Art Tray indoors to create art sculptures that were later hung outside to decorate our adopted tree that the children named, "Sister Tree".
A very sweet way to celebrate nature, the outdoors, and art!