Nature Bands Craft Workshop

June 16, 2016

Nature Bands Craft Workshop

Last week The University of Dundee Botanic Garden had a visit from Sidlaw View Primary School (p 2/3, with teacher Fiona Callaghan), where they had a nature trail within the garden and an educational talk through the glass houses by Education officer; Neil Paterson. I had some fun with the class, using sticky tape bracelets, as an incentive to look for and seek out interesting pieces of plant debris within the garden. Due to the recent change in weather, there was a noticeable amount of petals and delicate flowers scattered beneath their plants, which helped add colour to the nature bands. This is the second time I've used the nature bands in a craft workshop, and have noticed that some children seek out colour, and others, (in fact many), go for textures. Some children use the sticky bands by rolling them across the ground, picking up smaller debris and grass, adding detailed textures. They are always keen to share their findings, and feathers are always a sought after embellishment for their bands!

I also planned a communal drawing for the class, where they could draw what the experienced/ saw in the garden that day. I really do enjoy these shared art works, and would like to apply similar techniques to adults. Of course, I've found that children do not hesitate when it comes to drawing and painting, and will easily take up the offer to get creative, where as, some adults hesitate and aren't confident in their addition to a communal art piece. This I'd like to explore.

The class were very polite, I enjoyed chatting to them, and had a lot of fun working with them!