Touch Scavenger Hunt - Part 1

It turned out to be a fantastic day to be outside.  The sun was warm
and welcoming.
            
We went to Filberg Park for a scavenger hunt.  A touch scavenger hunt.  Encouraging the children to use descriptive words when touching items found in nature.
          
I also wanted to encourage the use of the word “wonder”.   Hopefully leading the children to voice many other wonders. 
             
In each nature bag was their clip board with the “I wonder” question on it with three photos of things to find around the park.  As well as crayons for recording.
                    
Once they found an item they were encouraged to touch it and think of a word to describe it.
 
They then recorded what they felt by drawing a picture or the grown up wrote the words.

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My favourite observation was this little boy.  His picture was of a wooden face.  He found the sculpture and took his time looking at the photo and the sculpture. 
  
We asked him to find the nose, eyes and mouth on the wooden face and on his own face.  Even though he does not yet have much language this was a full and meaningful experience for him.

Some families mentioned that they come to visit this park quite often but had never noticed some of the things I had taken photos of.  By cropping the pictures to show only a portion of an item helped the families look more closely at the environment around them.

Our Flower Paintings Garden

        
Last week we painted flowers using everyday utensils.  I showed our daffodil paintings last week so to follow are; orchids, roses and tulips.
    
First we painted purple flowers, with the orchid as the main flower, using
drinking straws.
 
One end of the large straw was slit and folded back so when it was dipped in paint then stamped on paper it left a 4, 5, or 6 point mark depending how many slits I cut.
         
To add stems and leaves we used an eye dropper to drip green paint on to their pictures,
              
then used a smaller straw to blow the paint around.


Next we explored roses and used scouring pads to paint them with pink paint.
 
And egg cartons cut into single cups dipped into white paint.
 
We used the eye droppers to draw the stems.
         
I found the little brown bottles and eye droppers at a recycling store in Vancouver.  They are the perfect size for the little one’s hands.
 

Lastly we painted tulips.  I found this idea at Blog Me Mom.
  
Forks are dipped into paint then pressed on to paper to make the flower.
 
I made stem shapes from foam meat trays and glued a clothespin to the back for easy dipping in the paint.
 

I guess we could of called all these paintings ‘kitchen’ art since all the implements
could be found in that room of the house.
       
            How does your art garden grow?

Sharing our Fairy Lane Story

      
I spent the better part of this weekend at a retreat called Sacred Earth at beautiful Camp Fircom on Gambier Island just a 15 minute water taxi away from Vancouver.
         
My daughter is part creator of Community Catalysts and they believe we all have knowledge worth sharing and we don’t have to be a professional speaker to share that knowledge.
   
When my daughter asked me to share my story of Fairy Lane I was very hesitant.  I have a difficult time speaking in front of adults unless they have a child in front of them.  But through her coaching and encouragement I agreed to present. 
 
I’m really glad I did.  The process allowed me to really reflect on each step of the creation of Fairy Lane.  How did it start?  How did the families react? Participate?  Share what was happening?  What motivated each chapter in our Fairy Lane story?  And how did Fairy Lane connect families with nature and together as a community?
   
I shared the story through pictures and words and felt comfortable doing it.  I knew this story so well that I didn’t stumble or search for words as I normally would when speaking to a group.
 
After telling the story we headed outside to find items to decorate our doors.  I brought the Nature Bags for the participants to use to collect their nature items but to also help them remember what children like to feel.
       
As we walked we enjoyed the wonderful setting, the sights and sounds.  We also shared our stories of fairies or other wee folk.  One family (two sisters and their mom) shared a childhood memory of gnomes.  The oldest daughter had created gnome homes on their property and that they spent countless hours outside creating and the younger siblings would write letters to the gnome and it would write back. 
 
Back inside each participant went to work designing their door.  I floated around the room to get to know each better and learn what brought them to this retreat.  Also asking what they wanted to do with their door.
 
Some are planning on taking their door home and finding a special place for it somewhere in the city.  Some want to create more doors with the people they work with and place them around for others to find.
 
Others decided that they wanted to leave their door there at Camp Fircom.
 
No matter their plans this retreat brought us together as a community that was willing to open up and share what we know.  To learn from each other and have a feeling of belonging.
 
By being a presenter I was also a participant and learned more about myself from attending this retreat.
      
        
I have to thank my daughter for being such a wonderful supporter of what I do and of who I am.  We can always learn from our children if we open our hearts and minds to it.  And most important believe in ourselves.

          Yes I can be a presenter!  Yes I'm a catalyst!