To continue my commitments with disrupting consumerism and working with sustainable materials, Ive decided to start an exploration with leaves. When Fall comes and the leaves change colours, I am reminded of growing up in the caribou region of BC. I feel connected to myself when leaves begin to hit the ground. A leaf is just a small part of a larger living entity yet I believe I stand to learn a lot from working with them, along with the fact that they can be used (responsibly) as a sustainable material.
Leaf Walk
Today, I invited the children to come on a walk with me to collect leaves for our exploration. Some children were happy to pickup the leaves that had already fallen on the ground, while others wanted to pluck the leaves that were still attached to a branch. The majority of a group were picking up leaves of all shades whereas there was one child who would only pickup red leaves. We also found a couple chestnuts that intrigued us. I am excited for us to interact more with the leaves we’ve collected.
Drawing with Leaves
To continue our thoughts on leaves, I gave an open invitation to our room that they could come and draw with me outside if they felt called to it. I brought out only pencils or grey pencil crayons, paper, and the leaves we collected on the previous day. I spread out the leaves on the paper and waited until a child came over. I noticed one child making big, long lines and mentioned it to him. He told me “I know big leaves”. After, a different child told me she decided to draw herself within a leaf. With another child I closely inspected a leaf and we talked about the lines we could see. Although I only had a couple of children participate, the paper I offered filled up quickly and completely. I plan on inviting the children to draw with me again soon.
