Land Art- Outdoor Nature Art for Children

Rock Tower Children’s Art – Outdoor nature art for children

In this post we are going to look at outdoor nature art for children, or land art. When I say land art, I mean children’s art inspired by Land Artists such as Sir Richard Long and Andy Goldsworthy. This could include using a range of natural materials but in this post I will focus on the use of rocks. Children enjoy playing with rocks and they can be put together in a range of different ways to make exciting and beautiful artworks.

Land art is a great way to engage children with the world outside and encourage them to appreciate the beauty and wonder of nature. It also allows them to be creative in an open ended way and also opens up the possibility of exploring shape and space, counting and pattern making. Creating art with rocks also take some skill and planning. Children must use hand eye coordination and fine motor skills as they design, organise and even balance the rocks to make their artworks.

What you need to do Outdoor Nature Art for Children

• Rocks & pebbles
• Sand & sand tray (optional)

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Questions to ask

• What have you made? How many more are there in this pile?
• How many rocks are there?
• Is there a pattern? Show me?
• Which is tallest? Shortest? Biggest? Smallest?

What they get from it

Some of the fun in land art is that it tends to be transient and may also be known as transient art. According to Stimulating Learning with Rachel (TTS, 2017) the benefits of transient art include the ability to have multiple outcomes with endless possibilities. Mindfulness and the lack of expectations allows children to try new things and grow in their confidence. Through patterns, symmetry, lines, size, positional language, sorting, classifying, counting, combining and separating (adding and taking away), shapes and measurements it also lend itself to maths. Children can develop and use mathematical language by discussing and showing their art to others. It is also helps to develop fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, imagination, creativity, decision making and even some scientific concepts.

Take it further

Children can also make land art through the use of other materials such as leaves, sticks, sand, pebbles, dirt, flowers or a combination of natural and found objects.

Please see my posts on making shapes, making number, making letters using natural objects.

References

Stimulating Learning with Rachel (2017). Transient Art by ‘Stimulating Learning with Rachel’. Available at https://www.tts-group.co.uk/blog/2017/08/09/transient-art-stimulating-learning-rachel.html (Accessed 13 August 2019).