Flower Painting and Nature Frame

Remember our Flower Ice Eggs from the other day? Well we left our flower soup out overnight for the fairies. This morning we came back to flowers that were leaving quite a bit of pigment behind. I grabbed some plain paper and we used our flowers for some nature inspired artwork. The materials and a simple modeling is all I provided before my daughter (2 years old) took off on her own. Stamping, brushing and dripping created a beautiful design.

This was not an activity with a defined end result. Rather the magic was in the process. She was able to openly explore with the materials and observe the result. Process oriented art provides children with opportunity for self expression and creativity. It gives them full ownership of their creations.

Nature Frame

I have seen several variations of nature frames and thought this was the perfect opportunity to create one. I pulled out a piece of recycled cardboard (does anyone else have a random stash of cardboard pieces laying around??) I cut it to size and we glued the artwork down. Big brother and sister collected sticks as the little one wasn’t feeling it. We arranged the sticks around the cardboard to create a frame. Once it had the look they liked, I used hot glue to glue them down. We set it aside for a little while then moved it to a shelf to display.

When providing arts and crafts activities for children, do you prefer open ended process oriented art or do prefer a focused end result with product oriented art? They both definitely have a place and purpose. Just curious which side you lean toward.