Go Green with Nature Swaps

12/20/2016

‘Adjustment’ means that maybe you can use your thinking power to make things better. You can make something out of your brain.
Tsuki, age 5

In their September/October 2010 Exchange article "Nature swap: Art Tools Go Green," Sandra Duncan, Jessica DeViney, and Sara Harris shared practical tips on how to swap plastic art tools and traditional materials for natural/nature made items.

"When children are given the opportunities to interface, design, and create with tools from nature, their artistic results go beyond preconceived expectations and into amazement," noted the authors.

Here are a few examples taken from that article:

Painting: Cattails, bamboo sticks, blowing through reeds, natural sponges, dandelion heads, bound group of grass or plant clippings
Weaving: Wooden gates and fences, wagon wheel, place mats made of natural materials, driftwood with holes
Rolling: Sticks, lemons, limes, oranges, buckeyes, gourds, cucumbers
Stenciling: Tiles, sea shells, cross-sections of bamboo
Stamping: Tree cookies, flower heads, star fruit

Beyond the artistic results, the authors suggest, "In today's world, many children are being raised as consumers as opposed to creative thinkers. Yet, there is considerable need for creative minds to solve today’s social and financial challenges in our schools, neighborhoods and communities. Our society needs creative thinkers who can come up with ways to solve problems by using different materials or perspectives and putting them together in unique but useful solutions. Using an artistic tool from nature helps develop problem-solving skills because children are not tethered to its primary role."

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