Lace up your hiking boots and grab some art supplies, today we will be exploring the sites and sounds of Nature and how they make us feel. Our Nature & Me themed hike took will take our ART of Hiking Urban Junior Naturalists on a sensory walk through the woods of Van Cortlandt Park.  Today’s blogpost will bring the lesson home to you.

Do you have an acorn nose, or a pinecone smile? 

Urban Junior Naturalists will Collect Natural Items and natural items that really stimulate their senses and create a self-portrait. 

As we walk through the trails we will listen to the sounds of nature with our ears and collect leaves from the floor as they rustle above.

We will smell the scents of nature with our nose as we collect fragrant flowers, petals, seeds, pine needles.

We will look for interesting items that spark our curiosity with our eyes and collect natural items we want to find out more about, like acorns and rocks. 

We will gently touch natural items (with permission, of course) as we stroll through the park. We can pick up items that feel soft like a feather to add to our Nature & Me portrait. 

Try it at home! 

Nature is all around us and we are very much part of it. Go for a walk in your neighborhood, backyard or park and collect natural items that you find interesting. 

Create your own Nature & Me self portrait at home: 

Materials:
– Construction paper
– Glue or tape
– Crayons
– Bag to collect items
– Natural items (such as feathers, small rocks/pebbles, leaves, acorns, seeds, pinecones, twigs, shells, bark)

What to do?

After you collect your natural materials, spread them neatly out at your work space. 

Using a crayon draw an outline of a face on your construction paper. You can mark off on your paper the facial features (eyes, nose etc.) so you know where to place your natural items. 

Start gluing or tapping the items you collected to make your face. 

Activity by: Paulina A. Mohamed-Ocasio

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