This blog post is a guest post by Justina Danišová, who is an experienced environmental educator and home partner in the Czech Republic. She has her own website and is influential across her country in supporting educators to develop learning and play opportunities. Lessons in Grass is one CZ organisation that now publishes a range of outdoor resources in English that are available to purchase from their website. This one is free and worth a look.
I happened to be meeting Justina during a visit to the Czech Republic several years ago. She had a bag full of resources and kindly shared them with me. It was one of the times where both of us buzzed with excitement as we shared ideas and possibilities!
The purpose of the leaves with the shapes drawn around them in a black outline, is to help children look for a range of different tree species outside. They can use the examples created by Justina as a provocation to classify the leaf type according to their approximate shape. Children can hunt for leaves and enjoy looking in detail at the shape. Naturally this gives rise to plenty of discussions.
Justina, is an avid enthusiast of using cardboard and masking tape outside. The shape frames below are small affairs so that the children can find leaves with a large enough area to cover the 2D shape. Initially she had hoped that the children were able to cut out their own shapes but this proved a little challenging for her younger children. Once the children had found a leaf of their choosing and created the shape frame, then they can be stuck on windows or hung as a mobile, inside or out.
Naturally the concept can be upscaled in size. The first photo on this blog is a lovely demonstration of this and shows how the idea can be morphed into an art activity.
Thanks Justina!
This blog post is an update of one originally published in December 2017.
