Early Childhood Studio Lesson
Collaborating with
Forms
in Nature
Taking your students outside is a great opportunity to make art. Recently, I had the opportunity to take a class
from a Vancouver, British Columbia,
elementary school to English Beach.
I wanted to have students collaborate
with forms in nature to create their
own visual structures to communicate
ideas. I call it “collaborating” because
students are often inspired as they
work with forms in nature.
In preparation for our field trip we
looked at artworks by Robert Smithson
and Andy Goldsworthy. We discussed
how these artists collaborated with
nature to create visual structures that
communicate ideas about their relationships to the environment. Specifically, we identified and described spiral
or concentric forms in their artworks.
Students were excited and able to
describe the continuously expanding
circular line that was made from natural artifacts. They were able to describe
the opposing concentric lines and
shapes Goldsworthy used. These young
Aileen Pugliese Castro
Lucy, kindergarten.
Carmeli,
kindergarten.
