This week’s theme:
HYDE PARK SOURCE TAKEOVER – Nature Nearest You.
Fact of the day:
All the amazing bright and bold colours and shapes you see in the plants around you (in both their leaves and flowers) have a purpose.
Resources list: Scrap piece of plain white or cream cotton type material/cloth (or plain white paper if you have no cloth), Masking tape if you have it, collected colourful flowers, leaves or even berries if you see any. Tips for flowers to collect: yellow buttercups, green dandelion leaves and yellow flowers, pink rose petals, pansies or violas, flowers with lots of dusty yellow pollen inside. Any early blackberries. Softer leaves are better to make green colour with. Any stronger coloured flowers you see and try to get a variety of leaves and flowers. Only if you have them – Coffee granules, ground spices like yellow turmeric or red paprika powder.
Our Daily Activities this week have been created by our friends at Hyde Park Source.
Activity 1:
Read, or ask somebody to read you This Fact Sheet about the purpose of the incredible bright and bold colours and shapes we see in the plants around us.
Activity 2:
Explore Touch and texture in your outside space. Find grasses and plants with different feels, shapes and textures.
Go outside into your nearest bit of wild green space whether that is your garden, backyard or park nearby. See what different plants, flowers or seeds with different types of shapes and textures you can find?
Try looking for long grasses with seeds or fluffy tops, feathery looking leaves, or delicate petals to see how they feel against your fingers? Notice any stronger sharper looking shaped plants as well – like tall thistles or prickly roses but be very careful if you want gently touch them as they can be spikey!
How do you feel when you touch the soft plants, what words would you use to describe it? What did you think of the more spikey plants – were they fun to look at or a bit strange?
Are there any tiny low down hidden plants hiding amongst the longer grass? Did you notice any dry seed heads with unusual shapes or other colourful or interesting looking plants?
Activity 3:
Make your own beautiful colour print rubbing on cloth from the natural colour and dye found in fresh flowers petals, pollen and leaves.
Instructions:
Go outside to collect your different leaves and flowers.
Try collecting ones like green dandelion leaves and dandelion flowers, yellow buttercup flowers, pink rose petals, pansies or anything with a strong colour you see. Make sure there are lots of the flowers to pick before you take many!
Collect softer wetter different types of green leaves to make different shades of green marks on your cloth. Try to find flowers you see with a lot of dusty yellow pollen inside as they are good to make stronger yellow colours.
Get your piece of plain white or cream cloth – a square about 20cm square would perfect.
You can use part of an old t-shirt, tea towel or any old white material you have around the house. Slightly thicker material tends to work better but give it a try whatever you have – even plain paper if you have no cloth.
If you have masking tape, tear or cut off different small pieces to stick down onto the cloth and create the first letter of your first name. Or an easy letter to make is a big letter ‘A’. Make sure you stick the tape down properly and smooth it down properly onto the cloth.
Once you have made your letter out of masking tape, pick up a small handful of some of your collected leaves to make first green and then different colour flower petals to make pink or yellow and use them to rub onto the cloth making coloured marks, smudges and shapes!
You need to rub quite hard to get the colour to appear on the cloth. Rub harder and you get darker colour rub lighter and it will be paler.
Smudge colour all over your square and all over the masking tape you stuck down. Experiment in different areas by making different marks, and maybe leave a few areas plain white too. But be as free as you like – it’s your piece of art!
Extra task – If you want, have a go at also using a few kitchen powdered spices like paprika or turmeric or good old coffee granules mixed with a tiny bit of water in a bowl to make darker stronger colours. But be careful as these are a lot darker than the colour from the natural flowers so use them sparingly!
Finally – when you have finished making colours, peel off the masking tape from the cloth bit by bit to reveal your beautiful capital letter in white hidden underneath your colours!
Stick your colour art up on your wall or hang it up on a hook by attaching or stapling some ribbon across the top.
Why not take a photo of you completing today’s daily activities and share it with us? You can share it on our Facebook, Instagram or Twitter or send it to melanie@purplepatcharts.org and we’ll put it online for you!
All photographs have been taken by Claire at Hyde Park Source!