This week’s theme:

HYDE PARK SOURCE TAKEOVER – Nature Nearest You.

Fact of the day:

Green, (the mixture of blue and yellow), can be seen everywhere in nature and in many different shades. The human eye sees the colour green better than any other colour.

Resources list:

Scissors, vase or big jug to fill with water (you can also use a big pop bottle with the top cut off), garden gloves for picking any more prickly plants. Paper, pen or pencil, colouring pencils.

Our Daily Activities this week have been created by our friends at Hyde Park Source. 

Activity1:

Read, or ask somebody to read you This Fact Sheet about how natural colour and texture appears in art.

Activity 2:

Make a Sensory Bouquet! Watch the video with Claire below to make one along with her.

Go outside into your garden or local park or wild area and gather as many different types of flowers, grasses, seed heads and interesting leaves that you can find! Pick ones with quite long stems so they can go in your vase or jug nicely.

Remember to think about some of different shapes, textures, colours and smells we have talked about this week. Pick herbs like mint or rosemary for strong smell, long or dry grasses for soft airy texture, bright tall flowers for colour and even some prickly plants like thistle if you are careful and use gloves and scissors. Choose different shaped leaves some long, some rounder or some feathery and choose both green and brown coloured stalks.

Fill your vase with water and then arrange all your flowers and plants inside to look as beautiful as possible!

Activity 3:

Try exploring the ideas, feelings and words that come to mind after experiencing the natural world and all the different activities we’ve tried this week. Think about the fresh smell of herbs or the scent of flowers, the sound and different touch of grasses and plants we have looked at, new tastes – bitter or sweet. Sounds of the garden, the buzzing of insects, sound of birdsong or the bright colours of flowers. Think about new discoveries or things that you have particularly liked or found interesting this week might give you some ideas for writing down some words, feelings or rhymes on paper.

Create a Nature Poem using your senses, and experiment with words and poetry inspired by the nature around you. Using your senses, fill in the blanks here to make your very own nature poem. You can also ask someone else and make a poem for them too! Use your colouring pencils to draw the things you, see, hear, touch, taste, smell and feel.

Try writing a Nature Acrostic Poem using the different letters from the word ‘nature’. Use your colouring pencils to draw the things you, see, hear, touch, taste, smell and feel.

Activity 4

Watch this short butterfly video that captures a surprise moment of beauty – it may help you feel relaxed and mindful for a moment, or may give you inspiration for your poems.

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 photos and videos have been taken by Claire Doble at Hyde Park Source. Thanks for everything this week, Claire!