Portraits made with natural loose parts

How:

1. Take a bag or container and go on a nature walk with your child.

2. Collect items like rocks, sticks, leaves, and pine cones.

3. Use what you collected to create a self-portrait, an animal portrait, a family portrait, or portrait of any kind.

Materials:

1. Natural loose parts from the nature walk.

2. Loose parts like bottle caps, yarn/ribbons, beads, fabrics, and straws from around your home.

3. A mirror that your child may use to see their faces if they decide to do a self-portrait. They can also place the loose parts on the mirror while creating their portrait.

Outcome:

Setting up opportunities for children to play with interesting materials like loose parts provides children a chance to explore, invent, and imagine in all kinds of ways. This creative play experience focuses on the process of creating something instead of the end product. While product-based art focuses on how the result should look, process-based creation values the child's experience as they create a unique piece of art, explore the materials, and try different techniques.