This week our arts & crafts are inspired by the hills and mountains. Explore the mountains with all your senses to inspire your ideas. Imagine you are there right now (or even better go to some magnificent mountains*! Or hills!) and think about the view as you look up at, at the beginning of your walk. Compare this to the views from the top and look at how far and how much you can see! Think about the sound of the wind as it gets faster the higher up you go. Breathe in that fresh clean air. Feel the texture of the rocks and count how many sheep you can spot on your walk.
*Hills can be mountains in the eyes of younger children!
Explore
Mountains are adventurous places to explore and conquer. It’s a massive achievement for little legs to get to the top of a hill and they will love the praise (and lots of treats to spur them on) along the way! Look out for trees, rocks and wildflowers. Look out for birds too! Counting and spotting different things along a walk is a great way to keep children occupied and motivated. Be sure to take a flask of hot chocolate to enjoy along the way and watch out for the money fairy too!
Create
- Immerse yourself in your surroundings and record your happy memories and discoveries by making some drawings of your favourite things in a sketch pad. Record some of the colours that you observe with pencil crayons.
- Take some photographs to look back on for beach art inspiration back home.
- Collect a pebble or rock to decorate when you get home as a memento of the mountain that you have visited. When it is finished, return it back to the place that you found it, or take it on to your next mountain to replace your new found pebble or rock. Make sure that you take some photos and don’t forget to share with us! This activity encourages an ongoing love for getting outdoors into nature and solidifies a sense of self achievement.
- Make hills and mountains patterns using different drawing materials such as felt tips, chalks and crayons. This is a great way to practice shapes that will help with your handwriting. Upside down 'u' shapes make hilly patterns, and upside down 'v' shapes make rocky mountain patterns.
Discover
- Creative thinking
- Nature
- Build resilience
- Build confidence and self-belief
- Feel good and relax
Find out how to make this marbled mountains collage here in our How to Make Marbled Mountains blog post.
You can make this, along with a sunset mountains canvas and lots more in our Sunset Skies box. Everything that you need is included, aswell as ideas and inspiration sheets.
