Natural VS Commercial

So one of the big ideas I'm exploring is how to use what we have around us rather than ruining our earth by ordering things from companies ... I mean I do love rainbow matchsticks ... don't get me wrong, they are useful and vibrant and the like BUT they are trees that were cut down ... then they were processed to be little match stick shapes, then they were dyed, then they were packaged, then they were shipped to a warehouse, where they wait to be sold ... and again, shipped out ...

So as I was pottering around in my garden and checking out my giant pile of clippings and prunings etc and I was wondering about how it can be used (other than be chipped down and sold as mulch/compost by the company that buys the waste from council) ...

So why not mix it up? Just don't take away all the colour in one go ... but look at ways of incorporating natural materials which are FREE and local and easily made? I just grabbed some landscaping pebbles from my garden, used the May Bush twigs which were at hand, plus playdough with no dye added, glass beads as well as the coloured match sticks ... 

Here are some landscaping rocks from Bunnings, thicker branches or twigs from the May Bush, drift wood (which I'd had for some hermit crabs who have since passed away), different leaves, and the landscaping pebbles ... All of these things you can either buy quite inexpensively ($2.49 per bag for the rocks) or find around the place...

There are some awesomely interesting seed pods out there too ... these came from a fire wheel tree... I wore gloves and long sleeves to scrape out the seeds as they have little prickley hairs which were irritating to me - so this is not a project I'd do with the children. I wore jeans as well and shook everything out and then washed it! But the seed pods last a really long time in the room for play with blocks etc so they are worth the effort.

I've previously used gum nuts - there is a tree in front of my parents home which drops gum nuts all the time - easily swept up and placed along with the twigs, sticks, rocks, seed pods, and pebbles. I should go and harvest some more when its time!

I can't post any pictures of what my old kids did with the play dough and natural materials ... but I can describe what some of the ideas were ... some made animals using the sticks for legs, others flattened out the dough and made artistic patterns with the nuts on the outside. Some created balls of dough which they then placed on top of sticks were were then stick into a base of dough - flowers. Others made the ever famous cookies and cakes with the dough.

I've also put a display of natural materials in block corner where the kids used the large rocks in their play. Mainly as additions to their block work. I guess you could call them embellishments! I like that term, I think its one I will use more often!

Embellish!

T.ink