Twig Snakes & stick painting - Outdoor - in play and tree awareness !
 

Branches, twigs, fine sandpaper and paint !

Make your own group wriggly worms, slithering snakes, slow worms, lizard or maybe even a caterpillar from wood !

Collect small branches from the ground of local hedgerows, own and with permission neighbours garden's, woodland floor area or road verge / embankment (taking extreme care :wide-eyed) and let everyone smooth them down with the sandpaper.

Where the children are old enough to look at, and put a creature specie + name to their branch, talk about where the branch came from, how the trees and bushes there grow tall and wide & also how sometimes branches are 'pruned / cut by people to help keep them looking neat, tidy and growing strong.
Ask what temperature the ground might be where the twig was picked up from and where 'it might like to live if taken back outside: damp and undercover, dry & sandy or maybe warm and in the open air .. is this a place the children would like to live !?

Paint with poster paint and if wanted, laquer or varnish for prolonged wear & tear :cheerful:

For painted branches that don't go home with the children, make a new sand / soil role play area and add some stones, leaves small buckets and spades - use the sticks to stir, mark make and role play .. ensuring everyone knows that they might be/of been someones creature !!!

Print and laminate the Wiggly Woo song or other and include it in your resource area.

Wiggly Woo

There’s a worm at the bottom of my garden
And his name is Wiggly Woo.
There’s a worm at the bottom of my garden,
And his name is Wiggly Woo.
He wiggles all night, and he wiggles all day,
No matter what anybody can say,
There’s a worm at the bottom of my garden,
And his name is Wiggly, Wig-Wig-Wiggly,
Wig-Wig-Wiggly Woo!

Use smaller paintbrushes to help avoid the coverall effect and risk assess for splinters, mouthing hazards & emerging real creepy crawlies :wide-eyed:wide-eyed :D lol


This will eventually be published on site as an All Year Round featured activity ..

Have fun and if you take any Twig Creature photos that you'd like to display on here .. let me know, send them over and I'll upload them for everyone ..

Those look great Ruth!

A while ago we did some research looking at the work of Andy Goldsworthy who makes pieces of art from natural materials - then we made our own collage outside, using leaves, twigs, branches, cones etc.

All the children got involved and it sparked a big theme about recycling :cheerful: