Unit 09 - Seeds of Art

Seeds of Art - Activities for Young Children

1. Arranging
2. Drawing
3. Making

Click Students for a range of images to use as stimulus materials for the following activities.

1. Arranging

Materials

• A varied collection of seeds and rainforest fruits, paper plates, bowls or banana leaves, newspapers, cloths for wiping, scissors or Stanley knife, glue, digital camera

This activity focuses on the art processes of planning, viewing, selecting, manipulating, arranging, comparing and modifying.

Cut any stems and branches from collected fruits and seeds.

Cover table(s) in the classroom with paper and set out all the fruits and seeds.

Ask children to select fruits and seeds and make their individual arrangements in a bowl, on a plate or banana leaf.

Allow time for children to experiment with different arrangements.

Photograph each child’s arrangement.

Children can combine their arrangements to create one big seed art piece on the floor or outside. Photograph this work. Seed images can be made into a Powerpoint presentation, loaded on the school website, printed out and made into a wall display and made into a class Fruit and Seed Book as a permanent record of the beautiful arrangements children will produce.

Arrangements can be glued into place if this is what children wish.

Hints

Have a wide variety of fruits and seeds of different colours, shapes and sizes. Ensure each child has a photographic record of their work. Visually gifted children tend to be completely absorbed by this activity.

2. Drawing

Materials

• A collection of rainforest fruits and seeds, lead pencils, and drawing paper for black and white work, coloured pencils and water soluble paint for colour work

This activity focuses on the art elements of colour and shape and the art concepts of similarity, difference, size, tone and contrast.

Set out a collection of seeds and rainforest fruits of different size, colour and shape.

Children draw individual seeds and collections of seeds with pencil and/or colour as they wish.

Ask children to name or find out the name of what they are drawing.

Collect children’s work into a portfolio and display in the classroom.

Hints

As far as possible, identify the names of the seeds in English, scientific language and local indigenous language to develop children’s vocabulary and their botanical knowledge. Check the Resources available and ask children, their parents and grandparents the names of rainforest fruit and seeds. Many people in the community have high levels of botanical knowledge.

3. Making

Materials

• Solid seeds (also known as rainforest beans, they are easy to collect and handle), glue, shellac, twine, bark, paper and cardboard and a digital camera.

Recommended are: Match Box Beans (Entada rheedi) also known as Burnie Beads, available July to November 

Salmon Beans (Archidendron sp.) available November to January;

Red Bean Tree (Adenanthera pavonia) also known as Red Bead Tree, available May to December

Quandong seeds (Elaeocarus sp.) available throughout the year

Carabeen seeds (Sloanea sp.) available October to May.

In the Students section are images of a crocodile from made from Match Box Beans by Eileen Burchill. Use this design as a stimulus.

This activity incorporates the art concepts of repetition, size, position, direction, balance, pattern and space. The art processes are select, assemble, arrange, manipulate, design, install, modify.

Children use the solid beans to make animal shapes, abstract designs and three dimensional objects.

Creations can be glued and painted with shellac for protection.