RockStickLeaf
by brittany denny and sharon glick, children’s museum of bozeman

Making art in, and from, nature exercises the body, the brain, and the soul. RockStickLeaf involves taking a walk, observing carefully, sorting, and assembling natural objects into a temporary work of art. It’s the perfect celebration of spring for you and your child(ren)!

SUPPLIES
None required! (Optional supplies include a camera, garden clippers and a collection bag or pail.)

DIRECTIONS
• Take a walk together, preferably in a wooded area where you can see many leaves, twigs, and stones on the ground. Talk about how you’ll collect only things found on the ground -- no picking flowers or breaking branches, unless it’s your own yard and you say it’s ok.

• Start collecting! In the spring, you’ll find many different kinds of twigs - some bright yellow, some bright green, some red, some brown, some speckled, some plain, some fat, some skinny. The same goes for rocks and leaves -- different colors, different sizes, different shapes, different patterns. Collect a small pile, or put them in your bag or pail.

• Decide on a spot to build your sculpture. It could be quite visible (right by the side of a trail) or more secret (behind a fallen log). A flat spot will be easiest.

• Sort your objects. This is a great exercise even if you never get to the sculpture part. Talk about how to sort and what decisions you have to make -- Should we keep gray sticks with gray sticks or all skinny sticks together no matter the color? Should we sort rocks by shape, color, or size? Should green leaves and sticks go together or should leaves only be with other leaves?

• Build a sculpture. It could be a cabin-like structure, with sticks for walls, leaves for a roof, and stones for a walkway; it could be flat, with leaves making a rainbow from red to yellow to green and sticks making a frame; it could integrate nearby trees and rocks, or even mud, dirt and water, depending on how messy you are willing to get. Try to highlight the differences and similarities you noticed when sorting.

It’s fun to leave your creation for someone else to find, or to go back and check on it later to see what has happened. If you want a record of your sculpture, bring a camera and take pictures.

Warning: You may never look at a stick, rock, or leaf the same way again!