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CURRICULUM AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT * 2 HOURS * LEVEL 2

Page 15

Earthworks: Art and Nature

Lesson Plan Example

Leaf Pounding
Please provide appropriate supervision to the children in your care when completing all activities. You will need to decide what types of activities are safe for the children in your care.  Appropriate and reasonable caution should be used when providing art and sensory experiences for children.
Age Group: ​ 
  • ​Preschool
Objectives:
  • Children will experience art and nature while developing their fine and gross motor skills
Picture
Leaf Pounding
CDA Competency Standard:
II.4.4b
Candidate’s facilitation promotes children’s physical development
b) Guides the development of children’s fine and gross motor skills
Materials:  
  • Fresh leaves and flowers
  • White paper
  • Paper towels
  • Child size wooden mallet or small hammer
  • Rolling pin
Procedure: 
  1. Take children outside to gather leaves and flowers and other fresh natural materials. This may include stems, blades of grass, flower buds and more. It is preferred to choose items that have already fallen and do not have to be plucked from live plants.
  2. Children should arrange their leaves and flowers on a white sheet of paper and cover it with a paper towel. Next, they will take the mallet and gently pound the leaves causing their colors to bleed onto the white paper. The colors will also bleed onto the paper towel, which is to be expected.
  3. Encourage children to pound the leaves gently and then harder to see the difference in results. Eventually they will find that some plants take more pounding than others. Assist the children in varying their small muscles to get the desired effect.
  4. Next, children can use the rolling pin to press the leaves into the paper. The results may be fainter than the pounding, but it will be similar. Encourage children to use big long motions, short small motions, more pressure, and less pressure when using the rolling pin.
Assessment: 
  • Assess the fine and gross motor use that this activity provides.
Click on the photos to enlarge 

    Leaf Pounding (4/7)

    Earthworks: Art and Nature
For Future Reference
When this training is over, it's going to be hard to remember all these lesson plans! We want you to get the most from this training, and continue to use this information in your classroom.  We have put the lesson plans in this course, that are produced by Successful Solutions, on our resource website, www.Lessons4Learners.com, where you can continue to access them after your training expires. 
Be sure to bookmark the direct link to the page where the lesson plans can be found for easy access in the future at:   
http://www.lessons4learners.com/nature.html