Children inspired by nature

They used natural materials such as leaves, twigs, branches and grass to make art as part of their Learning Journey which this term is Our Precious World.

As a result their 'outdoor classroom' was full of creativity and original art which was achieved by searching through the garden area for suitable natural materials and and using them creatively - with a generous helping of imagination.

Teachers Jenny Cooper and Jim Duncan showed the youngsters work made by environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy and they took this as their starting point. The sculptures in their garden ranged from Jack Janes's tree kebab to Paige Taylor's coloured leaf trail across logs, while Julia Mathew arranged long grass around sticks to make a star which she then framed with yellow leaves.

Jenny commented: "We are just looking at how special the world, but mainly looking at our local environment, so I hope we will go down to the beach soon and instead of working with leaves and twigs we will be working with pebbles, stones and sand.

"Our Precious World is focusing on how can we look after the world, and what have we got around us that we can use? To make the sculptures we used natural things around here...it is just encouraging the children to look around them - they play out there so often, but don't necessarily go and look at the shape of a piece of grass or what shape a twig is."