10 September 2025 – Nature Painting (Forest School Club)

This is the beginning of a new academic year and a set of 4 lessons as part of an after school club for children from across our Primary 5 to Primary 7 classes. The main activity was natural painting where the children had the opportunity to utilize natural resources to make paint.
Due to this activity being provided to a group of children of various ages and range of Forest School experience, we began the lesson with a discussion regarding the rules and safety. We set out the boundaries and then recapped the rules of the whistle. We then explored how people have made paints from natural materials throughout history, around the globe. As part of this discussion, the children were shown examples of berries, leaves, and other safe materials and how they can be used to create paint. Within this activity, the children worked in small groups and they co-operated to grind fruits, berries and leaves with stones or spoons to extract and create various colours. Some children also sourced water to adjust the consistency of their paint. The children also invented natural paintbrushes and sponges by tying leaves, grasses, or moss to sticks. The children were then provided with a choice of paper and card with which they could explore and experiment with their created paints and painting tools. At the end of the session, the groups reviewed their finished artwork and discussed which materials they found most effective in making their paint and paint brushes.