I really like making the most of every bit of space in an outdoor area. Trees are of particular value because the space around their base, the bark and the branches are all opportunities for displays and studies.

Here’s a lovely art project that makes a super outdoor display that I like because it’s so doable by one teacher with a large class of children. Many years ago, when I visited The Coombes School were lots of wooden spoons hanging from an aspen tree in one of their playgrounds.

The children had to make their wooden spoon into a character of their choice. First they had to design the clothes and faces. If you notice the drawings are the same size as the spoons! They fit diagonally onto a piece of A4 paper.

The children then used a variety of different materials, pens and wool to create their characters. Here’s some of the results…

I liked the combination of the paper ideas and the wooden spoons displayed outside together.

Finally, the children in Years 1 & 2 came outside to write a story about their wooden spoon characters.

I can see so much potential in this activity. The wooden spoons would link beautifully into a historical project or to illustrate a story, which can then be re-told through a wooden spoon puppet show.

Making environmental tweaks to ensure this type of project is sustainable

This post was originally written in 2010. If I was doing this project now, these are some of the approaches I would consider. But I’m sure you have even better ideas 🙂

• Having a brainstorm with children using a sustainable thinking framework to consider the wider environmental impact of this project.
• Asking parents and staff if they have any old wooden spoons they could donate rather than buy new ones. Likewise only using scrap material to decorate.
• Challenging children to make the characters in ways that enable them to be dismantled so that the materials and spoons could be used with another class the following year.
• Ensuring that the children’s drawings were displayed in ziplock bags or display frame or similar rather than being laminated. See this post for alternatives to laminating.