What a great time of the year to be outside, exploring and collecting from the forest floor! Acorns, sycamore 'helicopters', berries, beechnuts, conkers, leaves turning beautiful shades of red and orange.......

All you need for this project.....
1. some large sheets of cardboard - write the letters on with a marker pen
2. add PVA glue to the letters
3. Find a group of enthusiastic children and invite them to forage for mosaic materials and stick them down! The children at Wood School wanted to do the first letter of their names, resulting in some healthy negotiation of claiming the more popular letters!
4. For making the name signs below, we used smaller pieces of cardboard, and punched two holes at the top for the string.

I was wondering what to make for my Wood School Workshop later this week, as I wandered round the garden with a pair of scissors.......15 minutes later, I had this lovely sign!
I punched 2 holes in a piece of thick cardboard, threaded raffia through it for hanging.
I wrote 'home' with a felt tip and then tore up and glued down the petals and leaves I had collected. Can't wait to try it out with the children, they might like to 'leaf mosaic' their names. Fancy giving it a go?

I'll be blogging alot about 'squares' over the next week or so. It's important to remember not to try too hard coming up with ideas, sometimes the simplest ones can work the best!
Pixel people are a great project for children - invite them to do a self portrait! You can design and download graph paper online - for younger children, I recommend larger squares, older children can challenge themselves with more detail. Follow the link below for squared paper and more, a great resource for general doodling...have fun!http://incompetech.com/graphpaper

Here are a few reasons off the top of my head!

Creativity......
Stimulates the imagination
Improves concentration
Builds confidence
Develops fine motor skills
Encourages communication of ideas
Helps children make sense of their world.

Here are some great links if you would like to read more.......

1. Kiwi Crate, 10 simple ways to raise creative kids
http://tinyurl.com/mhcmhyd

2.  The Importance of Play, by Bruno Bettelheim, 1987
"The way a child wants to play is often very different from the way his parents want him to. The child, however, knows best"
http://tinyurl.com/qgjoxel

3. Don't Go Back to School: How to Fuel the Internal Engine of Learning, 
by Maria Popova
http://tinyurl.com/cr24972

4. 10 Ways To Boost Your Creativity, by Julie Plenty
http://tinyurl.com/nslp4h2

The met office forecasts good weather this weekend. Get some fresh air in the local park or wood......give your kids a ziplock bag to collect some leaves, twigs and anything that catches their eye. There's plenty to explore with autumn here.

It's not that I have anything against googly eyes, but they can stifle the imagination. What could be used in their place? Buttons, beads, lentils, elderberries, screwed up tissue paper, split peas, blue tac, play dough, plasticine.....this is how to engage our creative side, by questioning, exploring, playing, experimenting, looking around for different ways of doing things, thinking outside of the box....welcome to The Imagination Box! 
Here, I am going to document and share all the creative ideas I have developed over the years, with my 2 fantastically responsive children, Charlie 6 and Elvie 4, and in many workplace settings, from hospitals to a little school in a wood! If you are a parent who would love to be more creative with your kids, please join me here where I shall regularly upload posts, fun art projects, links to resources, interesting articles
and more......you can also follow me on facebook, twitter and pinterest. Everyone can be creative, really!