Collecting flowers, twigs and leaves and making pleasing, artful and beautiful arrangements out of them is a super fun activity and super easy to do. It also combines nature, art and science in a myriad of ways so you can always emphasize different aspects of the activity depending on the interests and abilities of the children you are working with. I like doing this activity during each of the four seasons with children, helping them learn about what is present in the natural world at different times of the year. Winter is a great time to collect dead flowers, berries, ornamental twigs, evergreens, seed pods, etc. Some time should always be spent explaining the ethics of collecting plants: only taking a few specimens, making sure that you are not destroying the plant’s ability to reproduce itself, not killing live plants, correctly breaking off or cutting stems so the root system or living plant survives. The general attitude that needs to be cultivated ought to be appreciation, gratitude, and thankfulness for the gifts of the earth.
After gathering a few specimens, three to five, bring them back to school or home and arrange them in a jar, vase, glass, bowl, or paper cone. This is where Ikebana, the Japanese art of floral arrangement can be helpful. Again, never overwhelm children with superfluous information. Working with 5-8 year olds we talked about simplicity, harmony, beauty and proportion. They were instructed to find 3 pieces from their collection, a tall one, a medium one, and a small one. We enjoyed learning the Japanese words for the 3 pieces: the longest branch, called shin, represents heaven, the medium branch, soe, represents human beings, and the shortest branch, tai, represents earth. Additional flowers to accompany these can be used as well. While some children were very happy with floral arrangements and ready to move on, others wanted to dive deeper into the art and science of Ikebana. I like to think that everyone, including myself came away with a deeper appreciation of the natural world and a delight in the creative process.
Do your own mini-inquiry project on ikebana!
A great book to read and share with children is “Ikebana: asian arts and crafts for creative kids” by Shozo Sato
The seven principles of Ikebana flower arrangement: silence, minimalism, shape and line, form, humanity, aesthetics, and structure. https://www.japan-talk.com/jt/new/7-principles-of-ikebana-Japanese-way-of-the-flower
A brief history of ikebana https://academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Ikebana
