Wacky Wednesdays - Garden Studio Exploration
Wacky Wednesdays - Garden Studio Exploration
“A choose-your-own-adventure art day in the garden.”
Wacky Wednesdays are our relaxed, open-creation sessions: a big spread of art supplies, a rotating “menu” of project ideas, and lots of room for kids to follow their curiosity. We’ll offer plenty of examples to spark ideas, plus a deep and wide supply of materials to explore, but there’s no single class-wide outcome. The garden itself becomes the inspiration studio, full of colors, textures, patterns, and tiny discoveries.
Historical Inspiration Spotlight: Claude Monet and the Garden as a Studio
Claude Monet didn’t just paint gardens, he built one as a living palette in Giverny. He watched how light changed color across the day, how shadows shifted, and how water reflected the sky. That’s the spirit of Wacky Wednesdays: notice what the garden is doing today, then turn that noticing into art.
Example Menu: 10 Ways to Make Art in the Garden
1. Freestyle Studio (the “make-anything” option)
Not feeling any specific project? Perfect. This is the open table where kids can combine materials however they want: paint + collage, drawing + nature textures, mixed-media experiments, or inventing something totally new. We’ll help them brainstorm, choose materials, and bring their idea to life.
2. Paver Stone Art
Paint a stepping stone with bold shapes, bugs, flowers, patterns, or a personal symbol for the garden.
3. Garden Banners and Flags
Create a fabric banner with a message or design (“Bee Zone,” “Welcome Butterflies,” “My Garden Patch”), plus streamers that move in the wind.
4. Mini Canvas Garden Paintings
Paint what you see or imagine: a plant portrait, a “dream garden,” or a bug’s-eye view of the garden world.
5. Nature Texture Rubbings + Collage
Use leaves, bark textures, and crayon rubbings (or printed textures) to build a collage creature, landscape, or abstract pattern.
6. Garden Journaling Prompts
Choose a prompt card: quick sketches, “today I noticed…,” tiny poems, garden maps, or invent-a-plant pages with labels.
7. Pressed Flower Bookmarks or Cards
Arrange pressed petals/leaves into bookmarks, cards, or mini art prints. (We’ll use pre-pressed materials and/or fallen petals to protect the garden.)
8. Rock Buddy Characters
Paint stones into ladybugs, frogs, bees, gnomes, monsters, or “moss spirits,” then name them and give them a personality.
9. Painted Plant Markers
Make decorative markers for plants using stakes or sticks, with drawings, symbols, and fun lettering.
10. Wind Art Mobiles
Build a hanging mobile using sticks, string, beads, ribbons, and lightweight materials so it sways, spins, and flutters outdoors.
What Makes This Session Special
Choice + ownership: kids pick their project (or go freestyle).
Creative freedom: no “everyone’s looks the same” expectation.
Garden-inspired making: we use the outdoor space as our muse.
Gentle guidance: we teach techniques as needed and cheer on experimentation.
Pricing & Registration
Each weekly session is $50 (+6.2% SD sales tax) and includes all materials. Weekly Wacky Wednesday open art lab sessions are also $50/ea+tax.