Although end of November is notoriously famous for being the most grey time of the year, when everyone just wants to stay indoors, we accepted the challenge and decided to try out doing creativity activities outdoors with young people and it worked well!!!
On 26th of November we, 4 people from Laukku and Teku Taku made 4 workshops outdoors for 60 students of Maliena school. They were all somehow focused on promoting the positive attitude towards spending the time outdoors regardless of weather and allowing to explore the theme of creativity.
When we arrived there (3 h drive from Riga) and saw the weather (just 2-3 degrees, small rain and big wind), we were all quite sceptical on how this could work out…nevertheless, eventually it was very fun and also meaningful experience both for us as well as youngsters.
Some ideas/conclusions:
* Activities outdoors are possible also “off-season” – only then it is crucial to make sure that everyone is warm (games and exercises with movement helped us a lot; also the bon-fire with warm tea was a great help!).
* Senses is the base of connecting with natural environment and we used them well in all tasks. Our favourite exercises were based on Una’s idea on SEEING and creating FRAMES in nature and allowing young people to slow down by eating a tangerine for at least 10 minutes (TOUCHING, SMELLING and TASTING it).
* The school invited us to come because for them it was crucial to promote mental well-being among students. Being outdoors and moving is a great help in that.
*Once again we got the confirmation for the fact that kids and youngsters are very creative and inspirational – although we had our plan A for the workshops, with their ideas and participation they helped us to shape the ideas and adapt better to the situation and make it fun. Malienas pamatskola is a great place!!!
* Now we are even more excited to try out even more creative workshops with young people somewhere in Latvia!
The project “Creativity @Nature” is implemented in the framework of EU programme “Erasmus+: Youth in Action”.
