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Sensing and Knowing Nature
Workshop led by K B Jinan and Kumbham
K B Jinan has been conducting workshops over the last ten years for the children of Aruvacode to provide activities not available to children in regular government schools. From 2002, this workshop has focused more on awakening the senses in children. The idea behind the workshop is to enable the children to observe their surroundings more closely, the birds, the leaves and the general surroundings.
Seeing nature, Hearing nature, Tasting nature, Smelling nature, Touching nature
The workshop is focused on sense awareness and is planned around experiences to enhance the sensory experience of each of the senses.
To heighten the hearing sense, children sit in silence and listen. They hear the sounds that usually go unheard. Good music is used to attenuate this sense. Other activities that extend this awareness are games children play using nature—whistles made of leaves, rattles, imitating birds, etc.
To work with color, children collect dry leaves of different shades and grade them and stick them in order. Other activities include doing a color scale with two colors, and mixing primary and secondary colors.
Children do similar activities for texture and the sense of touch. They do a textural scale using objects of varying texture. They also make surfaces of different textures using clay.
The children have games for identifying different smells blindfolded. They are also encouraged to spend a minute in silence before they eat their meals to make their taste sense aware.
To get the idea of shapes and dimensions, children collect different types of leaves, objects of day-to-day use and draw them in detail. Children also make portraits. They also trace the lines in nature. Three- dimensionality is introduced through clay work.
Other activities (that bring together all the senses) include making a model of the village with clay, making things using paper, leaf, etc., and introducing them to medicinal plants. Children are introduced to games, poetry and storytelling. Pottery is offered too.