September 14: What if Nature Takes Over? Pt 1
Special Volunteer session! Led by Prashansa
Assigned Teachers: Suren, Piyumika, Prashansa
Objectives:
To imagine different futures that involve nature in a big way
Creating new ecosystems, creatures, and stories
Intro
Show clips/images from Ponyo (fish swimming past houses, jellyfish lanterns) + a few real-life nature-takeover images.
Ask: What would it be like if animals, plants, and even the ocean moved into our streets? What magical creatures might appear?
You will need:
Large paper sheets (A3 or bigger)
Pencils, erasers, sharpeners
Colored pencils, crayons, markers
Watercolors or tempera paints, brushes, water cups
Cardboard scraps
Glue, scissors
Egg cartons, toilet paper rolls, bottle caps
Natural materials (leaves, twigs, small stones, seeds)
Clay (for quick creature prototyping)
Guide
Step 1: Idea
Divide students into groups.
Sketch an environment you are familiar with, but with nature taken over.
Prompts (on board/worksheet):
What happened? (flood, storm, magic, humans left…)
What does the land look like now? (swampy streets, jungle rooftops, glowing fungi caves)
Encourage focus on landscape, textures, atmosphere and creatures
What colors/textures do you imagine?
Step 2: Build the Diorama Base (40 min)
Use a cardboard box as the “stage.”
Kids create:
Background (painted/drawn sky, sea, forest canopy, storm, etc.)
Middle ground (hills, buildings, ruins, cliffs from cardboard layers).
Foreground (trees, vines, rivers made from paper, foil, fabric, twigs, yarn).
Encourage layers, depth, and textures.
Step 3: Share and reflect
Each group presents their world:
What is the strongest part of nature here?
How would it feel to walk into this place?
Listen for story threads to bring into Session 2. Class to be continued next week so it’s okay if they don’t finish.
Extra tips for volunteers:
Keep it playful—kids will lean into sci-fi/fantasy.
Encourage mixing natural + manmade textures (yogurt cup becomes a coral pod, cardboard skyscraper becomes overgrown).
Anchor in wonder, not gloom—this is nature’s creativity, not just destruction.