We had a wonderful time at BLOOM into the Cultural Centre, a spring-inspired school holiday festival put on by Perth Cultural Centre. From 1-4 October, we hosted nature-based kids’ workshops at the festival which were a hit with children, parents and grandparents alike. Thanks to everyone who came down and joined in!
A big thank you to the team at Perth Cultural Centre and to James Campbell for the photos.
Getting crafty with nature
We love any opportunity to get crafty and learn about nature, and seeing kids do the same really inspires us. The activities we ran included seed saving origami, natural printing and decorating cupcakes with edible flowers. We also had a fabulous face painter Kayleigh who created beautiful floral and spider based artworks on little foreheads and arms.
Seed Saving
At one table we talked about the importance of saving seeds and then made origami seed packets. We looked at the life cycle of sunflowers and then filled the seed packets with sunflower seeds that the kids could take home and plant. Even the young children knew what seeds need to grow, which was heartwarming for us to hear. Our resident flower fairy Sarah enjoyed talking with the kids about biodiversity and what role we can play in helping protect it.
Nature Prints
At the middle table AJ and Mika taught the kids how to use rubber mallets to hammer away at flowers and leaves, creating beautiful natural prints on squares of fabric. It was an experiment in colour! We talked with the children about how once upon a time all fabric colours came from plants. The flowers and leaves that we used for dyeing at the festival were collected from Perth City Farm or near our homes. Particularly impressive was the bright pink made by bottlebrush flowers and the fragrant purple made from the native bush basil.
Edible flowers
Every morning before the festival started, Sarah and Martina would gather hundreds of edible flowers from the garden which they have been growing for the past months in preparation. During the activity, the children spoke with Melody about safely identifying and eating edible flowers. Some of the children tasted borage, nasturtium and snap dragon for the first time. We learned that some plants, like calendula, are not only edible but highly medicinal as well. Then, we decorated cupcakes with all the bright and beautiful flowers. A sweet activity indeed.
In addition to our kids’ workshop corner, there were other exciting activities at BLOOM too. Flower fairies from Fliptease wandered around, and children had the chance to make gorgeous paper everlasting flowers under the guidance of Jotterbook Flowers.
Feedback from participants
We had some lovely feedback from participants, thank you!
- “We had an amazing time crafting today! It’s so special to see the creativity and joy that comes from hands-on projects. The crafts really brought out so much imagination and fun—it’s moments like these that make lasting memories.” – Denise
- “Thank you for such an amazing event today. It was so well set up, and the staff were fabulous. My two children loved the activities, and the girls on stilts were such a fabulous surprise—they were in awe! Absolute 10/10 event. Thank you so much, and I hope there are many more.” – Gemma
- “We all had a blast! It was really fun 😊.” – Louise
- “Thanks for a wonderful, educational, hands-on, and interactive event for our little ones <3.” – Marie
- “Great morning—thank you 🙏.” – Jeannette
Kids activities at Perth City Farm
We run a number of regular and exciting kids events at Perth City Farm, and we’d love for you to join us. Check out our Nature Playgroup, Storytime with Grandma Rosie and this year’s Tree Planting Festival. We can also run private workshops and farm tours for schools and children’s groups.
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