Children's creative engagement in hybrid nature crafting: materiality meaning and connection

Abstract

Forging children's nature connections involves affective, sensory, and imaginative engagements, underscoring the value of place-based, tactile, and creative interactions. While craft and making offer potential synergies, many digital approaches for children remain limited to designed artefacts that foster contact in, as opposed to with, nature. Inspired by art-based approaches, this study introduces Hybrid Nature Crafts (HNC) a craft approach that integrates diverse materialities, such as leaves and light, to foster children's connections with nature. To examine how HNC supports these connections, we conducted two workshop series in distinct physical settings with 15 children, documenting their creative processes throughout. This pictorial highlights how craft enables children to notice nature, perform place-making, and construct meanings of and with nature. Findings advance understanding of hybrid approaches and offer practical insights for designing workshops that nurture children's ecological identities through creative making.