Nature vs. Supra-Nature: How Montessori Children Conceptualise the Real and Imaginary Through Visual Art

This paper presents a systematic content analysis of 198 artworks produced by 93 children (ages 6–15) at Blue Blocks Montessori School, Hyderabad, during Drone and Art Day 2026 — a structured event featuring a live drone flight demonstration followed by free art creation. Using a binary nature/supra-nature coding framework across 30 variables, the study maps how Montessori-educated children represent reality and imagination in spontaneous visual art. The dataset (publicly archived at Zenodo) comprises works in pencil, watercolour, and marker across two campuses, coded for eighteen content sub-elements spanning naturalistic, fantastical, and technological imagery. This is believed to be the first published content analysis of children's art arising from a drone-stimulus context in an Indian Montessori setting.