Category: Nature

Nature Earth Craft Challenge

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Tomorrow is Earth Day, and although we can’t celebrate with others this year, Travis and I talked today about ways we can help the Earth as a family. This month’s craft challenge from Highlights magazine – to create an Earth with items from nature – was the perfect end to the lesson!

First we needed to head outside and gather materials. I challenged Travis to think of what colors the Earth needed: blue and green of course! We looked for tall green grasses and little blue wildflowers (which were hard to find), and came home with our treasures.

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Travis actually loved the fact that we had more green than blue. He decided our planet was more grass than water, and had so much fun with it.

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We made a big circle of glue on poster board, and then he was able to sprinkle down handfuls of the grass, or press the blue flowers in more carefully in other parts.

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As he worked, we read about ways to “step up for Earth” as a family.

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Our new family goals include: saving water by having the kids bathe together, not separately; and to save on paper towels by buying reusable cloths.

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Happy Earth Day to all! There are silver linings even in this Covid-19 era.

 

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Toddler Nature Walk

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This game can grow with your child. Initially, it’s a fun way to teach the name of nature objects. Later, it can become a guessing game or a sorting game, once your toddler firmly has a few of nature words under his or her belt.

For the easiest variation on a nature walk today, I asked Veronika to pick up treasures and fill a paper bag we’d brought along. Of course she didn’t entirely understand, but she certainly loved bringing me sticks and dropping them in!

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I rounded out the collection with other items we spotted, like leaves, tall grasses, pine needles, acorns, and seed pods.

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Once we were home, we took our treasures to the back patio. For older kids, have them reach into the bag and guess what they are feeling; you can even use a blindfold, if your child wants to! At seventeen months old, it was easier to dump the bag out in front of Veronika and hand her one item at a time.

“Leaf,” I could say, for example. She is a parrot these days, and loved practicing new words right back to me, as we then discussed the color or texture.

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When I gave her grass, she immediately grabbed it…

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…and ran to return it to the grass just off our patio, an amazing insight to her little brain!

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There was definitely some new vocab here, including words like “acorn” and “bark”. I sorted our items into piles so she could better understand each new word.

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In sum, we got a nice pause in the spring sunshine, and a little lesson all in one!

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Ice Sun Catchers

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We’re in the very last days of winter here, so Travis and I wanted to try one last icy project! To start, he ventured outside to collect a few late winter/early spring nature finds, including old pine boughs, pine cones, and the first of the tulip petals!

Inside, we arranged these in the lids of Tupperware containers, along with a loop of ribbon for each. Travis was very deliberate about placing the items.

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If it’s still icy winter where you live, set them outside to freeze. We cheated a bit and used the freezer!

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Once completely frozen, run a little warm water around the edges of the lids and the sun catchers should release easily. Now hang them to sparkle in the sun!

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As a bonus, the nature items will simply fall back to earth once these melt, and all you have to do is collect the ribbons.

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Centerpiece

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Veronika has only been walking for a couple of weeks, but she already has a few nature forays under her (tiny) belt. Today when we headed outside, I brought along a small bag so she could collect treasures along the way.

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She loved dropping sticks and other finds into it!

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Of course, she didn’t know that I had plans for these items once home. I set out the items she’d found, along with a bright red beach bucket to be a “vase”.

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Note: You can use anything for the container, but I liked that the bucket wouldn’t break, unlike a glass or pottery vase. You could also try upcycling a milk carton for this project.

She’s at the helpful age where she likes to put things “in”, so one by one, she arranged the items.

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I cheated a bit with a few tulips we already had at home, since these added a nice pop of color. But look at the centerpiece she was able to create!

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I put this on the table as the family dined, and made sure she knew that it was her masterpiece. In sum, this was a really sweet way to engage a young toddler with nature.

Nature Collage

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This was Travis and Veronika’s first art project together, a really wonderful milestone for siblings.

It started with a nature walk! On a gorgeous spring-like day, we took Veronika out to stretch her legs, and although she has come along on nature hikes, this was the first time she walked on her own two feet.

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Travis was a great help along the trail, pointing out the names of objects. “Log!” he told her proudly, and also pointed out grass, acorns, pine cones, sticks, pebbles, and dirt.

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Of course dirt had to be explored.

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When Veronika saw that big brother had a walking stick, she needed one too!

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As we hiked, the kids added treasures to a brown paper bag. Because it is late winter, there wasn’t a whole lot of color, but there was beauty to be found in dried brown leaves, curiously-shaped sticks, and bristly pine needles.

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Once home, I asked Travis what shape we should draw on construction paper. He chose a butterfly, but anything else from nature – a flower, a favorite animal – would be fun.

Working together, we dripped on glue and applied bits of our nature finds into a collage. Travis loved using an acorn for a big eye and pine needles for antennae. Veronika loved pressing down pieces of leaf on the wings. Something for everyone!

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She even loved squeezing the glue bottle.

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This project helped shape an absolutely beautiful afternoon, and I hope you find the project equally magical.

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Take a Sled Ride

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This was the final activity I had hoped to do with Veronika before she turned one year old, but we never had the chance because in her first year we had… No snow! Well, at thirteen months, she now has two feet of snow out the window, and loved getting bundled into her snowsuit for the first time.

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Gentle sled rides are a new and exciting feeling. I sat her down on a small plastic one and simply glided her across the snow. If you’re going to go downhill, make sure you sit with your child and hold him or her firmly!

She seemed so intrigued by the novel motion. When we came to a stop, I pulled out a few sticks to show her how to write in the snow. She eagerly grabbed for one and gave it a try.

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Don’t worry if those curious fingers feel at the snow for a brief moment; it will be a  completely novel sensory experience, and then you can head right inside to warm up rosy fingers and cheeks!

If you live some place that never receives snow, consider a sled ride over sand instead! Then you can demonstrate writing in the sand with a stick instead.

T.H.A.N.K.S. Scavenger Hunt

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Here’s a cute activity Travis and I did in anticipation of Thanksgiving next week; it turned our regular stroll to the bus stop into a fun hunt! We wanted to find items matching a word that corresponded to each letter of THANKS, so sought out the following:

  • T: Trees
  • H: Holes
  • A: Animals
  • N: Nibbling
  • K: Knobbiness
  • S: Seeds

Trees: This was an easy one, but it had Travis appreciating the trees on our little walk to the bus, whether tall ones or small berry trees.

Holes: Travis is convinced that the hole outside our door is a snake hole. I hope not! Either way, he loves checking it out. Also look for holes up in trees; these might have nests come springtime.

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Animals: We wondered who we would still see this close to winter. Squirrels and chipmunks play and eat in a brier patch on our walk. Here’s one eating an acorn; we even heard him chewing!

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And we heard lots of crows calling out this morning, though I couldn’t capture a picture.

Nibbling: Check for signs of animals fattening up for winter! Travis also checked the leaves for caterpillar nibbling, though I told him it was probably past their season.

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Knobbiness: Look for neat burls in trees. Travis had fun spotting a few of these on the walk.

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Seeds: Acorns are an easy find, but we also found larger seeds. And these showed signs of nibbling! Also keep an eye out for maple keys or other familiar seed pods. 

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I’ll leave you with this stunning frosted leaf Travis found. We are thankful for the beauty of nature!

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Acorn Animal Craft Challenge

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Travis’s craft challenge from Highlights this month was to make little animals using nothing more than acorns, wiggle eyes, and paint.

We collected a whole bunch of acorns (about 20) from oak trees nearby, which was no easy feat in 10 degree weather!

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Inside, I asked him what colors he wanted to paint, thinking about what animals he might end up with. He opted for gray, so we mixed black and white together. Because he didn’t want to get his fingers messy on the small acorns, I held them while he painted.

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For variety, we made a few pink acorns as well.

Once the paint dried, we glued together a few simple creatures. The stems on the acorn caps made us think of curly pig tails, so two pinkish acorns were glued together as pigs. Travis glued on the googly eyes, although the large size of the eyes made it hard for them to stick while the glue dried.

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The gray acorns made us think of little owls, who also received eyes.

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If Travis were older, I would have encouraged him to paint on little feathers, but I knew that sort of fine detail was too much for him. In sum, a cute project but not our favorite craft challenge to date.

Shades of Nature

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Here’s a fun twist for your next nature walk, as the last few days of vibrant fall colors leave us behind. Bring along some paint chips (these are free at any local hardware store) and hunt for fall colors!

Travis and I stopped to pick up paint chips in the morning, making sure we selected lots of yellows, oranges, reds, and browns. Next stop: a local trail!

Travis noticed lots of browns right away, spanning from dark brown leaves…

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…to light brown grasses.

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Our local area is past peak leaves, but we managed to spot some deep reds left in the bushes..

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…as well as fallen yellow leaves.

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Our favorite was these orange beauties!

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In sum, this was a nice way to add purpose to a weekend family stroll, and Travis enjoyed playing color detective!

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Leaf Canvas Craft Challenge

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What was this month’s craft challenge from Highlights magazine? To use a leaf as the canvas for painting! You’ll want to use acrylic pants for the craft, which will hold up better than tempera paint.

No doubt there are fantastic artists who could create a whole miniature scene on their leaf. For my kindergartner, the project was more about the novelty of using nature as the canvas.

We found some giant leaves on a nature walk and knew those were the ones to use!

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At first, he painted along the lines of the leaf’s veins, which was great for reinforcing a recent science unit on trees and nutrition.

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Then he had fun blending colors and seeing how they mixed on the leaf.

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At the end, he liked making big blobs of paint.

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Whether your little Picasso makes something abstract, something highly detailed, or just has fun smearing paint, this was a simple and fun alternative to painting on paper.

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