A Kids Nature Hunt is one of the best ways to explore your neighborhood. This creative nature art craft will spark your child’s imagination and help younger children learn how to spell and write their names!
Spring is finally here! Even as a Floridian, this year especially, I’m singing along with the birds in excitement. In South Florida, we’ve had to deal with numerous cold fronts causing temperatures to drop down to the low 50s. Brrr! I know, I know, go ahead and form your snowballs and take your best shot. But to me and my children, that’s FREEZING!
To bring on April, we wanted to welcome the new season with an adventurous and educational nature hunt. Not only do the kids get the rare opportunity to play with glue (last time my two-year-old glued a spoon to the table for fun), but we also got to discuss the different types of trees, changes in season, reinforced spelling names, and even saw a mother and her ducklings! Even though we have a great back yard, our neighborhood also has 2 beautiful ponds and tons of different trees, so we took this hunt to the streets!
This was such an easy craft to do with them and it provided us with so many learning opportunities, so we’ll definitely be repeating it! Have fun, and enjoy the outdoors and fresh air as you explore your backyards and nearby parks!
One of the best suggestions I have for this project is to just roll with the children’s imaginations. You never know where it will take them. As my four-year-old was discussing why he was choosing one particular stick, my two-year-old turned this nature hunt into a dinosaur hunt and would not stop digging for dinosaur eggs! I just went with it and everyone got to have a good time!
Also, make sure you gather extra “nature finds” to ensure that you have enough materials for trimming, tearing, and breaking for each child’s name. I even found extra buckets in the garage to collect all of their items in, but a regular old paper bag or mixing bowl works just as well.
KIDS NATURE HUNT: HOMEMADE NAME ART CRAFT
Materials:
- Construction paper, assorted colored pieces
- Glue (Depending on the type of bark or leaves you find and want to use, you can most likely use standard glue. If your child wants to include pine cone in their name, you may want to bring out the glue gun.)
- Nature Finds, sticks, bark, flowers, whatever they want!
Directions:
Step 1.) Have fun! Explore the outdoors and let your child pick any leaf, stick, or flower they choose. Depending on your area, be careful of certain types of flowers that may be full of ants or bees.
Step 2.) Dump all of your “nature finds” on the table and have the child first do a trial run of their name before gluing anything. This helps decide which item is best for each letter. For my two-year-old, he isn’t consistent with spelling and writing his name, so I drew it out with permanent marker for him to trace over.
Step 3.) Once you have a rough draft, start gluing! Let the project dry for at least a half hour before hanging it up.
Do you like to do nature crafts with your kids? Tell us about them in the comments section!! We’d love to hear what you’re working on with your own kiddos this spring!
Happy Crafting,
Gina
Looking for more nature crafts? Here are a few of of favorites:
[…] This is a great way to use natural materials collected from a walk in nature … making works of art name!! […]