This pine cone owl craft is an easy way to get kids engaged in your nature walks. It also makes a fun classroom activity for the fall.
The older I get, the more I look forward to Fall. I’m not sure if it’s the start of all of the holidays that get me excited, the changing of my festive wreaths, or the excuse to be outside more, but when the temperatures start to drop, I can’t help but want to explore more with my children.
For anyone that’s visited Florida in the Summer, they can agree that it gets HOT! Not beach weather hot, but maybe we’ve accidentally woke up on the Sun, hot. But the past few mornings have been a lot cooler, so last weekend we went on a hike at our local reserve to find some pine cones and flowers to make a pine cone animal craft with the kids.
We all decided that a pine cone owl would be really fun to make, so I began by looking up images of Owls on my phone. To get the boys excited about the project, I asked them lots of descriptive questions about owls.
- What color are their eyes?
- What do their feathers look like?
- Do they come in different shapes and sizes?
The more questions I asked, the more excited they got about their hunt! It was fantastic to see them running around and picking up fallen pieces of bark from trees and all sorts of different colored leaves. As they added items to their baskets, they excitedly told me what it could be used for on their owl. Their imaginations really flourished and I got so caught up in it, that I almost forgot to take some pictures!
As much as I try not to have electronic devices around when we’re playing outside, I do love the ability to pull up a picture of what we’re discussing or learning about. For instance, on this hike, we happened to see a peacock strolling across the gravel path!
Seriously. Only in Florida would this happen, right?! But when they started chatting about peacocks, I was able to use my phone to answer some of their questions. I’m often surprised and always quite proud of the questions they come up with on our walks!
But, I’m off topic a bit, so let’s get back to pine cone owls! In our family’s opinion, the more creative the kids get, the better! So who’s to say that owls can’t have blue and pink feathers? Not me! Or that birds can’t have flowers as hats? If they can think it up, it’s fair game for our crafting sessions. This craft brought about tons of giggles in our home and was a great way to welcome the start of Fall!
PINE CONE OWL CRAFT FOR KIDS
Materials:
- Pine cones
- Nature finds: pieces of bark from a tree, feathers, flowers, sticks, etc
- Googly eyes
- Hot glue gun
Directions:
Step 1: This craft doesn’t need a whole lot of explanation. I pretty much just showed them the pictures for inspiration and let them tell me where stuff should go. This craft does require an adult’s help because you really need a hot glue gun because sticks and certain pieces of bark can be so heavy that standard glue doesn’t hold. I would just put dabs of glue on the area of the pine cone my boys wanted to decorate and then let them place the materials on.
Happy Crafting,
Gina
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