5 Nature Crafts for Your Kids and You

Getting outside with your kids is a wonderful way to spend some time together, get some exercise and connect with nature. Making art and crafts together is pretty cool, too. Combine everything together, and you can start creating some sweet stuff that celebrates nature.

Anything you or your kids create can, of course, be kept and enjoyed for a long time to come. However, being made from natural materials, your creations can be dismantled at some point and returned to the earth or composted.

Get out in the garden or the woods and start a nature scavenger hunt with your kids for sticks, feathers, pinecones, and leaves. Be aware of your surroundings and very careful about what your little ones get their hands into. Be sure not to allow over-harvesting or even any harvesting of certain live plants or wildflowers.

1. Make Your Own Glue and Paint

Source: X_DIYFORLIFE_X/YouTube

Using natural materials is all well and good, but if you paint rocks or sticks with plastic-based paints or hot glue your twigs together, then returning them to nature or your compost pile becomes a no-no!

If you really want to keep things all-natural, have a go at making some glue and paints for yourself out of things you can find in your pantry. There are lots of recipes for glue made from items such as flour, vinegar, baking soda, rice, or a bit of corn syrup.

2. Leaf Collages

Source: The Woodland Trust/YouTube

First of all, you will need a whole supply of leaves. This craft will be especially relevant during autumn when leaves can be collected from the ground and come in a rainbow of colors.

Depending on the age of the child, an adult may or may not have to do the cutting part of this craft. Cut out some tree trunk and branch shapes from an old brown paper bag or recycled brown box. Often the inside of cereal or cracker boxes is brown.

Have the child stick the trunk and bare branches to a large piece of paper. Next, the child can glue foraged leaves and fallen flower blossoms to the branches to create their own mega tree.

Alternatively, the trunk and branches of the tree can be drawn onto paper first. Then, the child can tear up brown leaves and glue pieces inside the shape of the trunk.

3. Nature Looms

Source: Mother Natured | Nature Play for Kids/YouTube

This craft is truly one that can just return to the earth as it requires no glue or paint of any description. To make individual nature looms, each kid will need their own ‘Y’-shaped twig. For larger or group looms, you could use the space between two fence railings or posts.

Whichever size you are working with, criss-cross natural twine between the space so that you create a loom. You are looking for tight strings that the kids can weave grasses, leaves, flowers, and feathers through.

For larger fence rail looms, the looms can potentially remain long term with the weaving becoming an ongoing garden project.

4. DIY Markmaking Nature Paintbrushes

Source: Meghan Parker/YouTube

If you have made your own eco-paints, why not have a go at making the paint brushes, too? First, have your kids find a bunch of straightish sticks about the size and thickness of regular paintbrushes. Though, there is nothing to say you can’t make monster-sized brushes if you have monster-sized paper!

Next, collect smaller twigs, leaves, or nuts, and berries still attached to twigs—anything that can be bunched together to make the ‘bristles’ of the brush.

You can either help your child to attach the ‘bristles’ to the sticks using natural twine or if you plan on dismantling the brushes afterward, use a rubber band that can be reused afterward.

5. Installations and Sculptures from Natural Materials

Source: Library Arts Center/YouTube

Taking a moment to show your kids some art by Andy Goldsworthy should have your little artists raring to get out into nature to create their own nature sculptures.

The wonderful thing about this kind of art is that it simply uses what can be found onsite.  There is no glue, no tape, no paint. What’s more, the sculpture or installation gets left behind right where it was created.

If you return to the art with your child a little later, they may find that it is not quite how they left it. This is living art. Rain, wind, or even the accidental steps of passersby or critters will change the art each day. Encourage your child to understand that this is part of the process and fun.

Related Content:

• DIY Projects to Make the Most of Fallen Branches
• Holiday Decorations You Can Make from Natural Materials
• DIY Decorations for Thanksgiving Dinner
• DIY All-Natural Art Supplies For Your Kids (With 7 Simple Recipes)

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