Now that the weather has warmed up, we are spending a lot more time outside. My son loves nature – climbing trees, hunting for bugs and picking flowers. I don’t have to do much convincing when it comes to getting him outside. But I do like to encourage his love of nature and use it as learning opportunity.
I like to take a five-step approach to each nature activity. First, Explore and Observe. If you want your children to learn about flowers, you should first venture out into your backyard or a local park. Take time to look around and talk with your kids about what flowers they see, where they are growing, what type of weather they seem to prefer, whether any bugs are nearby. I like to hand my son a magnifying glass, and he will spend hours observing the behavior of ants. I encourage him to ask questions and come up with hypotheses.
Second, Record. Bring along a camera or journal so your kids can record their observations. When we hike, we make regular stops so my son can draw pictures in his nature journal or take photos with my iPhone.
Third, Collect. Bring some specimens home (if the park allows it) and store them in a scrapbook or jar. I always keep a bag or two in my pocket when we hike, and my son has a large collection of jars in our backyard that are always full of bugs, moss, rocks or flowers. Many of his specimens are placed in scrapbooks.
Fourth, Create. Natural objects make great art supplies! Your child can create a crown out of flowers, a magic wand out of a stick or a sculpture out of rocks. For more ideas on ways to create art of nature, check out my Pinterest board.
Fifth, Research. Use a computer or the library to identify what you found and to learn whether your observations were correct. We like to research and label our specimens in the scrapbooks and jars.
Here are 75 activities that are sure to inspire a love of nature in your child:
Get Outdoors
- Hiking
- Camping
- Biking
- Explore the backyard
- Fly a kite
- Play in a creek
- Blow bubbles
- Set up a mud kitchen or mud garden in your backyard
- Spend the day at the beach, river or lake
- Make a tree house
- Jump in puddles
- Catch fireflies
- Stargazing
- Visit a national park
- Make play food out of leaves and sticks or flower soup
- Make an outdoor kitchen
- Set up a play garden just for kids
Explore
- Bug hunting and identification
- Look for different types of spider webs/homes
- Geocaching
- Scavenger hunt by color (color walks or rainbow hunts)
- Scavenger hunt with a written list or photos for younger children
- Scavenger hunt for specific types of plants and animals
- Bird watching
- Field bags or nature inquiry bags
- Use a magnifying glass to explore up close
- Go gem mining
- Create nature sensory/play trays
Observe
- Make a weather chart
- Make a rain gauge
- Make a worm farm
- Make an ant farm
- Make a toad house from a cracked pot
- Identify different clouds
- Make a birdbath
- Collect tadpoles
- Make a butterfly feeder
- Make a hummingbird feeder
- Build a bug hotel
- Make a roly-poly terrarium
Record
- Start a nature journal with drawings and notes about what you see
- Make a nature photo album
- Nature scrapbook using slide sheets or wax paper
Collect
- Collect your nature finds in jars
- Use an old printer’s tray to store rock collections
- Make a nature museum in your home
Create
- Make a terrarium
- Rock stacking
- Rock art
- Create fairy gardens in pots or on the ground
- Make nature rubbings
- Paint sticks or driftwood
- Paint rocks
- Make plantable paper
- Make a flower press
- Make a stick boat and set sail
- Make suncatchers using flowers and leaves
- Make a water garden
- Make a cactus garden
- Make a sensory tray using real growing grass or grow grass in sponges
- Make a garden-themed sensory box
- Make a crown out of leaves and flowers
- Make flower mandalas
- Make a natural wind chime
- Use flowers as paintbrushes
- Make a walking stick
- Doodle on leaves
- Make leaf creatures
- Make planters out of old books
- Create acorn jewelry
- Weave with branches
Help
- Plant a tree
- Pick up trash at a local park
- Make bird feeders
- Make and gift seed bombs
For more fun nature activities for kids, check out my Pinterest board or see this post with 30 ideas for fun things to do outside with kids. I also post many of our nature excursions and finds on Instagram.
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