above: little Indi with her latest ‘rock drop’
8 Fun Nature Art Activities for Kids
There’s more to art than using just paper, paint and glue. With a whole world outside, nature art opens up so many opportunities for our kids to have fun and learn. With messy play being one of the best ways our children learn new skills, the outdoors provides many wonderful experiences we can’t replicate indoors.
Creating nature art is a fun and affordable way to engage in messy play. It’s also a wonderful opportunity to teach our kids about caring for their environment. We’ve put together some of our favourite nature art activities for you and your kids to share together.
Top Nature Art Activities for Children
Thomas Berry, a famous priest and environmental advocate, once said, “Teaching children about the natural world should be seen as one of the most important events in their lives.” As parents, one of our jobs is to help our kids develop an understanding of how the world works. By actively encouraging them to embrace the outdoors, we are setting the seeds of them caring for the environment.
Participating in nature art is one way we can do this. Here are our favourite environmental art activities:
- Land art – using natural resources such as stones and shells, create patterns and pictures on the ground.
- Flower printing – collect flowers to dip in paint and press onto a surface to make pictures.
- Weaving – collect driftwood on a beach walk and using wool and other materials, create a woven masterpiece.
- Painted rocks – perfect for helping kids stay active, hunting and hiding painted rocks outdoors.
- Build musical instruments – sticks and stones are great tools to start making instruments with, such as drum sticks and shakers.
- Make a collage – take a nature walk and collect a range of natural materials (a scavenger hunt is always fun)! Then use a piece of large sturdy paper and stick them on the paper to make a collage.
- Pinecone sculptures – collect up pinecones and stick them together to create sculptures. Kids could even glue things onto the pinecones to make creatures with.
- Footprint art – find a large piece of tough paper and a few muddy puddles and let the stopping begin!
Having Fun with Kids in the Outdoors
There are also so many different ways to have fun with kids outdoors. A winter beach trip to dig in the sand and forage is a must. Why not create sandcastles as a family for your nature art activity? Or perhaps create a vegetable garden at home with the kids? Decorating their plates with cut up home grown veges is heaps of fun! How about some ice chalk painting on the concrete outside? It’s sure to be a hit!
One of the best ways to keep your kids clean and dry during their nature play is to wear the right protective clothing. Our range of coveralls, overpants, craft aprons and shoe covers are perfect for the job. Head over to our online store to order yours now!
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nature art ideas for kids – leaf painting process art
When my little girl Indi and I recently did another local ‘rock drop’, our walk back home resulted in this really sweet nature art activity that Indi absolutely loved.
above: little Indi with her latest ‘rock drop’
All you need for your nature art activity is a few leaves and some paint. We used mess free chalk paint which looks really effective and makes clean up time a breeze!
If you don’t have chalk paint, you could also use permanent markers or regular tempera paint.
My little girl Indi was more than happy to simply colour in her leaves. I chose a very basic, paint half, pattern half technique that most children should be able to do with minimal help.
Thinking of which, the ‘pattern half, paint half’ technique could make for a really cute ‘leaf domino’ game!
Materials –
- leaves
- paint OR textas/permanent markers
- developing fine motor skills
- learning about colours (incidental , based on what colours your child selects)
- connecting with nature
- relaxation and mindfulness
To extend learning you could also have your child –
- count the leaves (using 1 to 1 correspondence)
- order the leaves according to size
- look at veins on the leaves and investigate how plants/trees grow and ‘drink’
- use the leaves for a simple leaf resist rubbing activity
I’m not too sure what we are going to do with our little leaf art work, but I do have a few cute ideas in mind that I may try out with Indi later.
For more cute and simple art process activities to do with children you may like this post HERE.
Till next time, thanks for stopping by!
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