We enjoy taking part in #30DaysWild, a challenge run by The Wildlife Trusts encouraging people to do one ‘random act of wildness’ each day in June. My children love doing crafts and we enjoy trying to incorporate a few nature crafts and activities into our random acts of wildness. Of course, you don’t have to be taking part in a challenge to enjoy some nature crafts but if you are taking part in #30DaysWild, here are ten ideas for nature crafts and activities that you could try:
1) Nature masks
These nature masks are simple and fun to make using items collected from the garden or out on a walk. All you need is some cardboard, a craft stick, glue, scissors and a selection of nature items to decorate your mask.
2) Nature fashion accessories
Using items from nature to make fashion accessories can be as simple as making daisy chains together, threading leaves to make a necklace or sticking them on to a cardboard ring to make a leaf crown. You can also make simple nature bracelets in a similar way to the leaf crown.
3) Nature fairy wands
These nature fairy wands are so simple to make and have been a favourite with my girls. Simply wrap pipe cleaners around a stick and then insert flowers and leaves to make your fairy wand. You can also add ribbons or other decorations if you wish.
4) Rainbow leaf printing
This is such a simple activity but the finished prints are so pretty. To make your own, colour the underside of a leaf in rainbow colours, press your leaf on to a piece of paper and lift to see the finished print. You can try different shaped leaves to see the different effects or use different colours and use the leaf print as a starting point for some doodles. See what different prints we created here.
5) Leaf monsters
Leaf monsters are simple and fun to make and little ones can let their imagination run wild. All you need are some leaves, googly eyes and pens.
6) Solar oven
This is a great science activity to do with kids on a hot and sunny day. We had fun trying to bake some cookies in our solar oven but I’ve heard that s’mores work well in a solar oven. I’m hoping that we’ll have some hot weather later this summer to give that one a try. You can find the instructions to make a solar oven and read more about our experience here.
7) Rain gauge
Rain is pretty much guaranteed in a British summer so why not take advantage of it and make a rain gauge? This is a great learning activity to do with children on a rainy day – all you need is a plastic bottle, some stones and a marker pen.
8) Butterfly feeder
We love watching caterpillars transform into butterflies and seeing all the different butterflies that visit our garden. This butterfly feeder is simple to make and a great way to try and encourage more butterflies to visit.
9) Toilet roll bird feeders
These bird feeders are simple for little ones to make (although can be a bit messy!) We’ve made these a few times to try and encourage more birds to visit our garden.
10) Wormery
Making a wormery is a great learning activity for helping children observe worms and learn more about what they do to the soil in the garden.
This year will be our fifth year taking part in #30DaysWild and I’m sure we’ll be revisiting some of these activities. If you’re joining in too, why not give one (or more!) of these a try too? You can also read more about the other activities we’ve enjoyed doing for #30DaysWild here.
What lovely ideas! Particularly loving those masks! #MMBC
Thank you Jo. The masks were one of my favourite activities.
As a former early years practitioner I love this post #kidsandkreativity@_karendennis
Thank you Karen
So many great ideas!
Thank you Michele
These are such lovely ideas 🙂 Love the rainbow leaf printing! #MMBC
Thank you Hannah. The rainbow leaf printing is one of my favourites – we’re definitely going to be doing this one again for #30DaysWild
I love these ideas. The solar oven is brilliant – marshmallows would be fun to cook. I guess they’d probably get really sticky!
#MMBC
I think they probably would too! I’m hoping we’ll get some warm weather soon so I can give them a try.
What fun ideas. I miss my girls being little and enjoying doing things like these. x
I can imagine. The solar oven would probably still be a fun one to do though.
Fantastic ideas to do outside in nature X #mmbc
Thank you Sam
What fun crafts and activities! I love them all but I especially like the nature fairy wands what a brilliant idea. x
Thanks Jayne. The nature fairy wands were a big hit with my girls.
The Fairy Wands would be such a hit here I am definitely going to try this with my twins when we go camping. We have daisy chains on the agenda here tomorrow #MischiefandMemories
The fairy wands are a favourite here. Hope you have fun making them.
I love leaf printing and hadn’t thought of using rainbow colours. I have been teaching some of the children in my class how to make daisy chains! Thanks for linking up with #MischiefAndMemories
The rainbow colours are really effective with the leaf printing.
Oh my gosh, these ideas are sooooo cute! I really love the masks and fairy wands. I think we’ll have to give these a go this week. Thank you for joining us for #mischiefandmemories xx
Thank you, hope you have fun making them.
Some great ideas! I love the solar oven, not thought of making one before. Thanks for sharing at #KidsandKreativity, hope to see you back next time.
The solar oven was lots of fun – I’m waiting for the warm weather to return so we can try it again.