Nature Activities

It is finally starting to feel like spring where we live and we have been trying to spend every possible second outside, soaking up the sunshine and fresh air. With playing outside, comes lots of nature activities for us!

I love the combination of nature, cardboard and contact paper. They create such simple but beautiful crafts. Here are some nature activities that combine all three of those materials!

Nature Easter Bunny

If you tried out our Color Combining Bunnies, you may have ended up with bunny outlines after cutting the bunny shapes out of cardboard. I’m a strong believer in not wasting any parts of a craft so I created a new craft out of those outlines.

Simply place contact paper to the back of the bunny outline, with the sticky part facing up. Then, gather pieces of nature, such as flower petals, and have your child stick them to the contact paper.

What You Will Need:

Cardboard, contact paper, exacto knife, nature (flower petals)

Directions:

Cut a bunny shape out of cardboard with an exacto knife
Place contact paper on the back side of the bunny outline with the sticky side facing up
Collect pieces of nature such as flower petals
Have child decorate the bunny by placing the nature onto the contact paper

You can change this activity up for any season by cutting out different shapes and using different nature materials that are in season. We also made a moose version that was a lot of fun in the winter season.

3-D Nature Suncatcher

The flowers my husband gave me for Valentine’s Day were at the point where quite a few of them were dead so they didn’t look very pretty anymore but there were still some that were alive so I felt bad throwing them out. My solution…make a craft with them!

Usually my crafts are geared more towards my three year old OR my one year old but this craft was perfect for BOTH!

How We Made This 3-D Suncatcher:

First, I did not have a cute, brown cardboard box that was the correct size, so, I took a diaper box and flipped it inside out. I did this by opening the top and the bottom of the box and then cutting one of the sides at the edge. Then I flipped it all inside out so that the brown was on the outside and the writing was on the inside. Next, I folded it back into a box shape and hot glued it back together

Once my box was all brown on the outside, I cut squares out of each side and then cut out pieces of contact paper to fit slightly larger than each cutout. I then placed a piece of contact paper inside of each opening with the sticky portion facing out.

Note: The last piece of contact paper is a little tricky to fit in but it is possible to do!

Next, I had my sons stick flower petals to each side of the contact paper cube.

Finally, I placed a piece of contact paper on each side of the cube, over the flower petals to seal the cube.

What You Will Need:

Cardboard box, box cutter, contact paper, flower petals

Directions:

Cut a square out of each side of the box
Cut a piece of contact paper for each side of the box, slightly larger than the cutouts
Place a piece of cardboard on the inside of each cutout, with the sticky side facing out
Have your child stick flower petals to the contact paper
Place another layer of contact paper over top of the flower petals to seal them in

Inspired by: The Artful Parent https://artfulparent.com/our-natur-suncatcher-box/

Sticky Scavenger Hunt

This is a fun twist on a typical nature scavenger hunt. You can stick the nature pieces that you find right to the board!

How We Made This Sticky Scavenger Hunt:

First, I cut out a piece of cardboard and wrote down the different nature objects that I wanted my son to find. I personally looked around our yard a bit to see what he would be able to find before making the list but you don’t necessarily have to do this.

Next, I taped a piece of contact paper to the front of the cardboard, overtop of the writing, with the sticky side facing up.

That was it! It was super simple to make! It took about 5 minutes to create and my son had a great time searching for the nature items.

What You Will Need:

Cardboard, marker/pen, contact paper, tape

Directions:

Cut out a piece of cardboard
Write down different nature objects that you want your child to find
Tape a piece of contact paper overtop of the writing with the sticky side facing up
Have your child search for the nature objects and stick them to the board when they find them

Inspired by: Little Pine Learner