Nature Art Through Early Childhood: Timeline, Photos, Descriptions by

0-1 years: Sensory Nature Bags

sumnernicole — 2024-03-27 23:57:41 UTC

Introduce natural elements without the worry of them putting things in their mouths. Fill clear, sturdy, sealable plastic bags with water and add natural items like leaves, flowers, twigs, and small stones. Seal the bags and let babies explore the colors, shapes, and movements inside the sensory bag. "What do you feel? What happens when you push your hands on the objects?"

1-2 years: Nature Painting

sumnernicole — 2024-03-27 23:57:42 UTC

Bring out the thick, non-toxic washable paint, put blobs of paint on the table surface and let toddlers dip natural items like leaves, branches, or flowers into the paint, then press them onto paper. "What textures and colors are you feeling and seeing? What shapes?

2-3 years: Simple Nature Collages

sumnernicole — 2024-03-27 23:57:43 UTC

Collect leaves, petals, sticks, and anything else you find outside. Using glue on a large piece of paper or cardboard, let the children arrange their collected items to create their own piece of nature art. What's happening in your picture? How did you arrange your natural elements?

3-4 years: Nature Clay Impressions

sumnernicole — 2024-03-27 23:57:44 UTC

Roll out a slab of air-dry clay and have children press different natural items like leaves, shells, or stones into it. Once the impressions are made, remove the items and let the clay dry. This can then be painted or left as is. Let the children arrange the clay impressions. "What happens when you press the shell in deeply? What happens when you press lightly?" "What are some ways you can arrange the different shapes and sizes?"

4-5 years: Fairy and Dinosaur Gardens

sumnernicole — 2024-03-27 23:57:45 UTC

Help children create a magical garden for fairies or dinosaurs. Incorporate small plants, moss, rocks, twigs, and even small toys. This encourages imaginative play as well as a connection to the living elements of nature. Who lives here and how did they build their little home?

5-6 years: Nature Weaving

sumnernicole — 2024-03-27 23:57:46 UTC

Set up a simple loom using sticks and yarn for the frame. Children can weave in flexible twigs, grasses, feathers, and leaves to create textured pieces of art. This activity enhances fine motor skills and teaches the principles of weaving, using nature's own materials. "What was challenging about it? How did you find ways to weave using all these different objects?"

3-5 years: Making Pictures with Plant Parts

sumnernicole — 2024-03-28 00:59:08 UTC

Go on a plant part finding trip with students. Collect parts for making faces. Find a place to spread the parts out, and start with free play with the parts, providing general prompts like What shape does it look like? What happens when you connect two different plant parts together on the ground? What else can you make it look like? See if children reconstruct flowers, make suns, faces, animals, etc. While children play, document with photos. Stand in a circle around the plant parts. Ask students "What did you make? Can you tell me about it?"" What happens if you squint your eyes? What does this part look like?"

4 years old: Creating a Tree with Nature

2024-04-05 23:03:23 UTC

Introduce a nature walk to the children, allowing them to explore and collect any natural elements. Once arrived back in the classroom, pass out the materials. Trace the shape of a tree trunk and branches onto the paper. (The kids can even draw their own if you choose!) Cut the tree trunk out and glue onto a sheet of blue construction paper. Assort the items collected from the nature walk in your own creative way. Then, glue them on the blue paper and let it dry.

Open ended question: What kind of natural elements do you see? What kind of colors are around us in our environment?

4-6 years old nature paint brushes and stamps

2024-04-06 07:09:19 UTC

This lesson can be fully completed outdoors! You could start by taking the kids outside and asking the children to go around and find leaves and flowers of different sizes and patterns. They can either use these leaves and flowers as paint brushes or they could use them as stamps which is shown in the image above. An open-ended question I may ask the students could be, "What differences did you see between the natural material and the stamp it created?" Or I could ask, "What materials worked better than others as either a stamp or natural paint brush?" There are many open-ended questions that can be used in this activity and I think this is a great outdoor activity that will be a lot of fun to participate in!

3 to 4 years old: Leaf Painting

2024-04-06 17:27:20 UTC

Introduce: Start by taking the children on a nature walk to collect leaves of various shapes and sizes. It encourages them to observe the differences in the leaves they find, such as the veins, colors, and textures. Painting with leaves is a creative and engaging activity for children to explore fall colorings and nature through art. This process art activity allows children to use artificial fall leaves as paintbrushes, encouraging them to test with specific movements and take a look at color blending. It's far an amusing and academic manner for children to learn about leaf shapes, colorations, and artistic expression. The children allow exploration painting with different types of leaves such as mixed colors, overlap paints, etc. I may ask open-ended questions for children “How do you use different leaves to change your artwork? Or what do you like about your painting on leaf painting? I think the children can participate in enjoyment and fun. They learn to create their leaf painting in their activity.

4-6 years old | Leaf Rubbing Art

2024-04-09 01:37:00 UTC

First introduce to the children that they need to collect a variety of different shapes and sized leaves during the nature walk. When the children go back to the classroom the teacher will hand out paper, a piece of cardboard, and crayons. Then the children will place the leaf onto the cardboard and then on top of the leaf place the paper where the children want to shade that specific leaf. This will continue throughout the paper with different colors, shapes, and sizes of the leaves. When doing this activity I could ask the children “do you think this would work with flowers?” and “how would it be different if you were to use markers or colored pencils instead?”

3-5 year olds creating images with nature

2024-04-11 02:32:41 UTC

First have students go on a nature walk, where they will also be able to pick up any natural items like rocks, leaves, flowers etc. children will then create images with the items collected. Kids can create faces, shapes, animals, etc.

some of the questions that can be asked are how do the items you chose feel? What do you think you can create with the items and how would you arrange them? How did you decide what items to use in your artwork or why did you choose those specific items?

AGES 4-6 YEARS OLD; AUTUM LEAF PAINTING WITH PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

2024-04-11 03:02:27 UTC

Introduction: First what i will be doing is Collecting leaves can be a wonderful activity! Whether it's before the kids arrive or with them, it's a great opportunity to engage with nature and explore the environment. Using a shallow box is a practical way to gather the leaves without damaging them. Plus, it allows for easy observation and sorting later on. What do you plan to do with the leaves once you've collected them? then the teachers will be Covering the table with paper is a smart move—it makes for easy cleanup and allows the kids to freely express themselves without worrying about making a mess. Mixing colors with white is a clever technique to create more opaque and vibrant shades, especially when painting over leaf colors. Hanging the materials in bags behind the kids' work area sounds organized and accessible, ensuring they can easily reach for whatever they need. What kind of materials did you provide for painting? The children will then creative freedom, which is fantastic for fostering their artistic expression and independence. Painting leaves and using them to print on paper is a wonderful idea—it allows them to explore different textures and patterns. And for those who preferred to save their painted leaves, it's great to encourage them to cherish their creations. Setting up newspaper for drying is a practical solution to keep the workspace tidy.

It's also great that you set boundaries for safety while still allowing them to explore their interests. Splattering paint can be a lot of fun and a great way to experiment with different techniques, as long as it's done responsibly. Allowing them to follow their curiosity fosters a sense of ownership over their creations and encourages them to engage with the activity in a way that feels most fulfilling to them. How did the painting session turn out? Some open ended questions that i will ask the children during this activity will be for example, What type of lines do you see on the leaf? How does the leaf feel when you touch it? How are the veins on a big leaf different than on a small leaf? Due to the children learning about leaf painting I found this quote interesting that I could possibly include and also important to encourage creativity and learn to tree identify to also learn about animals. pratice writing and increase vocabulary as well. “By working with natural objects, children are exploring their different textures, shapes, and colors, all while building fine-motor skills,” says Davis. At the same time, painting with different items—say, a leaf- gives kids an intro to the specific concept of cause and effect."

18-24 months: Leaf Painting

najwaali2021 — 2024-04-11 20:34:43 UTC

Description: For this activity, have the children collect different leaves from outside. Provide them with paint, paintbrushes, and tactile rollers so they can each paint a leaf. Let the children each pick out their paint color and give them the option to paint with their fingers as well.

Question: What do you think children can learn from this activity?

2-3 years: Simple Nature Collage

2024-04-12 03:02:06 UTC

First I would talk about what is a nature walk. Then I would

take the children on a nature walk allowing them to gather and investigate all the elements of nature. Once we were back in the classroom I would let the children pick out what color of construction paper they wanted to use to make their collage. The next step would be while using the glue that was provided for them the children will glue the items that they collected from the nature walk on a piece of construction paper in their own creative way.

Question for the children: "What colors do you see in the collage?"

Leaf Stamp Painting

2024-04-12 04:37:52 UTC

In this project, I take the children out around outside the preschool and tell them to pick out their favorite leaves. This activity is best done during fall when there are shriveled leaves scattered across the ground. Some questions I ask while we go out into nature looking for materials are: Why did you choose those leaves? What does the leaves feel like in your hand? Are they crunchy? Are there short or long lines on the leaves? After each student picked out their favorite leaves, I take the students back inside to finger paint the leaves with a color paint of their choice. I demo for them and they follow me leaf stamping the painted leaves on their paper.

5/6 years old: Nature Art Tree

2024-04-12 16:19:22 UTC

While on a nature walk, I encouraged children to look for pieces of a tree. This included leaves, flowers, acorns, sticks, bark and even rocks. One student found a small red heart patch and decided it belonged on the tree, too. I had previously drawn the outline of a tree which included its trunk and some branches at the top. Once we had collected our findings, I applied glue on the top part of the tree and on the trunk and bottom of the tree. The children applied their findings to the tree as they wanted to.

Open ended questions: “What are the parts of a tree?” “What grows on trees?” “What colors do we see on our tree?” “Why did we add a heart to the tree?”

4-5 years old

2024-04-13 00:35:08 UTC

Question: When you imagine your flower what colors do you see?

This artistic expression exercise I have created will involve imagination and interpretation of nature. The children will first be asked to imagine a flower of their own unique vision. The flower does not have to be conventional in size, color, or shape. The materials I will provide will be mixed media paper, leaves, twigs, colored pencils, and flowers of various sizes and hues. I chose to make my flower circular, with green leaves on the perimeter, and flower petals in the interior. I enjoy the contrasts of colors and the kids will hopefully have fun experimenting with the color options as well.

Yvonne Chin

3-5 Years Old: Flower/Leaf Collage

2024-04-13 03:08:26 UTC

Children will be able to use glue, watercolors, markers, crayons, and a piece of cardboard, we will gather leaves and any flower parts that we were able to find outside. Then the children will be able to create their own masterpiece by adhering the leaves and flowers to the paper, then they will be able to paint the leaves and flowers, once paint has dried children will have the option to use markers, crayons to add details to make their own picture. Children will be able to use their imagination and creativity in this exercise. This exercise promotes and strengthens the development of fine motor skills development by allowing the children to feel and explore various patterns and textures. An excellent method to make memories as a family while allowing each member to produce their own piece.

Ages 4-6: Nature Scavenger Hunt

2024-04-13 07:05:51 UTC

This is an activity that I like to do with my kids and nieces when we're outside and don't have any outdoor equipment to play with. The reason why this activity is called "Nature Scavenger Hunt" is because the kids have to walk around the apartment complexes and look for anything that they can use to make "nature art" with. This is a fun activity and it usually motivates the kids to see who can make the best art piece amongst the others. It's also nice to see the different types of plants that they find to add to their artwork.

4-6 years: Creative thinking

2024-04-13 15:48:09 UTC

This activity is led by teachers and then the students have free reign on how they want to design their trees. Starts with the teacher taking the kids outside of their classroom to collect any leaves, flowers, or sticks or they can collect materials at home and then bring them into the classroom for this project. Then to make the trees the students use their forearms and hands traced on brown construction paper and then cut out the trace with scissors. My open-ended question to students would be, "Can you use materials like leaves, flowers, or sticks for other forms of 3D art?" This question would allow them to think creatively about how they can use materials from nature to make other forms of art.

4-5 years. Nature Self Portrait

2024-04-13 16:29:34 UTC

Description: I made an example of how I would conduct this activity by using Canva. I would have students go out and collect their ideal natural materials. Then I would provide students with the blank portrait sheets and glue. After this, students are free to take their natural materials and make hair, a face, etc, on their portrait.

Question: What do you think students gain from creating self portraits in different mediums?

3-6 years. Spelling your name.

2024-04-13 17:24:12 UTC

One activity I recommend doing is nature hunt. Gather anything you can find such as leaves, flowers, sticks, etc. With your nature finds make a draft spelling your name. Once you’re done, with the help of glue and a piece of paper, start gluing! This creative activity encourages children to explore their environment and use their imagination.

Q: "What other words can you spell with your nature finds?"

Nature Watch: Collect a Rainbow

2024-04-13 18:54:14 UTC

In this activity, I am going to have the students find several different outdoor materials that are different colors and ask them to make a rainbow. Children can learn a lot from nature. The outdoors has many colorful things for them to explore, like leaves, flowers, and tree trunks. By looking at and touching these nature materials, kids can learn about colors and how they appear in the environment. These learning opportunities are all around us, and they help children appreciate the natural world.

Question: Do you think the children would enjoy this activity and do you think it's beneficial for them? Why or why not?

"I am a tree."

mherrera2_24 — 2024-05-14 23:10:16 UTC

2025-04-03 22:02:06 UTC

It was rainy, and the children collected sticks, leaves, grass, and flowers from outside. I tried to still feel like an outdoor activity. I stuck the transparent mat on the window so the children could see the trees and outdoor area. They tried to create their trees with the natural materials they collected. The children watched the outdoors and stuck the materials on the mat. This activity allows children to explore the color and texture of the materials. Also, this activity is good for fine motor skills. I asked them open-ended questions. How does it feel when you touch the materials? What color does the grass have? The stick, the flower, and the leaves. Is the flower smell? Palwasha

4-6 yrs - Spring is here! Let's be Botanists

2025-04-03 22:13:27 UTC

Berlin Gonzalez

Collect different flowers on a nature walk and photograph them. Have a class discussion about flowers and their differences and similarities. A preface book about flowers (ideally one kinda like this https://www.silvermoonkids.net/products/usborne-how-flowers-grow?variant=39329641889877&country=US¤cy=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&srsltid=AfmBOoo4khxCBovGY-RRHuhsWnX-lqtnDIIaWx0yK4o1xKBbbHskJdcEirc)

We can discuss where we found them (on the floor? In a Tree?), what colors do they have (petals and stems), what shapes are present (in the stems, leaves, petals, stigma, ect...) and then see if we can group some of them together.

After the discussion, assign groups to each flower type to create a figure illustration, and then make pressings of the to hold on to and reference for future discussions on nature

3-5 years: Making Faces with nature :)

2025-04-04 21:15:57 UTC

Me and my niece went into my backyard and looked for plants that we could create a face with! I made sure to tell my niece (3 years old) before we went outside to look for things that we could possibly make a face with. We ended up finding sunflowers and three leaf clovers, and my niece ended up arranging them as the photo shows above.

Q: What happens if you used a different leaf for the mouth? How can we make the face look surprised? -Elizabeth Mendoza

3-5 years: Making art in the snow/sand

katelynalee — 2025-04-06 03:54:52 UTC

Activity:

Children can create art in the snow, such as making snow people or igloos. This can also be done in the sand at the beach or something like that if snow is not available. Instead, the children can build sand castles if no snow is available for them to use.

Open-ended questions to prompt exploration:

How does the texture of the snow/sand affect the way the art is being made?

How can we be created in what we make with the material(s)?

How do you think that the snow/sand is formed?

What are some other ways in which we can save and persevere your artwork that you made out in nature?

3-5 years old: Making a Rainbow

2025-04-07 03:51:13 UTC

I realized that after I had already created mine that someone had done a similar activity from last year. The children should go outside and collect pieces of nature that they find that can help to simulate a rainbow pattern. Preferably, try to find natural elements that have already fallen on the ground/died so we do not have to pick off anything living (which is what I did here). After all of the materials are collected, either inside, or outside on a flat surface, organize them in the color of the rainbow.

Questions: What part of the rainbow is rainbow is the softest? What part is the roughest? What part is the crunchiest? Which piece is the biggest? Which piece is the smallest? What are everyone’s favorite colors that they can find in their rainbow? Are there any colors that are in the world that are not included in the rainbow? What kinds of fruits/vegetables could we use to make a rainbow pattern? What causes a rainbow in the sky?

3-5 years: Nature Portraits

2025-04-07 18:26:56 UTC

Going outside and gathering loose materials (ie. picking up fallen twigs, not plucking any petals or leaves from plants but instead gathering them from the ground once fallen, etc.) wither by yourself or in partners. Pick someone or something to create a portrait of with the materials that were gathered. In this picture, I tried to make a portrait of my dog using the materials I gathered.

Questions: What are some materials you used to create your art and what would happen if you replaced one piece of material for another-- how does it change your art?

Playing with sand-Lorena Nunez

2025-04-07 23:23:14 UTC

Ages: 4-6 years old

For this activity children have the opportunity to explore sand. Children are going to be offered a tray with dry sand or wet sand. They are provided with seashells, cups, molds and other items you might use at the beach. With the items provided they can create sandcastles and play with the items.

Open-ended questions: What does sand feel like? What can dry sand do that wet sand can't? What do you want to build today? What would happen if we put the sand in this basket? What do you do at the beach with your family? What have you found in the sand at the beach? What animals can we find at the beach or live in the sand at the beach?

3-5 years old - Nature Watch: Collect a Rainbow

2025-04-08 03:57:16 UTC

Description: I was able to go outdoors with the children I work with to create a rainbow out of nature. I started by asking them what items we can find outdoors and what allows them to grow. Then I prepared a piece of cardstock paper with two-sided tape to stick the items on. After that we were able to walk around the neighborhood and explore items similar to the colors provided on the paper. As the children looked around they were able to noticed different shapes, sizes, and textures of the items. The looked above trees and down to the ground. They were very engaged in looking for items to match the color of the each circle. (I took a picture of the activity a week later, that is why the colors are not as vibrant)

Open-Ended Questions:

Can you think of another area in which we could search for more items?
What do each of the colors remind you of?
Are there any other colors we can find outdoors?

Nature Exploration textures (4 months- 13months)

2025-04-08 15:08:31 UTC

Throughout my substitute work, I recall the activity with my co-worker. I wanted to introduce the infants (4-13 months) to the outdoors to explore various natural objects such as grass, rocks, leaves, and flowers. In this activity, we have each baby on the grass to feel and observe where they are sitting. As for the babies who know or are learning how to walk, we would make them walk through the grass and feel a small tree to recognize the texture and explore where the leaves are from.

Questions for the children (on what I recall asking them): Is it too rough or soft? Can you pick this up (when I give or introduce them to a leaf or a pebble)?

-Rhayna Murillo

REPLICATED 3-6 years. Spelling your name.

2025-04-08 19:33:00 UTC

I chose to replicate an Idea that someone already did. This activity requires students to explore nature and find loose items (rocks, fallen leaves, twigs, etc.) and spell out their own name using those nature items. When I was attempting this activity myself I had a really hard time finding items that were straight and that I was able to spell my name with. and Once I completed it I took a picture and then put all the pieces back where I found them and when I went to submit it I realized I spelled my name WRONG. I was so focused on making the project look like nice and uniform that I misspelled my own name. So not only is this activity a good way top connect students to nature it helps to reenforce the spelling of their name AND multitasking.

Q: what other challenges do you think come with this activity?

Q: Did you have a hard time finding the "right" materials to make this art piece the way you wanted it to look?

My Nature Letter (3-5 yrs old)

2025-04-08 19:36:58 UTC

This activity is for ages 3 to 5 years old.

For this activity, you grab a piece of paper, marker, and glue/tape. The educator would write the letter of the child's name on the paper and let them explore outside to grab piece of nature to make their letter. Encourage the children to. grab thing that have already been on the floor and not pull or tears things from plants/trees. As they stuck their materials on, they get to see their letter be with nature.

Open-Ended Questions:

What made you picks those flowers out for your letter?

How could have the environment we were in could have been different if we were in winter?

3-5 years: Nature Butterfly

2025-04-09 02:07:59 UTC

For this activity children were able to go outside and look for any lose items, some flowers had fallen from the tree in which they used for their petals. They also found a lot of leafs and sticks that helped with their creation. For those who went out to grab the lose items they glue into a paper designed like a butterfly and they got to make it their own way without any direction.

Question: Which flowers do you consider good and bad for this creation? How many leafs and sticks do you think it's enough? Do the leafs have different texture? What about shape and color?

3-5: Create Your Own Nest

epang5050 — 2025-04-09 02:52:37 UTC

Description: This lesson can be done fully outside. Using sticks and other materials you find outside, create a nest like how birds build their nests. Kids can decide how they wants to make their nests. whether realistically, circular, triangular, or with lots of holes extremely spread out.

Questions: How do you think birds make their nests sturdy? Are there materials we could use other than sticks? How do we make buildings sturdy?

3-5 years: Creating and building houses with Nature

2025-04-09 02:53:53 UTC

I chose to follow a similar activity. The activity requires for students to find different sizes of sticks, leaves, and more in order to create a house. Students will go outside and use what they find to decorate their house and use different supplies to build the structure.

Open Ended Questions:

How did you choose what materials you wanted?

What materials did you choose to make the house out of?

Rianna Alvarez - Nature Art Through Early Childhood

2025-04-12 02:40:30 UTC

3-4.5 years. Have kids go out in nature and collect leaves and flowers. One thing I would change from this photo is to have kids pick out twigs and have that as the trunk of the tree. I would ask questions such as, “How different are your leaves in sizes?” “What colors and are you seeing in your flowers?” “What shapes are you seeing in your leaves?”

3-6 years= Nature tree

2025-04-14 17:13:13 UTC

For this activity, you will need sticks and leaves found on the floor. You can use different types of decorations to add color to the activity, and for stability, you will need tape, glue, and play dough.

Students with teacher guidance can look for sticks and leaves around the backyard (or teacher can have them ready) after you guys can go into the art tables and the teacher can place the stick on a piece of play dough. Students can start decorating their sticks with leaves and in our case pom poms.

This activity came to mind during a windy day where the backyard floor was full of sticks and leaves and I decided to have a way to use this with our class.

Open-ended questions:

What can you use to decorate your tree?

Where do we find sticks and leaves?

-Maria Lomeli

1-4 Years: Flower Vase (Lindsey Day)

2025-05-01 21:22:26 UTC

How many colors and sizes can we find through various flowers in the community? Introduce creativity and help exercise fine motor skills through this cardboard vase activity. Find any piece of scrap cardboard and draw your vase of choice. Then, using something sharp with care, poke holes big enough for flower stems. Then, let the flower picking begin! You can walk in the park or your local neighborhood to find various flowers and colors. You can even incorporate a theme if desired.

3-6 year old: Nature Rainbow Walk

ksmith69_4 — 2025-05-15 23:21:39 UTC

For my project I decided to do a nature rainbow walk. I liked this project especially for young children because it is an opportunity to learn color material, be familiar with the nature that surrounds them everyday, and even be able to go outside and enjoy some fresh air while being able to be creative at the same time. This project offers for kids to express their creativity by finding things outside in nature that reflect the colors of the rainbow. Kids can find plants, insects, branches, flowers, feathers, rocks, sticks, and so much more full of many colorful options that they can decide on for their collage throughout their walk.

Questions: what colors were easy to find along your walk? What color(s) were most difficult to find? What other colors did you notice that were not apart of the color of the rainbow? Did you find things along your walk that were the colors of your rainbow, but were unable to grab it to attach for your collage?

NATURE BOARDS-

2025-07-20 23:58:17 UTC

Nature boards are a wonderful activity for Kindergarten because they combine creativity, fine motor skills, and outdoor exploration in a fun and engaging way. It encourages outdoor exploration which will promote curiosity about the natural world and seasonal changes. The activity will also boost creativity, encourage imagination and personal expression.

Open ended questions :

-Can you tell me about the nature items you chose and why you picked them?

-What do you notice about the plants or flowers you found?

-How are these leaves or flowers the same or different?

-What was tricky about putting your pieces in the board?

-What would happen if your board came to life?

-Rachel Nielsen

Rock painting story

2025-07-23 02:56:32 UTC

I chose rock painting for a creative way to engage 5 year olds in nature through artistic expression. Painting rocks is fun and artsy, but putting a twist on it can make it academic too. One question for students is: what story can you paint using rocks? This way you can engage their artistic expression but also involved a storyline and their thinking and literacy. Another question is: can you paint and solve equations? Using the rocks surface they can paint any numbers on rocks and use this nataurally made source as their math tables. -Leila Ganz

Flower art using leaves; grades K-2: Sophia A

2025-07-23 19:27:13 UTC

The class can take a trip outside and each student can find a leaf they like. When the students come inside they will paint their leaf, and stamp it onto the paper. They will stamp the leaves into a shape that makes a flower. The students can add more details to their leaf flowers once the paint has dried.

Leaf Portraits (4-6 years old)

2025-07-24 00:45:10 UTC

For this activity, invite children to explore the outdoors! Have them pick up leaves, flowers, or even sticks that they can use to create portraits of themselves. They may use them to resemble hair, accessories, and their mouths. Use cut up cardboard, draw an outline of their faces (leaving space for their hair), and give them to your students to customize and paste their nature findings. This is a great way for them to explore the different textures, patterns, and colors found within nature.

Question: What kinds of textures did you use to resemble your hair?

- Gabriella Montoya Fontillas

Nature Sun Catcher: 5-7 years old

2025-07-24 02:35:53 UTC

Sun catchers are a classic for young kids. With this version, students will cut out a sun (from a provided template) and I would help them place either clear contact paper or clear tape over one side of the circle. Then, students can collect flowers, leaves, or other relatively flat things from nature to put on their sun catcher. Students can even decorate their suns with other materials too!

Questions for students: How did you decide what you wanted on your sun catcher? What would you do differently next time?

Nature Walk & Art

2025-07-26 19:01:26 UTC

https://maps.app.goo.gl/AYVjyZeewxRMdHrP7

Gavriel Loeb

This is a great activity to do with young children. First, go on a hike and collect pretty, leaves, flowers, or sticks (without harming nature). When you return from the walk/hike, you can use glue to make a collage. You can also use your nature to place between sheets of paper and trace the textures. If you glue leaves down to make a collage, you can walk as they change color and age.

Question: How are nature and art similar and how are they different?

Creature Collage (ages 6-7)

astanton47 — 2025-07-28 01:51:32 UTC

For this activity, I’d take kids out to the schoolyard to collect things like leaves, petals, twigs, and acorns (anything already separated from its main source). Using what they find, they’ll create their own nature collage, making creatures like butterflies, caterpillars, or imaginary animals. Once they’ve gathered their materials, they’ll arrange and glue them onto paper to bring their ideas to life. This project is perfect for ages first graders because it builds creativity, strengthens their fine motor skills, and helps them see the beauty in nature. I’d ask them, “What kind of creatures can you make using only things you find outside?”

-Ashleigh Stanton

nature art- Isabella Veloso

2025-07-29 18:36:07 UTC

Description: Students will be given 5-10 minutes to pick out plants they want to use to paint with. Students can choose flowers, leaves, stems, etc. Whatever the student chooses is what they will use to paint with. Students can paint anything they want, it can be abstract or an actual design.

Question: What different designs could be made with different types of plants?

3 years: Leaf Rubbings

2025-07-30 20:43:58 UTC

Description: For this activity, have the children collect different leaves outside and provide them with paper and crayons at their desks. Demonstrate how to do the activity by placing a leaf under the paper and gently rubbing the crayon on top to reveal the leaf’s texture and shape. Allow the children to try different types of leaves and crayon colors.

Question: What happens when you press softly or press hard with your crayon?

-Najwa Ali

Color Wheel Walk! 7-9 year old's

2025-08-01 01:45:10 UTC

Looking at the colors around me is one of my favorites things to do outdoors. I love to find how many different tones their are to make up one color. I would take my kids outside and have them go on a walk around nature. I would prompt them to only pick stuff off the ground OR you can pic if their are more than 10 of something on the plant. If they cant find a color that's okay. If they wanted to they could just find all the different colors of green or purple and put those into a wheel. The idea is to get them really looking at the natural world around them. At the end of them creating I would ask them what do the different colors make them feel? Which colors do you wish you could see more of? Why? How do the colors we see outside differ from the colors we see inside or on our screens?

Nature Art - Emily Kilbride - Leaf Collages

2025-08-01 05:51:03 UTC

Description: Students will begin the activity by going on a 10 minute nature and collection walk where they will collect fallen leaves, twigs, branches, and petals. It will be made clear to students that they are not to pick or destroy any living plants but only use what they can find on the ground. After collecting we will return to the classroom where children will have 30 minutes to cut, fold, and piece together their nature findings and create a collage image that also reflects nature. After creating the artwork students can write stories about the pictures they have created. I think that this activity can be done with any age as you can encourage more complicated or less complicated collages based on age and skill levels.

4-6 Years Old: Nature Trees

2025-08-01 06:51:29 UTC

Students will go outside and collect sticks, leaves, bark, flowers, or other natural materials. They will then bring their materials back into the classroom. They will arrange their materials to create a tree, or other natural form, using the materials they collected from outside.

Question: What prompted you to choose those materials? Could you arrange them in a different way to make something new?