Adorn yourself with samaras, flowers, moss, leaves and more!

This is a fun activity to use just about anywhere-your backyard, on a hike, inside on a rainy day, walk around the neighborhood, etc. Just take a roll of tape with you! I have chosen to show how you would do this inside on a rainy day.

Supplies are minimal.

Supply list:  1. You will need scraps from your yard, garden, neighborhood sidewalks, forested area, etc. I have included, moss, dried grasses and field flowers, fresh marigolds and cosmos, fresh herbs (smells great!), small twigs, acorn caps, samaras. These are just a few, the possibilities are endless! This is a great way to use up the flowering heads of herbs. 2. Duct tape or masking tape (duct tape is stronger for heavier objects). 3. Your hands!

Step 2: Tear, rip, shred!

This is probably the most fun part of the whole project for kids. Tear your plant material into smaller pieces. This can be a rather liberating  and exploratory experience for the little ones, especially if they've been told "No" to picking flowers and leaves off plants in the past. Destruction can be good for learning!

This time it's ok to pull the petals off the flowers!

Next, wrap a piece of tape around your wrist.

Roll your wrist in the tray of natural materials.

The finished product.

This project can be done just by simply rolling your wrist on the ground in a park, forest, etc. See what natural materials you can pick up!

This "nature bracelet" idea was taken from this book full of great ideas!

Activity write-up can be found on pg. 391.

Trees & Leaves Nature Play session

 For this session, we focused on exploring leaves and trees. Our first activity was building forts out of sticks. We used silkies as the roof and walls. We neglected to take pictures of this (having too much fun), so I will post some photos of this later.

Our first craft entailed making a sketchpad with a cloth cover. This sketchpad idea was inspired by programs at the Garfield Park Conservatory (http://www.garfieldconservatory.org/families.htm). This is similar to the bookmarks I made on an earlier post in July, except that we used rocks to pound out the pigments in the leaves (worked pretty well although you can't see details of the leaves, just color). It is a safer option for smaller kids than using hammers). I selected herbs and some weeds growing in the forest preserve to use as pigments.

A Mom ties on the sketchpad as a necklace
 to make it easier to take along on the hike.

We also made art using tree cookies and colored pastels. The tree cookies were sliced pieces of a log I had lying around my yard. The oil pastels hold up during rain, so this makes a fun garden decoration.

Endless color and design variations with the tree cookie art!

Even the smallest little ones can participate. 

For the really young ones, the tree cookies would still be fun (a great keepsake) but we also provided sensory buckets. A bucket full of large river rock was fun to explore for little fingers. I used the toilet paper tube test to determine choking hazard size.

Then it was time to take our nature sketchpads out on a hike. Each child received a bag full of chubby rubbing crayons to take with.  We were hunting for interesting bark to make a rubbing.

We took our sketchpads on our hike
 and made bark rubbings. 

Some families got really creative and
found amazing trunks to experiment with!

Sample of a bark rubbing-I think this is a black oak tree.

A parent spotted this tree struck by lightening
-notice the branches hanging upside down!

I believe this is a White Ash tree.

Sticks and Stones Family Nature Play Session

A few local families and I meet every week for a nature play session. This week's theme was "Sticks and Stones." We started out with some "loose parts" play using several baskets full of twigs, natural building blocks (see my earlier post from July 2012 on how to make them), and stones. I set them up on a asphalt path, and set up a sample design. My idea was for the kids to set the stones and twigs in various patterns, build with them, etc. I also provided various "squirt bottles," such as misters, old dish soap bottles, liquid soap pumps, etc. This had an interesting effect on the colors of the stones! The kids loved the water.

This little boy brought his own Lego toy for added fun! Mixing the natural with modern toys can add new dimensions!

The boy on the right is tipping a squeezie "ketchup bottle" style container over some rocks. The rocks changed colors!

Even the smallest little ones can have a great time with sticks and stones. This little guy was making a line. Great way to teach shapes, too!

The second portion of our session included making walking sticks to use on our hike. I also gathered the walking stick idea from programs at the Garfield Park Conservatory (http://www.garfieldconservatory.org/families.htm). I provided yarn, leather cording, beads, a small compass and "natural treasures" sack to tie onto the stick. The compasses were about 1 inch in size and light enough to tie on to the stick. I ordered muslin sacks premade from San Francisco Herb Company, but you can make your own if you are handy. I'll explain the "natural treasures" idea below.

Family Walking Stick under construction

A good shot of the "natural treasures" sack and compass here.

 After everyone made their sticks, we headed out for our hike. Each child used their stick to manage the terrain and we stop and explored "natural wonders" like a carpenter ant, spider, burr oak acorns, moss growing on a fallen piece of bark, pebbles, etc. If the (non-alive) item was small enough, we each took one and added it our natural treasures bag. Everyone got a piece of the moss on bark!

About 1.5 weeks before this photo was taken, I placed a charred log alongside the trail. When we walked by, we rolled the log over and it was teeming with life! Pill bugs, millipedes, daddy long legs, several beetle species, larvae, and more were scampering away as we flipped over the rock.

You can see the two little guys (pink shirt and striped shirt) testing out their walking sticks.

It was a fun day! I hope our little budding hikers keep their walking sticks for years to come!

String some garland with dried seed pods from your garden!

As fall nears, seed pods will start to dry and will present an excellent opportunity for crafting with nature! Below I have pulled two stems of dried seed pods commonly found in home gardens. I have selected Love in the Mist and Blue False Indigo. Both are perennial shrubs. The seed pods make an excellent natural shaker, too! Allegedly, Blue False Indigo was used as Native American baby rattles.

Pictured from top to bottom: Love in the Mist and False Blue Indigo

Tools needed for creating seed garland.

You will need bendable wire from the craft store. Floral wire is too thin and too short for making any fun designs. It can be found in the jewelry section.

String pods on in desired pattern.

It is very easy to poke the wire through the seed pods (if you are using the kind of wire I suggested). Our 7 year old here is doing it all on her own without my help (=20 minutes of quiet time for mom).

Keep stringing.

One design possibility.

Seed pod garlands make fun yard art. 

 

 

When the seed garland is done, arrange or use as decor in a variety of ways, including decorating your yard or garden. It's a great way to cheer up a drab chain link fence. The seed pods, because they are natural, should weather pretty well for a while.

Feed the worms...and your child's curiosity

Vermi-composting (composting with worms) is a great way to incorporate nature in your daily life. It can happen up to three times daily as you toss your kitchen vegetable and fruit scraps into the compost bin! Kids love worms and this can also provide a great biology lesson.

Save eggshells from your breakfast!

Can-o-worms

 I use a "Can-o-worms" which is a glorified giant tupperware container with several layers that you can rotate. You can also just get a large rubbermaid container, drill small holes, and cover these holes with pantyhose and duct tape. Something like this one, but you need it to be opaque: Rubbermaid 71 Quart Clever Store Non Latching Storage Bin FG3Q3400CBLUE - Pack of 4

 First, add shredded newspaper as your base (or old computer paper or unwanted kids' drawings/coloring book pages). This is a great way to teach recycling and reuse!

 Kids of all ages love shredding newspaper. Toss it in!

 Next, add in your vegetable scraps. In this picture, there is egg shells, sweet potato peels, and carrot peels. Egg shells add lime to your compost therefore reducing acidity-this creates a more productive compost (and less smelly one, too). Never add any bread, meat, or dairy.

 You can also use old egg shell cartons in place of the newspaper. You also need to throw in a little bit of soil to start your compost.

 And, you need a handful of red wiggler worms. These can be found at fishing tackle shops (call first to check that they have them) or wormwoman.com sells them. They MUST be red wiggler worms-they decompose garbage at a much faster rate.

Every kid loves handling worms!

 

You can also add some fun by having the kids cut-up the produce scraps you will be adding. If you are using peels and small pieces of veggies and fruit, you don't have to do a thing. But larger pieces, like apple cores and old lettuce need to be cut up into 1-2 inch pieces (you'll get faster and less smelly results this way).

Next, mix it all up. Then cover with more newspaper. Be sure your additions each day are covered with newspaper so you don't create fruit flies and smells.

Make your own wooden building blocks...out of the real deal!

Do you live in an urban area and see a lot of this after storms?

Or, maybe you live in a wooded area and have some dead tree limbs to remove from time to time, or need to trim a tree that has become overgrown.

But don't throw out that wood! Scavenge it for natural tree building blocks. Magic Cabin has some beautiful versions of these, but if you are the do-it-yourself type or simply aren't willing or able to shell out around $50 for a 32 piece set, you can make your own!

Be sure the wood you select is either dead and dry, or alive when you cut it. No rotting wood!

Use a hand saw or chain saw to cut off desirable chunks of wood.

 A chain saw will give you the fastest results, but a hand saw can be used to cut the chunks of wood off that you need. Pay special attention to saving the "joints" as they can be used to create fun stacking pieces. Don't worry about slicing them to the block size in this stage. Just cut the main chunks first, and toss, compost, or burn what you won't be using (campfire, anyone?)

A chainsaw was used to make this bigger cut.

Using a brace can make the cutting easier.

Now, this probably isn't the best example of safety here, my dad was helping me and has been known to injure himself. So, you may want to do this on a workbench or sturdy table if you have one. We didn't, so we used an old wine box. We tried to start slicing the big chunks into the  building block sized pieces with this hand saw, but it was taking forever. We decided to use a table saw instead. If you don't have one accessible (some places rent them), you can use a plain old hand saw, just use a sharp one. This one in this picture was a piece of junk!

 This is the "before" picture with all the chunks we are about to slice up.

Sand your chunks before slicing into thinner building blocks.

It is easier to sand the chunks first, while you have big pieces. You don't need to sand the bark all the way off as it is being done here. Minimally, smooth it so there are not any slivers or rough edges that kid fingers or mouths can get caught on. You can use plain sandpaper, too, it will just take you longer. But if you don't have an electric sander, it will work.

After sanding, cut the chunks into 3-4 inch thick pieces.

Finished product in action.

After you have the slices cut up, you are ready to play! If the wood you found was in an area with poison ivy, you will want to wipe everything down with rubbing alcohol to kill any oils. Also just disinfects.

Choosing branches of different levels of thickness and diameter will yield stacking variety.

If you saved some "joints" they make for interesting stacking tools.

Some of the bark was sanded off on some, we left some on others for  a variety of textures.

Kids love baskets and they look great, too.

Placing your finished product in some baskets will give the kids something to "fill and dump" and also to carry around. Having several baskets that they can fill and move around will add to the fun, too. But keep these away from your dog if you have one, mine loves to chew on them!

If you have wooden dolls, you can make a cafe table out of the blocks for them. You can also paint the alphabet letters on the blocks, too. Ideas are endless! It could also be fun to combine your own homemade blocks with a wooden, store-brought line that has colorful pieces like Haba USA 1160 Little Amsterdam Building Blocks. Haba is a line from Germany with all natural wood products, very well made.