Our Discover & Explore linky is getting outside this week to enjoy the beauty of Fall and share ideas for creating with natural items! 

I love this time of the year with all the gorgeous colors and the many seeds, leaves and tree fruits that are abundantly available.

 

Creating with Nature

There are so many ways to use items from nature in crafts and activities that will engage the kids creativity.  A few weeks ago, we shared our Fall Nature Tray — an easy & wonderful way to entice the kids to explore science in the fall. 

 

 

Today I want to share a few fun ways to create with seeds, leaves and tree fruits.  The beauty of this activity is all you need are items from your yard and a few imaginative ideas!

 

Crafting with Nature

 

The first creation we made is a Nature Crown.  We had a great time with this as you can arrange and re-arrange the items until you’re happy with the look of the crown. It’s a very open-ended craft that kids of all ages will enjoy.

 

 

Gather up some colorful leaves, flowers, tree pods, stems with berries or acorns and any other natural items you have in the yard.  You’ll also need a paper bag, scissors and some tape.

 

First, cut the top half off the paper bag so that you have a large paper circle which will become your crown.  Next, you’ll want to fold the bottom part of the paper circle so you have a pocket area on the inside of the crown.

Once it’s folded under, fit the crown to your child’s head by folding and taping the excess in the back.

 

Cut 8 – 10 small slits in the front of the crown — just wide enough for stems to fit through them.

Now have your child place the items you collected in the slits.  You can now see why we folded the bottom part of the paper bag under so you create a pocket where the stems will rest (so they won’t stick or scratch your head when you wear the crown).

 

Another fun craft you can make are nature sculptures!  Just use a large, round tree fruit as your base — we used a hedge apple which is popular in our area but you can also use any type of apple, orange or other type of fruit that has a soft outer covering.

Poke holes where you’d like to insert any leaves, flowers or other nature items on stems by using toothpicks or even a sturdy chopstick.  You can also use toothpicks to attach items that don’t have stems like the pod that was used for the mouth on our hedge apple.

I don’t know about you but he sure looks a little like Elmo from Sesame Street to me 😉