Seasonal nature walks can be enjoyed and learned from by children of all ages. Not only is the walk itself a healthy change of pace but the beautiful aesthetics can spur thought and creativity.
A nature scavenger hunt is a fun way to explore nature and see what is changing with the incoming fall season.
Set yourself up for success by giving each child a paper or plastic bag and pick your favorite park to explore the outdoors. Ask your children to look for things from nature like leaves, flowers, pinecones – things they find colorful and interesting. Try not to limit what they select except for safety concerns and what will fit in the bag. You may want to ask older children to bring a camera with them. Once you are home with your filled nature bags, the sky is really the limit as to the amount of learning that can take place.
Younger children can count and sort the items by type and color and possibly match the leaves to pictures in books. They can draw pictures and write stories about what they saw on the walk. They can glue or paste nature collages with their finds.
Older children will enjoy looking at reference books and identifying where the trees, the leaves, bark, and pinecones came from. They might prepare a paper on the difference between pine and leafed trees or why vegetations change color in the fall.
Here is a simple fall leaf craft idea that is the perfect follow-up to a fall nature walk. You can scale it up in complexity depending on the ages of your children but everyone will have fun with this. It is a twist on classic leaf rubbing and it turns out beautifully.
Here’s what you will need:
- Several of your favorite leaves from your leaf hunt
- Thin paper, the weight of printer paper or lighter
- A few WHITE crayons
- Watercolors and water
Here’s what to do:
Arrange your leaves on the table, under a sheet of paper. Thin paper works best so that you can get a really good imprint. If necessary, tape the corners to the table. Gently use a white crayon only to “rub” over the leaves. Younger children may need help with this step. Be careful not to crush leaves that may be drier. Once your child is done with the rubbing step, it’s time for the watercolors. Have your child paint over the whole page and instantly see your white crayon leaf rubbings pop! For variation, encourage your older child to group like-colored leaves or leaves from similar tree families together and allow them to get creative with their own designs. This is one that is so fun, your artists will want to do over it and over.
Enjoy!
