5 Ways to Get Outside and Make Art With Nature

It’s a great time of year to plan a nature walk with your kids for the purpose of creating art with your finds. There are so many educational and creative pieces your kids can make with flowers, leaves, and rocks. This foraged art is beautiful and fun. Here are some ideas to get you outside and inspired.

 

Lines and stacks

Young children love to line things up and make stacks. Doing this with rocks, flowers, and leaves is a fun way to get creative with nature! Here are more specific ideas for some foraged nature art.

First, encourage your children to really look around and appreciate all the beautiful natural elements around them. Next, they can start collecting a few items for their art. Choose two or three different items and collect several pieces of each. 

Kids love to sort! Encourage them to make piles based on size or color. Or, if you have a lot of dandelions, press them into a crack of a tree or the sidewalk to make a dandelion line.

Mosaic Nature Art

Mosaics created from natural elements are a fun way to make foraged art. You can use light and dark variations to create patterns. Consider using rocks or shells for your mosaic. 

Check out these additional resources to extend the learning:

Learning Activities for Kids with Rocks and Stones

Geology Fact Cards to Learn About Rocks and Gemstones

FREE Minerals and Rocks Educational Videos and Songs for Your Homeschool

Leaf or Rock Spirals

Spend a relaxing afternoon gathering rocks and show your kids how to line them up in a spiral form, from smallest to largest. 

They can do this with leaves too! Consider gathering ferns to create a spiral art piece. Snap a picture before the wind blows them away!

Your toddlers will love this nature art activity, and it will not only help their fine motor skills, but it will likely keep them busy outside for hours! It’s a fun project to do with a group of friends too. 

Leaf and Flower Creatures

On your nature walk, encourage your kids to look for leaves with interesting shapes or features. Gather a nice selection and then encourage them to make leaf and flower creatures by layering found items onto each other. Sticks can look like antennas, while leaves and petals look like wings or bodies. Use berries or small rocks for eyes and other features. 

Flat leaves are best for making foraged art. Look for different sized leaves on the same plant. Help your kids notice the variations in color on the same plant. Part of this process is helping them appreciate nature and learn to expand their ability to notice detail. 

Here are some more resources for learning about leaves and flowers:

• FREE Leaf Classification Pack
• Painting a Leaf Mandala with Watercolor Paints
• Leaf Activities and Crafts
• FREE Printables and Resources About Flowers
• Flowers Around the World Guided Drawing (Instant Download)
• FREE Wildflowers Unit Study and Lapbook

Rainbow Nature Art

One last project to try after you head outside with your kids is a Rainbow Painting. This beautiful design comes to life when you appreciate all the hues and distinctions in the natural foraged materials you’ve found. Layer them on a canvas to see the different reds or greens in nature. Show the natural progression of the color wheel in your final foraged art project. Don’t forget to snap a picture, because this art project will be hard to keep otherwise!

Check out this post from KiwiCo for more photos and inspirational ideas for nature art. It’s a great way to spend some time together as a family and help your kids notice the beauty all around them.