Nature play has to be one of the most wonderful ways to connect with your child. Not only does it give opportunities to have lots of fun, get a little bit messy and to get outdoors, but it also lets you be creative together!
Here is a list of all the ways we love to play in nature!
Create a mud kitchen – Grab a few bowls, spoons, jugs, saucepans – anything in the kitchen that you don’t really need and add dirt and water. Instant mud kitchen! Grab some nature items so that your mud pies look amazing!
Get creative with clay or playdough – Set up your dough with flowers, herbs, shells, seed pods and pinecones for some amazing playdough or clay play!
Paint with nature – Add your favourite nature odds and ends to the painting table. We love painting on rocks and putting them around our garden.
Draw with Nature – Same idea as above, but use pastels, crayons, or chalks (less mess too!)
Pinecone Weaving – Collect pinecones and add string or wool, for a fun weaving experience.
Start a Nature Collection – Starting a collection is fun! It gives you something to look out for when you visit parks\beaches and forests, and you can end up finding amazing things! My daughter loves to collect pretty pieces of driftwood.
Make flower potions – Either buy or grow some flowers and add them to your mud kitchen. Give your child some water and containers and they’ll have a blast creating pretty flower mixtures!
Make a muddy puddle – Find a spot in your backyard that you don’t mind getting messed up and add water. If your backyard is not muddy puddle friendly, go to the local park while it’s raining and dress for splashing!
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/pleɪ/ verb: engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose.
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There is inspiration all around us at the moment, to get us thinking and talking about art! I bet all your little ones are already talking about the riot of colours festooned on our deciduous trees in our streets. Take a moment to go outside in the beautiful autumn light and collect a handful of different sized and shaped leaves to use in our resist print, ‘Autumn Inspired Artwork.’ You will need the following: A canvas or A3 (or larger) paperTwo warm acrylic colours to represent Autumn- I used cool yellow and magentaTwo spray bottles filled with water–just pop some acrylic paint in each bottle so that it can sprayYour collection of leavesA smock or old clothes – for both of youA healthy dose of patience! To begin creating, place your leaves onto your canvas wherever you like....you are the artist! You will need to hold down the leaves with one hand and spray with the other. Little people may need some extra help here! Holding down the leaves ensures that the paint does not go under the leaf as we want to get a nice clear, white resist of the leaves. It is really important that you start with…
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