3 Simple Activities for Kids to Connect with Nature

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There’s lots of ways to engage kids in nature that don’t involve materials like seeds and soil. The activities below might not be what you think of when you hear ‘kids gardening’ but develop essential observational skills and connection to nature. Plus, they use things you already have at home! Here are three of our favorites that we do during Youth Field Trips at GFE.

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1. Color Chip Game

If you have any old paint chips lying around your home (or even pieces of colored paper, origami paper, colored pencils, etc), use it to create your own scavenger hunt! The challenge is to find the exact match of each color chip somewhere in nature, whether that’s in your front or back yard, at the park, in somebody else’s sidewalk garden. See how many colors you can find matches for! You’ll be surprised just how many colors there are in nature when you start looking for them!

 
A 4th grader showing off his garden bracelet at GFE

A 4th grader showing off his garden bracelet at GFE

2. Garden Bracelets

Make jewelry out of nature! In this simple activity just find some tape (masking tape is best, or blue painter’s tape) and wrap it around the child’s wrist so that the sticky side is face out. Then, walk around the garden, back or front yard, neighborhood, or park and find petals, leaves, sticks, soil, and other found nature objects to stick to the tape! They can also be necklaces, rings, pins, etc! Some ideas for themed jewelry :

  • Find every color of the rainbow

  • Find as many shades of green as possible

  • Create a pattern (and have somebody else try and guess what it is!)

  • Find warm or cool colors

  • Find your favorite color only (or choose a color)

  • Find flowers with visible pollen inside

  • Find flowers with more than one color on the petals

When you’re done wearing the jewelry, use it to create a bookmark or other type of paper art by Flower Pounding.

If finding nature objects is not an option, you can always use things from around the house!

 

3. Egg Carton Game

This game involves at least two players, and is best for ages 8-12! Here’s an instructional video from our friends at Life Lab on how to play:

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Ideas for adjectives to write on the bottom of the containers:

  • Rough/smooth

  • Wet/dry

  • Sick/healthy

  • Thick/thin

  • Straight/curvy

  • Big/small

  • Dark/light

  • Strong/weak

Can you guess what these categories are?

Can you guess what these categories are?