Kids can play the nature scientist and artist in this fun, creative activity. Starting outdoors, he'll take a nature walk outside to look for cool and interesting nature specimens, then arrange them all artfully into a graceful nature mobile. Art truly imitates life in this project!
What You Need:
- Medium-sized branch with smaller branches coming off of it
- Ribbons, strong string, or yarn
- Collection of nature items (to be collected on a nature walk)
- Glue or tape
- Paint or glitter glue (optional)
What You Do:
- Take a nature hike with your child to collect a few natural objects that strike his fancy: acorns, leaves, flower petals, pebbles, wildflowers, and bark are a few ideas. Make sure the items collected aren't too big or heavy to hang from your branch.
- Help your child tie strings and/or pretty ribbons onto the branch, placing them on the smaller branches shooting off from the main branch. Tie the other end of each string around one of the nature items he collected during the hike.
- If he likes, encourage him to decorate the branch with paint or glitter glue.
- Hang the mobile inside the house, or outside where the wind can catch it.
- Talk about the natural items he picked. Why was he attracted to the objects he chose, and what interests him about them?
Note that flowers used in the mobile will fade quickly, so enjoy your nature mobile immediately and perhaps take a photograph of it before the flowers start to droop.
By Beth Levin
Beth Levin has an M.A. in Curriculum and Education from Columbia University Teachers College. She has written educational activities for Macmillan/McGraw-Hill and Renaissance Learning publishers. She has a substitute teaching credential for grades K-12 in Oregon, where she lives with her husband and two daughters.
Add your own comment