Outdoor Fun for Little Ones - Searching for Nature's Treasures

This week we are enjoying a little camping trip and have found so many fun ways to keep the girls busy and engaged while exploring nature's treasures outdoors.

Nat and Nora created little paper bag backpacks to wear on our nature hike (compliments of Mother Goose Time).

The girls traced their hands to glue to the sides of the bag.  They cut off the top and used it to create straps on the backside.  They used the scissors to cut hair at the top.  They added a face with markers and two wiggly eyes.  After they dried, they tried them on.

Nora thought her bag was a hat at first.  Oops!  

We went for our hike through the campground and the girls gathered treasures inside their bags.  Natalie was focused on finding flowers, leaves, and stems while Nora looked mostly for rocks, sticks, acorns, and pinecones.

When we returned the girls laid their treasures out on the table and examined them. 

Then we sorted them out on a tray by their properties.  The girls found some were soft, hard, long, short, round, rectangular, stick like, and many different colors.  They found a few more items nearby to add to the tray as we sorted.  Nat set some of her beautiful flowers aside.

I gave the girls some Playdough.  Nora decorated an island in the center of our tray.  She called the branches her trees.

Natalie created a family of bugs with the Playdough and her artifacts

How do you keep your little ones engaged while exploring the natural world around them?

Mother Goose Time - Birds & Eggs Art

The girls are loving Mother Goose Time’s Birds & Eggs theme. 

Here are a few of the artwork pieces and projects we've created this month with the kit.

Nora's favorite art project was building a bird nest. Natalie loved creating a baby bird to stick inside the nest.  We were able to staple the nest onto our bulletin board and stick each baby inside.

The girls also created a bird on a string that floated through the air like a kite.  They were able to fly it around the house.

After dancing around with our birds Natalie decided to put on a puppet show for us.

The girls practiced cutting tail feathers and wings for their paper plate birds.

We even added cute woodpeckers to our tree.

My favorite project was their bird bodies.  They used yarn to weave in and out of the little holes.  It was great fine motor practice for both of them.  Natalie also added a few worms and some dirt to the grass on our bulletin board.

Each topic and theme inspires Natalie to create her own artwork.  Creating bird beaks encouraged her to create a whole bird costume.  Here are some pictures of her creating the wings.

Nora is always happy to try whatever her big sister does.

The girls painted their cut out cardboard and then added some feathers.

I helped the girls add string to hold the wings on their arms. 

I love how Mother Goose Time provides us with amazing art projects and crafts that we can display for each month.

Check back later, or follow me on Instagram, to see some of the other projects that we have been working on!