I don’t know about you, but lately I’m grabbing on to any excuse I can find to head outdoors with my kids. This packet includes activities that are prefect for any time of year and spans a variety of interests and abilities! I love nature scavenger hunt ideas because they are quick activities you can print out to get the kids moving, learning, and having fun in a pinch. If you are looking for more simple activities to try at home in your own backyard, then check out 100 low-prep activities you can do in your own backyard!

This packet of nature scavenger hunt pages and checklists include these themes:

• alphabet and beginning sounds
• tally marks
• seasons: spring, winter, summer, fall
• insects
• neighborhood
• bird watcher
• verbs, adjectives, and nouns
• colors
• sounds
• senses
• and gratitude

Fun Ways to Use these Printables:

Try setting out the nature scavenger hunt pages in the yard to be discovered. I promise kids will be instantly excited and interested to check out the activity because it was presented as a fun surprise and no one is telling them they HAVE to do it! You can set it near a tree trunk or on a picnic table with pencils and a magnifying glass. Setting up this fun adventure activity will keep kids busy and entertained for a while! Depending upon the ages and ability of your children, you might need to be available to help with the activity.

If you just need a break and the kids need a calming activity, grab a timer and set it for 15 – 20 minutes. You can offer the window checklist and give children the chance to connect with the world outside on a rainy day or slow morning. I included this indoor scavenger hunt in this packet because I know we all need something to do when we can’t get outside. This is the perfect activity to help the family take a break, relax, and connect with the outdoors while you are stuck inside.

I hope you give these nature scavenger hunt activities a try! I promise, your little nature lovers will love it as much as my boys.

∼Tara

Need more simple nature activities?! Check out:

A Simple Nature Craft to Try Today!

Creating a Musical Forest in Your Backyard

The post 20+ Outdoor Nature Walk Checklist and Scavenger Hunt Printables appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

I LOVE Valentine’s Day! It’s the perfect time of year to talk about friendship, kindness, and do alllll of the heart activities! Here is my list of simple and beautiful heart activities that kids and adults will both love.

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RELATED: Check out 10+ Simple and Beautiful Stone Activities for Kids

1. Nature Heart Puzzle

This nature heart puzzle is unique and beautiful! It offers children the opportunity to work on spacial awareness by manipulating the pieces of nature to make them fit inside the heart shape! You can keep this activity fun and fresh by adding new seasonal pieces of nature from your area to the puzzle. Try seashells, sticks, flowers, or a combination of nature pieces!

2. Flower Petal Heart Sweep

This flower petal heart sweep activity is fun fine motor practice for preschoolers! This activity will give children the opportunity to work on hand-eye coordination, pencil grip, and other fine motor skills. Children will love the challenge of sweeping all of the flower petal pieces into the heart outline!

3. Reversible Sequin Heart Stone Craft

This heart rock craft is so great for so many reasons! Wether you’re looking for a calm down tool, a unique Valentine’s day gift for classmates or a teacher, or just want to try a new craft, then this one’s for you. The beautiful reversible sequins look stunning against the rocks and they are so soothing to play with.

4. Nature Heart Weaving Craft

Here is a simple nature heart weaving activity for Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day. The contrast of the natural cardboard heart with the colorful flowers, makes this the most beautiful gift to hand out on the holiday of your choice. What’s the best part? You just need a few supplies that you probably have laying around your house to make this nature craft.

5. Eucalyptus Hearts

This beautiful eucalyptus heart is so easy to make! Just make two loops with two eucalyptus stems and tie them together at the bottom. At this point, you can add sticker rhinestones to the leaves or stick flowers through the twine, where the loops are tied together. We found our eucalyptus at Trader Joe’s! If you can’t find eucalyptus, try flexible sticks (willow tree sticks) or find another piece of nature that can be looped together.

6. Sticky Paper Nature Heart Mandala

Try this beautiful nature mandala before you throw out those Valentine’s Day bouquets! We used flower petals and made leaf hearts with the help of a paper puncher. Then we put the petals and leaf hearts on contact paper so it would stick! Our conversation naturally turned to discussing all the different parts of a flower and the beautiful colors in the bouquet.

7. Melting Icy Hearts Activity

“Love Is” is the sweetest story about a girl and her duckling. It will melt your heart and is a must have for Valentine’s Day!

After reading this book, I invited my boys to melt frozen hearts with warm water. Just pour water with heart gems into the silicon heart mold and freeze them! Kids will love freeing the hearts from the ice chunks. It’s the perfect extension for this sweet book and this type of activity always keeps my boys entertained for at least 30 minutes!

8. Air Dry Clay Nature Valentine

These stunning flower petal Valentine’s are so easy to make and fun for kids of all ages! You can make endless designs on the air dry clay hearts and will make a beautiful home decoration or handmade Valentine.

9. Outdoor Frozen Heart Decoration

Looking for an easy activity to do on Valentine’s Day? Freeze a nature heart and hang it outside with someone you love! These are fun to watch melt as the weather gets warmer.

This beautiful photo is from Little x Little Photography.

10. Gratitude Heart Tree

Write down all of the things in nature you are thankful for and hang them on this gratitude tree! This is simple, educational, and fun to add to as Valentine week progresses! You can find the printable here.

Pin this activity to save it for later!

I hope you give these heart activities a try! I promise, your little nature lovers will love it as much as my boys.

∼Tara

Looking for more nature activities for kids?! Check out:

How to Preserve Flowers for Nature Activities

A Simple and Beautiful Nature Craft to Try Today!

The post 10 Nature Heart Activities for Kids appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

RELATED: Check out Bird Seed Sweep {A Fine Motor Activity}

The Activity

During your next nature walk, look for the simple pleasures in the day, such as the warm sun or the birds singing and express appreciation for them. Model how to send positive thoughts to these wonders of nature. For example if you are watching a bee,  you could say, “Wow! Look at that amazing bee. It’s carrying pollen from plant to plant and helping many new plants grow.” Modeling this language gives children the ability and confidence to express their own appreciation and gratitude for nature.

Pick a dandelion puff every time you point out something amazing in nature and encourage your child to do the same. Gently weave the dandelions through the rubber bands as you express your gratitude during your nature walk. We lost a couple of seeds along the way, but most of them stayed intact.

We ended the activity by spreading dandelion seeds by either blowing on the white fluff or waving the wand in the air. My youngest was mesmerized by watching the seeds as he blew and my oldest loved running around our yard, waving and shaking the wand in the air. We talked about how spreading the seeds will help grow more dandelions, which is our way of sending a big thank you and showing our gratitude to nature!

Supplies

• Stick
• Rubber bands
• Gem Stickers
• Dandelions

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Making the Dandelion Wand

Step 1:

Decorate your wishing wand. You can paint it, wrap it with yarn, or just keep it natural. We decided to add a little sparkle with these sticker gems. They look really pretty and peeling and sticking the gems was great fine motor practice for my boys.

Step 2:

Wrap the rubber bands around the stick. We chose to keep the rubber bands towards the top of the wand so the plants would be on the wand in one area. This makes it easier to carry the wand.

Step 3:

My boys picked a couple of flowers from our yard to practice weaving before we started the activity.

My boys ended up picking more dandelions and repeating the process several times! This will definitely become a new springtime tradition.

I hope you give this meaningful activity a try! I promise, your little nature lovers will love it as much as my boys.

∼Tara

Need more simple spring nature craft ideas?! Check out:

Nature Badge

A Simple and Beautiful Nature Craft to Try Today!

The post Practicing Gratitude with a Dandelion Wand appeared first on Little Pine Learners.