These scavenger hunts are so easy to make and so fun to use! The best part about the magnifying glass, is that it extends the amount of time children spend outdoors searching for items! I guarantee this will be the most engaged your child has ever been with a scavenger hunt. The magnifying glass helps children focus their attention on the objects right in front of them and they love getting an extra close look, through the magnifying glass. 

You can also use the printable without a real magnifying glass. The cut out by itself is a great focal point for imaginative play and learning! Either way, these are fun and engaging leave no trace activities for kids.

What’s included in this Nature Scavenger Hunt Printable Packet?!

There are 18 scavenger hunt printables included in this packet. The scavenger hunts include: general nature, signs of spring, signs of summer, signs of fall, signs of winter, summer flower, spring flower, garden, leaf, seed, insect, color, gratitude, tally mark, cloud, mushroom, animal tracks, and alphabet. Seventeen of the eighteen scavenger hunt printables come in both black & white and color options and one comes in just black & white, for a total of 35 pages!

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Find the Printable for this Activity on TPT or Etsy! 

How to Make the Magnifying Glass?

The magnifying glass is easy to make! Laminate the cardstock and cut out the lens part of the printable.

Last, tape the edges of the credit card sized magnifying glass to the back of the printable! The magnifying glasses are made of plastic and durable.

Below, you can see how well the magnifying glass works! It’s even more fun to use outside in nature. 

Here’s a Couple of ways to use your Nature Scavenger Hunt Printables:

This example shows the printable with a real magnifying glass and clothespins are used to check off items found. Start with clothespins at the top and bottom of the printable and move them to the side as you find items.

This example does not have a real magnifying glass and a dry erase marker is used to cross off pictures of items found. The dry erase marks can be easily erased when finished. Try sticking one velcro circle on the scavenger hunt and other velcro circle on the dry erase marker. This is a great way to keep your supplies all in one spot. When the marker is not in use, just stick it right to the velcro on the scavenger hunt

Here’s a Peak at all of the Scavenger Hunts!

Before we look at the scavenger hunts, I want you to think about a few things. I did not add instructions because I want children to use it in a way that works best for them! To keep the scavenger hunts fresh and fun, try the clothespins one day and dry erase markers on another. Use a real magnifying glass for one scavenger hunt and go without it for a different one. Children will like to use these sheets in different ways and that’s ok!

A few of the scavenger hunts, like mushrooms and clouds, have scientific names. These can be difficult to pronounce and I wouldn’t expect a child to be able to read or remember all of them. That’s also ok! This is all about exposure and having fun.

If you aren’t having any luck finding specific items on the list, try searching for the colors of the items. For example, you can look for the colors of leaves on the leaf scavenger hunt instead of the particular leaves! Make this work for you. 

Now lets get to the scavenger hunts! These scavenger hunts are perfect for seasonal activities! Check out the spring, summer, fall and winter scavenger hunt printables. 

Here are a couple of scavenger hunts that are great for any time of year! For the tally mark scavenger hunt, use a dry erase marker to make tally marks on the laminated printable. This is great for reinforcing early math skills while being outdoors!

The animal track and mushroom printables are fun for adventurous little explorers! Try looking for animal tracks in mud or snow! And remember, don’t touch or eat mushrooms because they could be poinsonous.

These scavenger hunts are fun to try right in your own backyard! Children love spending time in the garden and really enjoy looking for insects and seeds. 

I love these three scavenger hunts! The alphabet scavenger hunt can be used in a couple of different ways: Children can either clip a clothespin on the alphabet letter after they find something in nature that starts with that letter or write the word next to the corresponding letter. For example, if a child finds an apple, they would write “apple” next to the “Aa.” I find an ultra fine dry erase marker works best in these small writing spaces. 

The gratitude scavenger hunt is fun to try around Thanksgiving or Valentine’s Day. And the color scavenger hunt is fun for children of all ages!

The alphabet and color scavenger hunt printables can be used indoors on a rainy day!

Here’s what you’ll need to make these nature scavenger hunt printables!

Supplies:

• Nature Scavenger Hunt Printables available on TPT or Etsy
• Cardstock or printer paper- I recommend cardstock for a more durable work mat. 
• Laminator machine
• Scissors
• Credit Card Sized Magnifying Glass
• Dry Erase Markers  or Clothes pins(I like mini clothes pins for this activity, but regular sized will work too!)
• Velcro Dots– These are completely optional! They are great to stick on the scavenger hunt printable and dry erase marker to keep all of your objects together. When the marker is not in use, just stick it right to the velcro on the scavenger hunt.

Now that you have all of your supplies, it’s time to get outside and start exploring!

These are great for every season, even winter! The snow looked beautiful magnified through the lenses. We could have looked at it for hours!

We preferred to go without the magnifying glass for the cloud hunt. The clouds looked really neat framed in the magnifying glass!

Pin this to save it for later!

I hope you try these nature scavenger hunt printables! I promise, your little learners will love it as much as my boys and preschoolers.

∼Tara

Looking for more fun printables for kids?! Check out:

4 Ways to Use Story Stones in the Classroom

Color Activities for Kids with See-Through Lenses

The post Nature Scavenger Hunt Printables appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

We have piles of collected leaves and I’m always trying to think of fun ways to play, learn, and craft with them. This activity checks all three boxes! These tiles are so fun to make, children love rearranging on our nature shelf, and they help children learn the names of different types of leaves. 

Ready to give it a try!? Here’s what you’ll need..

Supplies:

• • Air Dry Clay
  • Exacto Knife
  • Matte Mod Podge
  • Leaves

This post contains Affiliate links for your convenience.

Related: Check out Leafy Monster Rocks

Here’s How I Made these Leaf Identification Tiles:

Step 1:

Place your clay on parchment paper and roll it out with a rolling pin. You don’t want it too thin or it will crack and brake as it dries. 

Step 2:

Cut out your clay shapes. I traced random objects on the piece of clay and then sliced the tile shapes with an exacto knife.

Size up your leaves to make sure they will fit on your clay tiles before you start cutting!

Step 3:

Put a thin layer of Mod Podge on the clay tile, gently press the leaf into the tile, and cover the entire surface with Mod Podge. You don’t want the leaf to be sticking up too much or it will peal away as it dries. 

Step 3:

Let the tiles dry for 2-3 days. I suggest putting these away during the drying period, so curious little fingers don’t get to them. I’ve made this mistake with previous clay activities and it didn’t end well for the crafts!

Step 4:

Now that your tiles are dry, you can label your leaves. I used my plant identifier app called “Picture This” for the leaves that I was unsure of. 

The kids loved touching the leaves on the tiles and learning the leaf names. This is a great sensory activity for tactile learners!

We discussed the fact that these tiles are a bit fragile, so we had to use gentle hands when touching them. If your children are too young to handle them, you can let them touch the leaves and set them on a nature shelf when finished with them. If you prop them up on the shelf, they make a beautiful decoration. Just an FYI, the colors will fade a bit as the days go on, but they look just as beautiful!

They also look great unlabeled. You can make tiles of different shapes and sizes to make them unique and special for your family or classroom!

Pin it and save it for later!

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

∼Tara

Need more simple nature ideas?! Check out:

Adorable Bat Nature Craft

Easy Porcupine Nature Craft

The post Beautiful Leaf Identification Tiles appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

Fall is here and I couldn’t be happier! We love observing the changing leaves and other signs of the new season right in our own backyard. This leaf scavenger hunt is easy to set up and will get kids running around outside and learning about nature at the same time! Sounds too good to be true?! Give it a try today!

Ready to give it a try!? Here’s what you’ll need..

Supplies:

• • Cardboard
  • Clear Contact Paper
  • Tape
  • Marker
  • Leaves
  • Scissors

This post contains Affiliate links for your convenience.

Related: Check out Leafy Monster Rocks

Here’s How I Made the Leaf Scavenger Hunt Board:

Step 1:

Make your board. Give it a title and draw a line down the middle for a “find it” side and a “stick it” side. You can also draw lines to separate the leaves. I show what that looks like in the next picture. 

Step 2:

Place your contact paper on your board sticky side up. I cut the piece of contact paper to fit right under the words and enough to cover the front side only. Wait to peal the covering off until you have it sized correctly, then use packing tape to secure it to the board. 

Step 3:

I made labels so I could easily write the types of leaves on the board. My labels are made of little pieces of contact paper. I put them on the board, non-sticky side up so I could write on them. This way, I can peel the labels off when we’re finished and we can identify different leaves next time.

If you want to search for the same leaves several times, you can always write the labels directly on the board and skip this step.

Step 4:

Now you can put leaf examples next to the label.

Step 5:

It’s time for the leaf scavenger hunt! Head outside and invite your children to find the leaf matches. We searched high and low and were outside for a long time!

I ended up using my plant identifying app called “Picture This” because my boys wanted to know the names of allllll the leaves and trees. 

We discussed the color and size variations in the leaves and traced the leaf shapes with our fingers. 

The leaf scavenger hunt board looked so beautiful when completed and we can’t wait to do this activity again! Do you have beautiful leaves in your yard or neighborhood? Give this one a try today!

Pin it and save it for later!

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

∼Tara

Need more simple nature ideas?! Check out:

Sunflower Seed Sweep {3 Fine Motor Activities}

How to Preserve Fall Leaves With Beeswax

The post Sticky Leaf Scavenger Hunt appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

We love this sweeping activity so much that we’ve done it with leaves, pine needles, flower petals, and bird seed! 

Check out the end of the post where I share two new ways to use this activity board. 

Ready to give these sunflower activities a try?! Here’s what you’ll need..

Supplies:

• Sunflower Seeds
• Black Beans if allergic to sunflower seeds
• Box lid
• Markers
• Paintbrushes

Optional:

• Tweezers
• Glue

This post contains Affiliate links for your convenience.

RELATED: Check out Rainbow Flower Threading Board

Here’s What We Did:

Step 1:

First, find a cardboard box lid and draw a sunflower outline on the inside part of the lid. This can be as basic or detailed at you want it to be. I searched “how to draw a sunflower” on Pinterest and just followed the instructions step by step!

Step 2:

Spread your sunflower seeds around your sunflower. I rinsed the salt off of the sunflower seeds and let them dry first because I didn’t want a salty/powdery residue on the box. 

*If you are working with a classroom of kids or your child has a sunflower allergy, try dried black beans! They look similar and have the same effect.*

Sunflower Activity 1:

Now you are all set to invite your child to sweep the seeds into the sunflower’s head. This is a fun way to work on pencil grip and strengthen those fine motor muscles. Activities like this help prepare your child to hold a pencil correctly and write properly! 

Children also love the challenge of sweeping the seeds into one spot. It’s more difficult than you would think and will keep your little one busy for a while!

This activity helps children make the connection that sunflower seeds grow in the head of the sunflower and will also help them identify the seeds in the future!

It looks so cute when complete!

Sunflower Activity 2:

Ok, I know what you are thinking…this is adorable and I want more sunflower activities!

Here is another idea:

You can also place the seeds in the sunflower head and invite your child to tweeze the seeds out! This is another great fine motor activity and fun way to pluck the sunflower seeds. I used less seeds for this activity than the sweeping option. It seemed a bit overwhelming and the tweezers take much longer to use. 

This activity is a new favorite in our house!

Sunflower Activity 3:

Try turning this into a permanent piece of art! After trying the other sunflower activities, you can glue the seeds in place and hang it on your wall! Kids will love squeezing the glue bottle and can use the tweezers or their fingers to put the seeds on the sunflower head. 

My little guy was proud of his work!

Pin this activity to save it for later!

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

∼Tara

Looking for more easy fine motor activity ideas?! Check out:

A Simple Butterfly Symmetry Activity

Double-Sided Nature Crown Board

The post Sunflower Seed Sweep {3 Fine Motor Activities} appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

Halloween is a week away so decorations are EVERYWHERE! They’re in our neighborhood, in the stores and on TV. My boys love looking at them and have so many questions about allll the Halloween things! They are particularly interested in skeletons and are so curious about which part of the body the different bones belong to.

So I decided to make a simple DIY stick and stone skeleton sensory board to let my boys touch and investigate the the skeleton of the human hand. I plan on making more sensory boards for different parts of the body, but this is a good start and will hopefully spark some inspiration for you!

Supplies:

You probably already have these supplies in your home!

• Sticks and stones
• Cardboard
• Hot Glue Gun 
• Marker

This post contains Affiliate links for your convenience.

RELATED: Do you have beautiful fall leaves?! Check out these adorable Leafy Monster Rocks!

Here’s What We Did:

Step 1:

Gather and prepare the supplies. I snapped the sticks into similar sized pieces. They don’t need to be perfect!

Step 2:

Outline hands. I outlined my own hands, but it would be fun to outline kids hands to involve them more in the process.

Step 3:

Add the stones to make carpals.

I looked at an image of the bones in the human hand and tried to replicate it as realistically as I could.

Step 4:

Add sticks for the rest of the bones in the hand.

I glued three sticks on the thumb and four sticks for the rest of the fingers. You could always glue one long stick for each finger, but I think the smaller sticks look more realistic and help kids learn the names of the individual bones.

My boys loved learning the names of the bones and thought some of the words were pretty funny! They will never forget the word “phalanges” EVER!

Step 5:

Now kids are ready to investigate the hand! Invite them to touch the board while they count the bones and discuss the names of the bones. You could label the bones if you would like!

If this activity sparks a million and one MORE questions about bones, you can play Skeleton Dance on Youtube. It’s a cute song and dance video that teaches about the entire human skeleton. It’s perfect for tactile and kinesthetic learners that need to get up and move around!

Please pin this activity if you love it!

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

∼Tara

Need more Halloween nature activities?! Check out:

A Simple Mummy Rock Nature Craft for Halloween

Glow-In-The-Dark Mummy Hiking Stick

The post Stick and Stone Skeleton Sensory Boards appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

A Simple Stone Activity to Try Today was so popular that I thought it would be fun to try a themed puzzle!

This DIY activity makes a fun spider anatomy game in the classroom or beautiful Halloween party centerpiece on a table. Kids will be drawn to the beautiful stones and love matching them to their shape outline on the paper.

When matching the stone pieces, you can teach where the abdomen and cephalothorax are on the spiders. The smaller (first) rock is the cephalothorax and the larger rock is the abdomen. These might be big words for young kids to learn, but I think it’s never too early to expose them to interesting parts and pieces of nature!

Here’s what you’ll need…

Supplies:

• Paper- We use Melissa and Doug easel paper
• Stones- We collect ours from the lake. If you don’t have a spot in nature to collect stones, I recommend purchasing from the Dollar Store or craft store.
• Marker

This post contains Affiliate links for your convenience.

RELATED: Do you have beautiful fall leaves?! Check out A SIMPLE LEAF ACTIVITY TO TRY TODAY!

Here’s What We Did:

Step 1:

Lay out a large piece of white paper. You can tape it down with painters tape if you would like to keep it secure in one spot. I placed a few small spider figures in the bowl of stones so my boys could get a closer look at the different parts of a spider.

Step 2:

Place the stones on your paper where you want to outline them. Make sure you leave enough room in between spiders to add legs. I had a couple of close calls because I didn’t take this into consideration!

If you want to make the puzzle easier, you can draw the eyes on the cephalothorax (smaller) stone. This will not only give  children a clue as to which outline to match the stone with, but also help them figure out which side of the stone should be facing up.

Step 3:

Outline the stones, place them back in the bowl, and draw fangs and eight legs on each cephalothorax. It’s kind of fun to say once you get the hang of it! At this point, you can add a few more spider figures on the paper if you would like.

Step 4:

The first time around I introduced the stone puzzle to my boys, but since they have already done a few nature puzzles with me, I let them get started right away. Leo was working fast and furious so it was difficult to get a picture of him in action!

He’s now a pro at turning the stones around inside the outline and flipping them from one side to the other to get the best fit. I want to share again, that it’s ok if your child doesn’t get this 100% correct. Some of the stones might be very similar is size and can be difficult to match. This is about the process and having fun!

If you’re helping a struggling child, use guiding prompts like:

“What does it look like if you flip the stone?”

“Can you turn it another way in the outline?”

“I wonder what it would look like if you tried it in that outline?”

About 10 minutes later, we were finished. I’ll keep this nature invitation out for the next week or so and my boys will play with it whenever they feel like it!

Please pin this activity if you love it!

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

∼Tara

Need more simple nature activities?! Check out:

10+ Simple and Beautiful Stone Activities for Kids

Nature Find and Count Math Activity

The post DIY Spider Stone Puzzle appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

We love searching for spiders in the fall! They seem to be everywhere, piquing my boys natural curiosity of these eight-legged animals. My boys have so many questions about their interesting appearance. I can hear them now…… “How many legs do they have?” “Do they have eyes?” “Where is the mouth?” So.Many.Questions!

So instead of searching for pencil and paper work on Pinterest, I got out some of our favorite crafting supplies and got busy creating a fun, hands-on and engaging activity.

I started the spider for my boys and their job was to finish the spider using what they know about spider anatomy.

Supplies:

• roll of white paper
• black marker
• googly eyes
• black Wikki Stix

This post contains Affiliate links for your convenience.

RELATED: Check out Wikki Stix and Stones- A Must Try Activity!

Here’s What We Did:

First I drew the spiders in pencil. I have a serious fear of drawing circles;) I can’t do it no matter how hard I try, so I used a cup to draw the spider abdomen and just tried my best with the fangs and cephalothorax. (Say that 10 times fast!) I drew a couple of spider web threads and one corner web for the third spider.

Then I traced over the pencil with black marker.

Step 2:

Next I prepared the supplies. I unpeeled the googly eyes and cut my Wikki Stix in half. I stuck the eyes on the side of my bowl to make it easy for my boys to grab.

Step 3:

Find a spot to put your activity. This doesn’t need to be an outdoor activity, but we are soaking up the beautiful fall weather before it turns super cold this winter.

You can also tape this to a table!

Step 4:

Once my boys saw the googly eyes, they could hardly contain their excitement! They just love these things and beg to use them all the time. We have a rather large collection and I thought it would be fun to use the eyelash variety. My boys got a kick out of it!

We discussed again that *most* spiders have 8 eyes so that’s the number we went with.

Now they moved on to the legs. My boys love using Wikki Stix, so they were excited about this part as well! If you have never tried Wikki Stix, you need to test them out! They are made out of wax and yarn so they stick to most surfaces with light fingertip pressure. They are really fun to fun to use!

It looked pretty neat in the end and they learned a lot in the process!

You can always unpeel the legs and do this part over and over again! The eyes don’t come off as easily, but you could do this activity on white contact paper and tape it up sticky side out if you would like to peel off the eyes as well.

Save it for later and Pin it!

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

∼Tara

Looking for more spider anatomy activities?! Check out:

Fall Nature Anatomy and Lifecycle Activities for Kids

Looking for more Halloween Ideas?! Check out:

Glow-in-the-Dark Mummy Hiking Stick

A Simple Mummy Rock Nature Craft for Halloween

The post A Simple Spider Anatomy Activity for Kids appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

There are many reasons why I love this activity! I especially love it because the leaf pieces will last through the entire fall season and beyond. You can still trace in the leaves once they are dried and they still look beautiful!

I also love this activity because there is so much fine motor work going on here. From the leaf cutting to writing letters in the leaves, there are multiple opportunities to develop those small hand muscles.

And if you are looking for another way to use these leaf bits, check out low-prep fall keepsake printable #8. I know you will love this idea as well!

Supplies:

• Leaves
• Scissors
• Tray- We repurposed a Melissa and Doug play dough container for this activity
• Optional- Branches, stones, clothespins and sensory tray writing prompts

This post contains Affiliate links for your convenience.

Here’s What We Did:

First, we collected leaves from our yard and brought them inside. We searched for a variety of colors and types of leaves and identified them as we went.

Leo LOVES using scissors so this was definitely his prefer method for making the leaf bits. I cut some of the wider pieces in half to make them more manageable for Leo to cut.

Leo also teared and crumbled (the dry) the leaves to make smaller pieces.

We had a lot of leaves to get through! It took us about 30 minutes to cut all of our leaves. Leo really liked this process and already wants to cut more leaves tomorrow!

Time to Use The Sensory Tray!

First, I let Leo make random lines in the sensory tray. He made straight lines, circles, spirals, and drew pictures like smiley faces before I brought out the writing prompt cards. I showed him how to run his finger multiple times in the same spot to brush all the leaves out of the way.

Next, I got out the clothespins and set up my writing prompt hack. You can clip them on your writing tray and place your writing prompts in the top part. It works really well!

Leo made the letters and I showed him how to fill in the letters with the rocks. He loved this!

He also tried using the branch instead of his finger to make the letters. This was a fun way to mix things up a bit.

We had so much fun incorporating nature into this prewriting activity!

Pin this activity to save it for later!

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

∼Tara

Looking to Strengthen Fine Motor Skills?! Check out:

Practice Prewriting Skills with Sticks and Stones

Giant Cut and Reveal- Scissors Practice for Fall

The post Fall Leaf Sensory Writing Tray appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

This is one of those activities that exceeded my expectations. It gives children the opportunity to learn, play, and create with nature all in one activity!

It’s simple, beautiful, engaging, and totally doable for young kids. Another great feature, the double sided tape makes it easy to peel off the leaves for endless leaf crown creations!

Supplies:

• Double sided tape
• Large roll of paper
• Markers– I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again-These markers are the BEST!
• Tape
• Leaves

This post contains Affiliate links for your convenience.

Here’s What We Did:

First I drew the faces on the paper. I searched simple face clip art pictures and literally copied it. I used the same face design for all three pictures but switched up the hairstyles to make them look different. I have zero artistic abilities and found this pretty easy! They aren’t perfect and guess what?! My kids didn’t mind one bit:)

Next I put the double sided tape across the foreheads. I put one piece of tape on each face, but I think next time I will add one more strip above that piece to make it a little thicker.

Take into consideration the eyes when placing your tape on the forehead. Make sure the tape is high enough so you don’t have stems dangling in the eyes.

Finally, choose a spot for your activity. We set ours up outdoors, but this could easily be an indoor activity as well. You will just need to collect your leaves before hand.

Now you’re ready for the fun!

I set this up when Leo was indoors so he was excited as we walked closer to the faces. He started naming them and commenting on how “cool” this looks! I told him he’ll make leaf crowns for them and he was soooo excited to get started.

We used a mixture of leaves from our beeswax leaf stash and also collected some fresh ones once we were outside.

I showed him how to press the leaves on the strip of double sided tape. This was great fine motor work! He had to press a little harder on the beeswax preserved leaves to get them to stick but they worked just fine and looked so beautiful! Their colors are really holding up and they didn’t curl at all, making them perfect for all of our fall leaf activities. I tested the beeswax leaves the night before trying this activity with my boys and they stuck to the paper overnight!

This during this activity we identified leaves, talked about leaf colors and sizes, and made leaf patterns! So many opportunities for learning!

I think the best part of this activity is that you can EASILY peel the leaves right off the double sided tape and start all over again! Leo started looking around the yard and grabbed some willow leaves to try for his second round of leaf crowns. And then looked for more leaves and did a third round.

He was busy with this for about thirty minutes and only went in because it was dinner time. We brought the paper inside and already have it taped to the wall for more leaf crown creations!

Pin this activity to save it for later!

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

∼Tara

Need more leaf ideas?! Check out:

A Simple Leaf Activity to Try Today

How to Preserve Fall Leaves with Beeswax

The post A Simple Fall Leaf Crown Activity (you can do over and over again) appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

This leaf activity is inspired by A Simple Stone Activity to Try Today! It was a crowd favorite so I thought I’d share a new way to try this activity.

Who doesn’t love fall?! The pumpkins, cooler weather, bonfires, Halloween, and those lovely fall leaves get me every time! We love collecting and crafting with them, but making games with leaves is a new idea for us.

I hope you love this nature activity as much as we do! Check it out below.

Supplies:

• Paper- We use Melissa and Doug easel paper
• Leaves- Go on a leaf hunt and collect a variety of leaves (We found our leaves the evening before and pressed them in a book in between pieces of wax paper to keep them flat.)
• Marker
• Painter’s Tape

This post contains Affiliate links for your convenience.

Here’s How To Set Up The Leaf Activity:

Step 1:

I got out my large roll of white paper and taped it to a chest we have in our living room. I placed the leaves in the middle of our paper as a focal point.

Step 2:

I outlined the leaves. I chose a wide variety of leaves to make it easier to find the match. First I outlined each leaf with pencil. This outline doesn’t need to be perfect. Just make sure you get the basic shape of the leaf. When complete, this step looks like a lot of work but it took me about 5 minutes at most!

Here’s a tip: If you are working with children that get frustrated easily, you might want to consider marking the side of the leaf that faces down to make the activity a little easier and this also helps children self correct. 

Then I went over the pencil line with a Sharpie.

You can also identify and label the leaves on the paper at this point! This will turn it into a beautiful leaf identification chart.

If you have a few similar leaves, you might want to consider taking a photo of the leaves in their outline, so you remember where everything belongs on the matching mat later.

Our leaves were all pretty unique!

Step 3:

For the simple stone activity, I modeled how to match up the stones first. I decided to skip this step for the leaf game because my boys were already familiar with the activity. I also think the leaves are a little more self explanatory because their shapes are all so unique.

My boys compared the leaves and discussed the leaf details when matching the shapes!

I have to say, this looks more like a piece of art than a learning activity when finished! And not only is this leaf activity gorgeous, but it’s fun and educational. When we were finished, my boys identified as many leaves as they could and used our leaf identification app for the unknown leaves.

My boys returned to this leaf activity several times throughout the day and I’m already planning a follow-up activity for these beautiful leaf outlines! Stay tuned….

Pin this activity to save it for later!

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

∼Tara

Need more fall nature activities?! Check out:

Giant Cut and Reveal- Scissors Skills Practice for Fall

Nature Collection Journal for Kids

The post A Simple Leaf Activity to Try Today! appeared first on Little Pine Learners.