We love summer vacation in our home! We have fun going on adventures, attending fairs, swimming at the pool, and hanging out with friends. Even with all of that excitement, we still have “boring” and “lazy” days. Those days are wonderful in many ways, but sometimes we just need to shake things up a bit to get the kids playing and engaged in activities again AND outdoors! 

Why try hanging basket activities? 

Here are a few reasons why I love this idea:

1. The containers are durable and easy to clean! You can easily clean any bubble or chalk reside. They are made of strong plastic and can take a beating. It’s ok if kids throw the toys back in, the baskets can take it!
2. You can keep them in the same predictable spot or you can move them around your yard to keep kids guessing and searching for them. Kids will enjoy the challenge of finding the “basket activity of the day!” If you have dinosaur figures, you could place the basket in an area of the yard with a lot of plants to mimic their natural surrounding. If you place books inside the hanging basket, put it in the garden or somewhere you would like to read books with your kids. The options are endless!
3. Try rotating toys in and out of the baskets to keep them fun and exciting for your kids. Your kids might be getting bored of their car collection, but try bringing them outdoors and they can create race lanes with sticks or rocks! If you change their typical play environment, the toys feel new to kids. 
4. They are easy to take off the hook to put in the garage or in the house if rain is predicted. You could keep plastic toys outside, but I would bring the other play options indoors during inclement weather. 

Here’s Our Outdoor Activities Set Up:

The idea here is to breathe new life into those old everyday activities or try a new activity in an outdoor setting! Try filling your hanging planters with these fun activities:

1. Books

There’s nothing better than reading a book outside on a nice day. Fill a hanging planter with a few old favorites or surprise your little one with new books!

2. Bubbles

I love these hanging planters as storage for bubbles because you can spray a hose inside the basket when it gets sticky from bubble residue. There are also drainage holes and a removable base so you don’t need to get messy when dumping out the water, it will simply drain out the bottom. It’s the perfect size for multiple bubble bottles for a party!

3. Chalk

For the same reason I like this for bubbles, I also love it for chalk! We all know that chalk can get messy, so it’s super simple to spray a hose in the hanging planter and let the water drain out the bottom. This doesn’t need to be placed near concrete, kids can color on large rocks, mulch or sticks!

4. Learning Material

I added some nature identification books to the hanging planter to inspire outdoor exploration, but you could put worksheets or even craft supplies in a planter!

5. Games

Add a few small games to inspire outdoor time on a beautiful summer day. Put a blanket and a couple of outdoor pillows near the hanging planter to create an inviting space to play!

6. Toys

I have always loved bringing toys outside for my kids! Brining toys outdoors into a new environment, invites kids to play with their toys in new and different ways. Here you can see the DIY Magnetic Tiles that I made, but you can try any toy! I particularly love the magnetic tiles because they stick right on the metal stand!

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

Supplies for the Chicken Boredom Buster:

• Shepherd Hooks– There are tall and short hooks, so make sure you get the size that will work best for the height of your child. When purchasing, make sure to consider that the planters will hang down from the top height of the hook . This 48 inch set of hooks would work well for young children. We have 35 inch hooks and much taller hooks. The planters hang a couple inches from the ground with the 35 in hooks. 
• Hanging Planters– We used these hanging baskets. Again, there are different sizes so make sure you get the size that works for your needs!
• Books– Check out this list of picture books that are great for spring and summer. Consider the size of the books and hanging planters to make sure they will fit. 
• Toys– We added these DIY magnetic tiles! They are perfect because the magnets stick right on the hooks! Different toy figures would be fun too. This dinosaur set or a simple car set would be perfect in an outdoor setting.
• Chalk 
• Bubbles
• Small games- We like placing card games in the planters. 

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What would you add to the planters? Let me know on Instagram. 

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I hope you enjoy these outdoor activities in hanging planters as much as I do!

-Tara

Need more simple nature ideas?! Check out:

Wasp Nest Decoy

More than 30 Press Flower Crafts

The post Outdoor Activities in Hanging Planters appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

Bookmarks make a great holiday craft because many children receive books during the holiday season! These cute bookmarks look like mini Christmas trees and the gems look like twinkling lights when reflected in the sunlight. They are so pretty!

If these look familiar that’s because we made beautiful wax paper lanterns using the same supplies. You could make them both at the same time!

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

Supplies:

• • Arborvitae Pieces
  • Wax paper
  • Towel or ironing board
  • Scissors or portable paper trimmer
  • Tape
  • Gem Stickers (optional)
  • Vintage Holiday Book Set with 8 Classic Stories

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Related: Check out this adorable Air Dry Clay Dish for the Holidays

Here’s How I Made these DIY Wax Paper Lanterns:

Step 1:

Clip some arborvitae pieces. Next, turn on your iron to a medium high setting. If your wax paper doesn’t stick together, then turn your iron up higher. 

Step 2:

Cut a piece of wax paper, fold it in half to make a crease and open it back up again. My whole piece is about 21 inches long. This might seem way too big, but the wax paper will not seal if you don’t leave enough room surrounding the arborvitae piece. 

Place your arborvitae piece on one half of the piece of wax paper. 

Step 3:

Fold your piece of wax paper over the arborvitae piece. This doesn’t need to be perfect because you can always trim it up later. 

Step 4:

As soon as your iron hits the wax paper, it will fuse together! It’s a neat process to observe. I quickly ran the iron over the wax paper several times, then I flipped it over and did the same thing on that side. 

Since there is an air pocket around the arborvitae piece, the green will fade a bit over time. They are just too thick to seal 100%.

Step 5:

Now trim your paper to make it the height and width you would like. This is also when you can trim up those rough edges. You can use scissors, but I find this paper trimmer pretty handy! 

Step 6:

This step is optional. We added some small gem stickers to mimic Christmas lights. They look so pretty!

Pair a bookmark with a book and you have the perfect gift. People love a beautiful and thoughtful handmade gift! 

We had fun playing around with different color combinations with the gem stickers! I found that was a great added touch and fun way to personalize them for yourself or someone else. 

I’ve had so many link requests for the vintage holiday books in this post, that I decided to share them! CLICK HERE to check out the 8 classic holiday books included in the beautiful set.

Click on the photos below for unique gift ideas for nature loving kids!

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I hope you try to make your own bookmark! I promise, your little nature lovers will love it as much as my boys.

∼Tara

Need more simple nature ideas?! Check out:

How to Make Ice Lanterns

Nature Christmas Cards to Make With Kids

The post Make Your Own Bookmark with Wax Paper appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

What are sight words and why are they important?

Sight words are words, like come, does, or you, that don’t follow the rules of spelling or the six types of syllables. These words are usually difficult to sound out so students are taught to recognize them as a whole word and read them by sight. Many of these words are found frequently in early readers. Once students learn to quickly recognize these words, reading becomes much easier for kids.

Why use stones?

Stones are fun to search for in nature and people of all ages love to collect them! Each stone is unique and special. They feel different, look different, and many have special meaning for different reasons. So why not use them in a learning activity?! Children will instantly feel connected to the stones and excited to use them in a new way! Just make sure to ask for your child’s permission if you are taking from his or her personal collection:)

Here is an observation I made during the activity: Since each stone is unique, I noticed that my son was associating particular words with how the stone looked. When he was looking for and, he kept saying “where is that black stone” and when he was searching for you, he said “where is the stone with a squiggly red line”? He was visualizing the way the words looked on those particulars stones and thinking about them as he searched for them. This is a great way to get sight words to stick!

If your child is struggling with a particular word, have them carry the stone in their pocket for the rest of the day. I guarantee that tricky word will be memorized in a day or two!

Ready to practice sight words? Here’s what you’ll need….

Supplies:

• Cardboard– These cardboard sheets are a convenient option if you don’t have any to reuse. 
• Single hole paper punch (optional)
• Binder ring (optional)
• Stones- Find them in nature or purchase them at the Dollar Store, a landscape shop, or Amazon
• Pencil 
• Black marker

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RELATED: Check out 10 Simple and Beautiful Stone Activities

Here’s How to do This Sight Word Activity:

Step 1:

If you want to make multiple sight word practice boards and looking for way to keep them organized, then keep them together with a binder ring! First punch holes through the cardboard and attach a ring. 

We are working our way through the popular Fry Sight Word Lists! I plan on working on 10 new words every 3 or 4 days, or until he has all of the words on each board memorized. 

Step 2:

Organize your stones on your cardboard to make sure they fit. 

Step 3:

Outline the stones with pencil. I like to outline in pencil first so I don’t mark up my pretty stones with marker!

Step 4:

Take the stones off and trace the pencil outline with marker. Then write the sight words of your choice on the cardboard stone outlines. 

Step 5:

Match up the stones and write the sight words on the stones. 

Step 6:

Hide the stones around your yard or house. I suggest taking photos of where you hide the stones so you can remember where they are hidden! I chose a section of our yard to hide the stones so they weren’t scattered throughout the yard. 

Now invite your child to search for the sight word stones! First we read the words together to increase exposure and help set him up for success. 

He loved searching for the stones and was so excited to read the words as he found them!

Matching the words gave him another chance to see the sight words and read them again! This is important because repeated practice with sight words gives children the exposure they need to build their sight word vocabulary. 

He had so much fun that we played this game three times that day! I will flip over the cardboard and try another set of sight words in a couple of days!

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I hope you try this sight word practice game! I promise, your little nature lovers will love this activity as my boys.

∼Tara

Looking for more cardboard nature craft and activity ideas?! Check out:

A Beautiful Nature Frame

A Simple and Beautiful Nature Activity to Try Today!

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What are Sight Words?

While teaching reading to children starts with the decoding process, as children begin to recognize more words, they transition to sight reading. 

Sight words are high-frequency words. They are also called popcorn words because they frequently “pop up” in reading and writing. Sight words are all about memorization and recognition. Not about the spelling or sounding them out. By eliminating the need to decode these words, children are able to focus on more difficult words. 

Sounds good, right?! Here is a fun and hands-on activity to help your children learn the 95 Dolch sight word nouns!

Supplies:

• Dolch Noun Sight Words- Say It, Make It, Write It
• Laminator– Optional
• Dry erase marker or something else to write with
• Metal ring
• Paper punch
• Scissors
• Wood circles, stones, or a letter manipulative

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RELATED: Check out Four Ways to Use Stones in the Classroom

Here’s How to Set Up the Learning Invitation:

Step 1:

First decide what type of letter manipulatives you would like to use. You can use magnetic letters, letter tiles, or write letters on stones or wood pieces. You can find all of these options on Amazon.

I wrote alphabet letters on wood pieces and sorted them in two eggs cartons. I stored X,Y and Z in the last spot. Some words require two or more of the same letter, so take that into consideration when preparing your letter manipulatives. The wood pieces are a little larger and the words that are longer than 5 letters went off the mat work space. This didn’t bother my boys, but thought I should mention it. 

*Tip! Extra large eggs have larger egg compartments. This equals more storage space!

Step 2: 

Print your Dolch Noun Activity Packet.  I printed all of my pieces of paper on cardstock. You can also choose to laminate the cardstock to make them more durable.

I laminated my Dolch noun sight word strips, put the mat in a plastic pouch, and used a dry erase marker for writing.

Step 3:

Choose the nouns that you would like your child to focus on, put them on a metal ring for easy flipping, and place them on the “say it” section of the mat.

Invite your child to read the word, make it out of the letter manipulatives and write it on the space provided. Then model how to put the letters back in the correct spot and move on to the next word!

You can choose from the noun strips with or without picture prompts!

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I hope you give this fun learning invitation a try! I promise, your little nature lovers will love this one.

∼Tara

Need more low-prep nature printables?! Check out:

Hands-On Ways to Retell Room on the Broom

Butterfly Flip Books for Nature Study

The post Dolch Noun Sight Word Learning Invitation appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

Encourage reading at home with this gorgeous DIY dried and pressed flower bookmark! Children will love the process of pressing pieces of nature and the finished craft is stunning. No worries if you don’t have pieces of nature to press, I share a great alternative below!

This pressed flower bookmark is so easy and beautiful! You can either press flowers in a book or try a super quick method in the microwave! This was the first time that I tried the microwave to press flowers and I was surprised at how well it worked. 

Ready to make a few?! Here’s what you’ll need..

Supplies:

• Scissors
• Piece of plastic- We reused a piece of a plastic lid
• Packing tape
• Pressed pieces of nature. Just grab them from your garden! If you are in the middle of winter and don’t have pieces of nature to press, you can order already pressed flowers and leaves right here!

To press flowers in the microwave:

• Paper
• Paper towel
• Plates to flatten the flowers

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Related: Check out Nature Sun Catchers Made With Recycled Items

How to Dry Flowers in the Microwave:

Lay a piece of regular printer paper on top of a sheet of paper towel.

Next, arrange your flowers face down on the printer paper. Different flowers will take varying amounts of time in the microwave, so try to keep similar flowers together. 

Step 2: 

Fold the printer paper and paper towel in half to make a “sandwich”.

Place the flower sandwich into your microwave.  I stacked 3 flat plates on top to press the flowers during warming.  Then I set the microwave timer for 20 seconds because these petals were very thin and couldn’t take long chunks of time in the microwave. After that, I peeled back the paper to check on the petals to make sure they weren’t sticking to the paper and then kept doing 20 second bursts for about 3 minutes. 

You will need to test out a few flowers to see how they react in your microwave. You can also play around with your settings and many people suggest keeping your microwave settings low while pressing flowers. As long as you stick to 10-30 second microwave bursts, you should be fine!

How to Make the Pressed Flower Bookmark:

Cut out a rectangular piece of plastic. I headed to our recycling bin and grabbed a lid from a carrot container. 

I made my bookmark with a little help from a ruler and sharpie. 

Step 2:

Arrange your dried flowers on your bookmark. I remembered that we had other flowers pressing in a book, so I quickly grabbed them and my boys helped me arrange them. 

Step 3:

Place a piece of packing tape over your creation and press down any little air bubbles that pop up around the flowers. The piece of packing tape was a little more narrow than the plastic, so I trimmed away the excess flowers and plastic pieces to clean up the edges.  

You can keep your pressed flower bookmark as is, or you can add a washi tape border!

Here is the pressed flower bookmark with the border….

And here it is without…..

Which way do you prefer?! I can’t decide!

Check out a close up of the beautiful detail in the dried flowers. I just love this pressed flower bookmark so much!! Try making one for yourself, your children, students, or a handmade gift!

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

∼Tara

Need more nature craft ideas?! Check out:

How to Make Nature Pinch Pots

Dandelion Shape Threading Boards

The post Easy DIY Flower Bookmark appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

This is one of those activities that you can 100% tailor to meet the needs and the interests of the children you are working with. If you have multiple children at home, you could have one child searching for alphabet letters and the other searching for sight words. If your children need help with math skills, you could write numbers or draw dots on the stones for counting. This is a naturally differentiated activity that helps children learn in a fun and active way. 

Ready to give this garden activity for kids a try!? Here’s what you’ll need..

Supplies:

• Stones
• Chalk
• Watering Can

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

Here’s How We Did This Garden Activity for Kids:

Step 1:

This is basically the only step! Just write letters on stones with chalk and hide them in your garden! Remember you can do this exact same activity with numbers, words, shapes, or anything else you are currently working on. 

A few of the stones that I wrote on were larger stones and already set in the garden. Once I hid the rest of the smaller stones, we were ready for the alphabet letter scavenger hunt! I tried to have a nice mix of easy to find stones and a few that were a bit more tricky to find. 

My four year old was completely sold when he found out there was a watering can involved. He loves watering plants in our yard, so this was pretty exciting for him!

This garden activity for kids is also great for gross motor skills. As you can see in the photo below, he is working on balance, coordination, physical strength and so much more!

My son loved searching for the letters and would shout out the letter names as he found them. I challenged him on a few and asked if he knew the letters sounds.

I plan on trying this with my older son next with sight words he’s been working on. This is so much better than a boring worksheet!

When he finished the activity, he grabbed the chalk and wrote some letters on a few rocks because he wanted to keep going! This one kept him busy for long time, was inexpensive, and got him outdoors! We’ll definitely revisit this garden activity a few more times this summer:) 

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

∼Tara

Need more simple nature ideas?! Check out:

Four Ways to Use Stones in the Classroom

Dandelion Rock Family

The post Alphabet Stone Activity for the Garden appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

Children are often bombarded with worksheets at school. They tend to be boring and not very interesting to look at. Here is a fun and simple alternative to worksheets that can be used at home or as a learning center in a classroom! 

Here’s just a quick tip before we get into the “How To” section:

If you don’t want to make this a dry erase surface, you can keep the pieces of nature loose similar to our Nature Find It activity!

Ready to make an I Spy activity board!? Here’s what you’ll need..

Supplies:

• Cardboard
• Packing Tape
• Dry Erase Marker
• Paper Towel
• Pressed Pieces of Nature– If you don’t have any available, you can purchase a pack on Amazon. We used some from this pack on our board!

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RELATED: Check out Magical Pressed Flower Lanterns

Here’s How We Made The I Spy Activity Board:

Step 1:

Organize your pressed pieces of nature on your cardboard. You can read more on pressing flowers in How to Preserve Flowers for Nature Activities.

Step 2:

Now it’s time to make the dry erase surface. I did this two ways to compare methods:

For the “Key” I put some Mod Podge on the board first, put the flowers on the thin layer of Mod Podge, and covered the flowers with more Mod Podge. The Mod Podge dimpled the cardboard a bit, but looked okay when it dried. Once it dried, I put strips of packing tape over the key one piece at a time. 

For the actual board, I skipped the Mod Podge and went right to taping the board. I started at one end and worked my way to the other. Just make sure the pieces of tape overlap a bit so there are no gaps in between the strips of tape. This only took me about 10 minutes and it turned out great! 

Your I Spy Activity Board is Complete!

This took me about 15 total minutes to prepare and I gasped at it’s beauty when it was complete! As you can see, the board now has a nice surface and you can easily wipe off any dry erase marks. 

Now invite your child over to the board! I asked my four year old if he could find all of the pieces of nature on the board. He was so excited to find them all! Our conversation naturally moved to colors, counting, and comparing the different pieces of nature. 

My son put little dots next to the pieces of nature as he found them, but kids can circle, check them off, or make any other marking to track their findings!

Also you can skip the key and call out different items to find. “Can you circle all of the blue flowers?” “Can you count five flowers and put a heart next to them?”  The questions and prompts are endless!

The surface is so smooth and shiny. Children will love wiping the marks off of the board!

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I hope you give this I spy 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:

A Simple and Beautiful Nature Craft to Try Today

10+ Simple and Beautiful Stone Activities for Kids

The post Dry Erase I Spy Board Made With Real Pieces of Nature! appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

My four year old is really into learning his letters and sounds these days! We’ve been homeschooling for about a month now and are quickly running out of activities from his virtual learning packet.

I’m kinda over the quick worksheets from school and other activities that are over in 5 minutes. The effort it takes to get a four year old interested in a worksheet that will only last a few minutes is just not worth it for us! So here is a fun alternative alphabet match activity that young children can revisit throughout the week! Children get the chance to get creative and do their work whenever they choose. 

Ready to move on from naming alphabet letters? Try this beginning sound stone game!

Let’s give this alphabet match activity a try! Here’s what you’ll need..

Supplies:

• Roll of paper
• Alphabet rocks
• Markers– These are scented markers!

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Here’s What We Did:

Step 1:

Make alphabet letter rocks and draw bubble letters on a large sheet of white paper. This is really the only step!

I wrote the letters on the rocks with a sharpie and did my best with the bubble letters. No they are not perfect, but my four year old doesn’t care! Make your bubble letters on the larger side to make this a developmentally appropriate activity for those little hands. You can choose to write the entire alphabet or just the letters your child is still learning. 

Next…

Now invite your child to try the alphabet match activity. I showed my son how to find an alphabet letter one at a time, name it, match it, and color it! Children can also name an object that starts with that letter sound.

My son liked to write the letter first inside the bubble letter. 

These bubble letters look easy to color, but the curves and quick directional changes are a challenge for young kids! We talked about slowing down, using small strokes when coloring, and not leaving a lot of white spaces in the bubble letters. 

Along with working his fine motor skills, he also worked his gross motor skills. He practiced stabilizing his core and crossing the midline when coloring letters towards the other end of the paper. 

My son took a break from this activity after coloring in about six letters. That turned out to be about 30 minutes of fun and engaging work for him! We kept this set up out for the rest of the week and he visited it whenever he felt like it. He loved working on his alphabet match activity banner!

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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 nature craft ideas?! Check out:

Work on Spatial Awareness With This Simple Nature Shape Puzzle

A Simple Stone Activity to Try Today!

The post Alphabet Grab and Color Activity appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

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.

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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.