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

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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.

My boys are obsessed with stones! They love throwing them into the lake, collecting them, sorting them, carrying them in their pockets…you get it, they LOVE them.

And I can’t blame them! They are each so unique and beautiful, they are truly little treasures.

We love incorporating them into our crafting, learning and playing time! My boys are naturally drawn to the stone activities and get excited each and every time I introduce a new one.

So here it is! My list of favorite stone crafts and rock activities. These activities have become some of favorite family bonding moments turned wonderful memories.

1. A Simple Mummy Stone Craft

These mummy rocks are not only a wonderful Halloween nature craft, but would make a great spooky bonfire or camping activity! Get the details one of the cutest stone crafts HERE

2. A Simple Stone Activity to Try Today

This one is a HUGE hit! This simple stone puzzle is easy to set up but will keep your little ones busy for a while! Get the details HERE

3. Practicing Prewriting Skills with Sticks and Stones

Have you ever “painted” with water on stones before?! The water brings out the beautiful colors in the stones and it looks so pretty! It’s a super calming activity and great for fine motor skills! Get the details HERE

4. A New Way to Use Story Stones

If you’ve been following our blog for a while now then you now that we love story stones! They are an incredibly beautiful aid for storytelling and writing. This posts shares a simple way to use story stones in your home or classroom. Get the details HERE

Want to know how we make our story stones? Check out the bottom of this post: Four Ways to Use Story Stones in the Classroom

5. Reverse Sequin Nature Stone Craft

This rock craft makes the perfect homemade Valentines day gift or calm down tool. The beautiful reversible sequins look stunning against the rocks and they are so soothing to play with. Get the details on one of the best Valentine’s day stone crafts HERE

6. Loose Parts Stones

Try to look at these and not smile! It’s impossible:) Set out stones, other pieces of nature and googly eyes in a divided tray and see what adorable creations your kids come up with! No glue required here. This transient art activity allows for endless creations.

7. Wikki Stix and Stones- A Must Try Activity

This activity is so incredibly simple to set up! Literally put out a pack of Wikki Stix and rocks and see what pretty creations your kids come up with. Yes, they stick to the rock and peel off very easily! Get the details HERE

8. Beaded Bug Stones

This adorable beaded bug craft comes from my 25+ Nature Inspired Summer Activities for Kids post. There are actually four stone activities on this post. Check out activity number #1, #7, #21 and #23 for more information. This activity is #21! Get the details HERE

9. Easter Egg Stacking Rocks

These easter egg stacking rocks quickly became a tradition in our home. Every April we search for large, flat stones to turn into gorgeous stacking rocks! The process is really fun and they turn out beautiful every time! Get the details for one of our favorite stone crafts HERE

10. Stick and Stone Constellations

These stick and stone constellations are such a simple activity to set up! Just put star stickers on stones, collect some sticks and you are all set to make your very own constellations. Get the details HERE

11. Collecting Rocks

I’m saving a classic activity for last! Have you every used an egg carton to collect rocks?! Those little indents make for the perfect spot for collecting, sorting and playing with rocks! You can find the printable along with other wild activities to go with the label HERE

Pin it for later!

I hope you give these simple stone crafts and rock activities a try! I promise, your little nature lovers will love them as much as my boys.

∼Tara

Looking for more rock ideas? Check out:

Work on Spatial Awareness with This Simple Nature Shape Puzzle

How to Make Flower Rocks

Here are a couple more activities you will love! Check out:

Nature Find and Count Math Activity

Nature Collection Journal for Kids

The post 10+ Simple and Beautiful Stone Activities for Kids appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

I was perusing the dollar spot at Target and I saw a little booklet of “Find-It-Fast” activities. The point of the activity is to count different halloween pictures and record how many of each you found on the paper. The worksheet wasn’t very engaging, but I liked the idea! I thought….Hmmm, I can do that at home with nature and make it wayyyy more inviting and engaging.

So I raided our nature finds collection and picked out some favorite pieces for the activity.

Supplies:

• Nature
• Roll of paper
• Tape
• Marker

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RELATED: Check out this A Simple Stone Activity to Try Today!

Here’s What We Did:

First you’ll need to collect pieces of nature or dig into your nature collection. We collected pine cones, black walnuts, leaves, mossy bark and rocks. These were all loose pieces of nature that we found on the ground. Even the mossy bark was found on a bridge during a nature walk. I just broke the larger piece of bark into smaller pieces to make it work for this activity.

Next, set up the activity. I taped a large piece of paper to our table and laid the pieces of nature on the paper in a 5X5 grid fashion. Then I drew a line on the paper to separate the nature from the recording area.

If your children aren’t writers yet, you could:

1. just skip the recording part all together
2. write numbers on little pieces of paper and your children could glue the correct numbers on the paper
3. write numbers on little post it notes and children could stick them to the correct numbers on the paper

My six year old knew exactly what to do without any explanation. He’s been enjoying learning invitations for years now so he knows the drill! He got to counting right away.

My son is really into writing numbers these days, but I was thinking you could have children write the number word or tally marks as an alternative idea.

He was so proud of his work when he was done!

If you want to try this again on another day, just erase the answers and put different amounts of the same pieces of nature on the paper.

Also, you can try this again with any collection that interests the children you are working with! You could try this with stickers, toys or even socks! Literally ANYTHING!!

Pin it to save it for later!

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:

Stick and Stone Constellations

Four Ways to Use Stones in the Classroom

The post Nature Find and Count Math Activity 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

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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.

The sense of smell is closely linked with memory, probably more so than any of our other senses. This simple method of preserving leaves will fill your home with the most lovely beeswax aroma and will surely create a strong link to fun fall memories for your children. Think about it, how cool is that?! This will be one of those activities that your children will remember and love forever!

Not only does the beeswax smell amazing, but it helps seal in and preserve the vivid colors of those beautiful fall leaves. These preserved leaves will have a nice sheen and texture after the beeswax dries. This makes them the perfect addition to transient art activities or your fall nature table. You can also hang them from twine with clothespins to make a beautiful fall garland. The possibilities are endless!

Here’s what you’ll need to preserve fall leaves…

Supplies:

• Leaves- Try a wide variety to see what works best for you. Choose leaves with the stems attached because this will help preserve the leaves.
• Beeswax. We bought a block from our local health food store, but you can try this beeswax block or package of pellets.
• Small Crockpot
• Wax Paper

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RELATED: Check out this Adorable Bat Nature Craft 

Here’s What We Did:

Step 1: Gather Leaves

Here are a few quick tips when looking for leaves to preserve:

1. Collect freshly fallen leaves on a dry day. If they are wet, you will want to dry them between two pieces of paper towel with a heavy book on top to keep them flat. Preserve them within a day or they will start to loose color.
2. You might want to try a variety of leaves to see which type you like to work with the most. We tried two different types of leaves: Japanese Maple and Staghorn Sumac.
3. Skip the crispy dry leaves or the ones that have begun to curl.

Step 2: Prepare Your Beeswax

Some people use a double boiler over the stove to melt the beeswax but I find this method rather inconvenient and a little dangerous, especially if children want to help. We opted for a little crock pot that we found at the thrift shop and it’s designated only for this purpose since it’s difficult to get the beeswax out of the pot. We got a large block of beeswax from our local health food store so we had to cut it in little chunks to help it melt quicker.

Step 3: Dip the Leaves

Hold the leaves by the stem and quickly dip the leaves in the beeswax. Make sure you completely coat the leaf, including the stem. If you would like, you can use a tweezer to submerge the leaf.

Our sumac leaves didn’t have a stem, so I dropped them in the beeswax and picked them out with a tweezer. They curled up a bit in the beeswax, but were easy to flatten out on the wax paper.

Step 4: Gently Shake Off the Excess Beeswax

Hold the leaf up for a few seconds and let the the excess beeswax drip off the leaf. You might want to give it a little shake too.

Step 5: Dry the Leaves

Let the leaves dry on the wax paper.

And here’s a quick tip! You can pour your slightly cooled down liquid beeswax in a silicone cupcake or ice cube mold and let it harden. Once it’s a solid again, you can pop them out and put the chunks in a ziplock bag to save until next year.

How to Use Your Leaves:

We loved using the sumac for transient art and loose parts activities. They were so beautiful and were just begging to be played with. My son loved organizing them by color, counting them and making designs with them.

I had to show my son how to be gentle with the leaves because the beeswax can flake off if you are rough with them.

We even brought them outside the following days and he played with them on a tree stump.

The maple leaves were perfect for hanging from garland! They look so beautiful and beeswax not only preserves the colors, but helps them stay flat and not curl up.

Save it for later and Pin it!

Now that you know how to preserve leaves, I hope you give it a try! I promise, your little nature lovers will love it as much as my boys.

∼Tara

Need more fall ideas?! Check out:

50 Beautiful Fall Nature-Inspired Books for Kids

The Cutest No-Carve Pumpkin Design

The post How to Preserve Fall Leaves with Beeswax appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

As a busy working mom, I like to keep things simple. These days, I don’t have the time to set up complicated activities that take forever to prepare and clean up.

So here is an adorable and incredibly simple nature mummy craft to try this fall!

This activity was a bit difficult for my four year old and he required a lot of help. So if you want this to be more of an independent activity, I suggest this for ages six and up!

Supplies:

• Googly Eyes
• Rubber bands– We used these rubber bands because they are smaller and easier to handle. You can play around with different sizes to see what works best with your age group.
• Stones- I found longer, thin stones work the best for this activity since the rubber bands are small loom bands. You can also try thick branches or pieces of bark!

This post contains Affiliate links for your convenience.

RELATED: Check out these Glow-In-The-Dark Mummy Hiking Sticks!

Here’s How to Make the Mummy Craft:

Step 1:

First, peel the backing off the googly eyes and stick them on the stones.

I helped peel the backing off the eyes, but my boys stuck them on the stones themselves. I suggest sticking the eyes a bit lower on the rocks so the rubber bands have a wide spot to to wrap around. If you stick the eyes too high, the rubber bands will fly off the rocks.

Step 2:

Put rubber bands on the stones to create the mummy effect.

My six year old tried different methods of getting the rubber bands on the stones. Here he used his stomach to hold on to the stones while he stretched the rubber bands with both hands.

Next, he held the stone in one hand and I showed him how to stretch the rubber bands on two fingers on the other hand. This was a little difficult for him but it got much easier with practice!

He rolled the rubber bands up with this thumb and said he wanted to, “criss-cross some of the rubber bands to make it look more like a mummy.’

I joined in on the fun and couldn’t believe how good of a fine-motor workout this was! The pinching action required to manipulate the rubber bands really works those small hand muscles.

And guess what?! The eyes and rubber bands on this mummy craft glow in the dark! This activity was definitely inspired by our Glow-in-the-Dark Hiking Sticks and they turned out just as awesome.

These are the perfect Halloween gift or decoration in your home!

Save it for later and Pin it!

I hope you give this not so spooky mummy craft a try! I promise, your little nature lovers will love it as much as my boys.

∼Tara

Need more fall ideas?! Check out:

The Cutest No-Carve Pumpkin Design

Adorable Bat Nature Craft

Hands-On Ways to Retell Room on the Broom

The post A Simple Mummy Rock Nature Craft for Halloween appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

My youngest is four and is eager to write his name. He tries so hard, but his fine motor skills aren’t quite there yet. In a world of worksheets, it can be difficult to find developmentally appropriate ways to support these emerging prewriting skills. But don’t worry, I have a fun and engaging way to practice writing curved and straight lines.

Why curved and straight lines?

Good question, alphabet letters and numbers are made up of curved, straight and a combination of these two lines. Giving children the opportunity to write these strokes, will set them up for success for writing numbers and letters! Luckily sticks make for the perfect surface to practice writing straight lines and round stones offer the perfect place to practice curved lines.

Add water and a paintbrush with those beautiful pieces of nature and your little writer will be busy for a while!

Supplies:

• Sticks and stones
• Cup for water
• Paintbrushes

This post contains Affiliate links for your convenience.

Here’s What We Did:

Step One:

Set out your supplies for the activity. We searched for straight sticks outside and scoured our rock collection for a few of our favorite rocks. I grabbed a couple paintbrushes, filled a jar with water and we were all set!

Step 2:

I told Leo that we were going to practice making different types of lines on the stick and stones. He was all in when I told him this would help him learn how to write his name! I showed him how to trace the outside edge of the stones to practice curved lines and he joined in right away. He was excited to make the “o” in Leo!

Once he got that down, we worked on the letters a, c, and e.

Next we painted the sticks. At one point we put two sticks together to make an “L” for Leo. He had fun following the sticks to make the first letter in his name!

After about 20 minutes, we were finishing up with the activity.

At this point, Leo continued to play with the materials. He had fun painting the rocks his own way and and kept saying “how pretty the water made the rocks!” It’s true, painting rocks with water brings out their colors and naturally beauty. It’s also very soothing. I noticed Leo was calm during this activity, which isn’t typical for him!

It was nice to watch him engaged and focused in a playful activity.

Save it for later and Pin It!

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

∼Tara

Looking for more stone ideas?! Check out:

Stick and Stone Constellations

Wikki Stix and Stones- A Must Try Activity!

The post Practicing Prewriting Skills with Sticks and Stones 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.

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The printables you will see in this post feature beautiful watercolor clipart that are personalized by children through different crafting techniques. As stated above, we love to display them in our home before we tuck them away for the season.

How to Display Your Keepsake Crafts

Here are three ways we like to display our keepsakes:

1. In a Nature Area

We hung a few on a bulletin board in our nature area! This worked well, because we had leaves and other pieces of nature on our nature table, so the boys could use those for the posters. 

2. In a Dollar Store Document Frame

Document frames fit an 8.5×11 inch paper perfectly! I took the glass piece out so there were no accidents. If you don’t have a Dollar Store near you, you can find one here.

3. In an Oversized Thrift Store Frame

Find an oversized frame, tape twine on the back and attach the keepsake crafts with clothespins! You can find inexpensive frames at thrift shops.

Let’s check out the keepsakes!

Keepsake #1

Leaves are one of my favorite fall nature finds so it’s fun to add them to a keepsake and look back on the leaves we gathered in previous years! We loved searching for a couple of feathers that were just right for this keepsake. Once you find them, just cut some fringe in the leaves, glue them on the keepsake and hang it on the wall for thanksgiving!

You might want to consider pressing the leaves first to help preserve them, but we skipped this step. These were pretty hardy leaves and didn’t curl at all.

Keepsake #2

We love going on moon walks and tend to see bats flying over our heads at night in our area. I want to remember these moments forever so we made a cute button full moon. If you haven’t already, I suggest starting a moon walk tradition! Your kids will love it and the fresh air makes everyone happy.

Keepsake #3

With two young children in our home, the alphabet song is in constant singing rotation;) I remember the first time Leo sang it with Sonny and I couldn’t believe how fast time goes. It seems like just yesterday they, were little babies. Time needs to slow down! To remember this early academic milestones, I made this stamp the alphabet acorn keepsake. They loved making them and we all thought it made a nice decoration!

Keepsake #4

Yes, Halloween is one of our favorite holidays and ghosts are a fun part of the day! I thought these adorable footprint ghosts made them a little less spooky and a fun Halloween tradition for my boys. You can use either fingerprints or bingo daubers for the eyes and mouth.

Keepsake #5

Who else goes to the pumpkin patch every year?! This is on our annual fall bucket list and is never EVER passed up. Trace your child’s hand and glue it to the pumpkin, frame it and hang it up! Make sure you save this one! You can compare hands from year to year.

Keepsake #6

Apple picking is also a favorite fall activity for us! We have a special orchard that we go to every year that involves a train ride and apple sugar donuts. It’s so special to me that I hope to bring my grandkids to the same spot for apple picking! This apple thumbprint keepsake is one of my favorites and also makes a great keepsake craft gift!

Keepsake #7

Speaking of great gifts, each grandparent got this keepsake for thanksgiving last year! It’s still hanging in their homes a year later. Just cut a simple leaf shape out of construction paper and either let your children write what they are thankful for or you can write if for them! Glue the leaves on the tree and you are all set.

Keepsake #8

Make some wonderful leaf pile jumping memories and then bring a few inside to cut into little pieces. Glue them on this printable and you have a beautiful keepsake to save for years to come. Every time you dig it out, you will be reminded of those joyful fall memories!

Keepsake #9

We love observing spiders in the fall! Spiders that were babies in spring have had all spring and summer to grow and grow. So, they are much more noticeable in fall. We did a little marble painting for this activity to create a beautiful silvery metallic spiderweb! This process is so fun and I think makes the perfect keepsake to remember all of our fall spider nature walks.

Keepsake #10

Go on a leaf hunt and bring in a few to stamp on this pretty printable. Again, we used a shimmery metallic paint to make this keepsake extra special. It’s a fun way to document a memorable leaf hunt!

Keepsake #11

Those beautiful pieces of nature that fall from trees are what makes fall so special! Glue some special nature finds onto clothespins and invite your children to arrange them in any way they would like on this paper autumn wreath. This looks beautiful hung on the wall!

Keepsake #12

This is the annual bucket list that we check off every year! I attached our glittery acorns which was our nature craft for last fall. They were so shimmery and easy to attach to the bucket list. We still have those acorns and we turned them into magnets!

If you love these keepsake crafts, you can find them here!

Looking for all four seasons?! You can find them here!

Save these ideas for later and Pin it!

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

∼Tara

Need more fall ideas?! Check out:

The Cutest No-Carve Pumpkin Design

Stunning Leaf Lanterns

The post 12 Low-Prep Fall Keepsake Printables appeared first on Little Pine Learners.

I put a fall twist on the classic book, In the Tall, Tall Grass by Denise Fleming. Instead on drawing bugs and other warm weather creatures behind the grass, I drew items you might find hiding in the tall, fall grass! Yes, if you ask me that should be a sequel;)

This was an absolute hit in our home and it kept my four year old busy for about 30 minutes! I plan on keeping the paper up all week and replacing the green cardstock so my son can try the activity multiple times.

Supplies

• Roll of paper
• Green cardstock
• Kids scissors
• Painter’s tape
• Scotch tape
• Markers

This post contains Affiliate links for your convenience.

How to Make the Giant Cut and Reveal

Step 1:

Cut grass in the green cardstock. I tried regular construction paper and it ended up flopping over. So if you want this to be a wall activity, I highly recommend using cardstock. If you want to use construction paper, then try this as a tabletop activity.

Step 3:

Tape a large piece of white paper on the wall with painter’s tape. Painter’s tape is great because it won’t peal any paint off your walls!

Step 3:

I wanted to make sure the my drawings would be right behind the cut grass, so I lined up the green cardstock on the white paper and made little marks to guide my fall drawings. I made sure to draw my pictures in between those two lines.

Step 4:

I’m not much of an artist so I drew an acorn, 2 leaves, walnut, spider, and apple with pencil first. Then I traced over the pencil with marker. I labeled the pictures for extra nature vocabulary practice. If you really don’t feel like drawing, you could always find fall nature stickers and put them on the white paper.

Step 5:

Cover your drawings with the grass! I used scotch tape for this part of the activity. I taped the left, right, and bottom sides of each piece of green construction paper to the white paper.

Here’s What We Did

Leo was super excited when he walked into the living room and saw this taped to the wall! I told him there were fall nature finds behind the grass and he had to cut it to see what was hiding in the tall, fall grass.

I showed him how to hold his scissors in one hand and a blade of grass with the other. This was difficult for him so this was the perfect way to practice!

He was so excited as he started cutting away and shouted out each picture as they were revealed to him.

Leo practically lost his mind when he saw the walnut and tore the paper with his scissors! It’s literally his favorite thing to collect and if you watch our Instagram stories you are well aware of this! It was no big deal; I slapped some tape on the cardstock and we kept on truckin.

As we neared the end of the activity, Leo went back and named all of the items he found behind the tall, fall grass and shouted out that he wanted to color his nature finds. I thought it was a great idea and another fabulous way to cross the midline while working on a vertical surface.

As I mentioned above, I plan on gently taking down whats left of our grass and setting up this invitation again tomorrow with freshly cut grass. I will drew a couple new nature items to keep him interested and engaged with the activity!

Pin this activity to save it for later!

Need more fun ideas?! Check out:

Nature Collection Journal for Kids

Hands-On Ways to Retell Room on the Broom

The post Giant Cut and Reveal {Scissor Skills Practice} appeared first on Little Pine Learners.