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Jimmie's Collage

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100 Things to Do Before, During, or After a Nature Walk

December 6, 2016 By Jimmie Quick 9 Comments

100 Things to do Before, During, and After a Nature Walk • Jimmie's Collage

Nature walks don’t need any greater objective than enjoying the out of doors. When you and your children are savoring the sky, the plants, the insects, and the wildlife, there is no need for a lesson plan or script.

However, there are an abundance of things you can do as a springboard or a follow up to a nature walk in order to enrich the experience. I share these 100 ideas not to detract from the healing beauty of nature but to offer some zest when nature walks are becoming too routine, when you have children who might be reluctant to go out of doors, or even when you need a bit more academic tie in for whatever reason.

Nature needs no embellishment. And many of these ideas come from the innate fascination children (and adults) will experience when they turn off the electronics and use all five senses to experience nature. If making leaf crafts doesn’t come automatically to your children, you may need to offer a slight nudge to get the ball rolling. But by all means, don’t turn these activities into strict lessons with educational objectives. Let them be methods of exploration that take their cues from your children’s curiosity.

Things to do before your nature walk • Jimmie's Collage

Nature Walk Springboard Activities

Build anticipation for the nature walk with these activities.

  1. make a pond viewer
  2. make a juice bottle bug catcher
  3. make a grass sweeper from a pillowcase
  4. make a butterfly feeder
  5. make suet and hang it for the birds
  6. dissect a flower, leaf, seed pod or (dead) insect
  7. make a rain catcher or anemometer and keep a record of your findings
  8. read novels that have nature themes (3 of my favorites are Kildee House by Rutherford G. Montgomery, My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George, and Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.)
  9. make a nature walk backpack or tote with things like a journal, magnifying glass, binoculars, bug catcher, etc.
  10. make a bow and arrow
  11. make a slingshot
  12. read the Christian Liberty Nature Readers or other classic nature readers
  13. start a library of field guides and The Handbook of Nature Study
  14. make or buy a bird feeder and fill it with food for the birds in your neighborhood
  15. start an indoor garden with kitchen castoffs
  16. For mom — read Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv

Things to do during your nature walk • Jimmie's Collage

Nature Walk Explorations

Most children will come up with their own ideas for play, but if they need a nudge, here are some great ideas.

  1. make leaf art on the ground
  2. make stone stacks (cairns)
  3. in the fall, organize leaves by color, making gradients, rainbows, and color wheels (as best you can)
  4. collect river rocks
  5. catch small fish, insects and butterflies; study and release them
  6. catch tadpoles; take them home to raise to polliwogs and frogs
  7. make leaf rubbings
  8. leave sugar grains or bread crumbs near an anthill and watch the ants take the food into their nests
  9. look at birds, squirrels or other far away animals through binoculars
  10. identify bird calls
  11. use a scavenger hunt list and make a collection of items to take home
  12. use your shadows to enact silly plays; use what you find in nature as props
  13. make fairy homes
  14. take a color wheel or paint chips along and match real items from nature to the colors you have
  15. lash structures from sticks and logs you find in the woods (take along twine or rope)
  16. build a fire and cook on it
  17. climb a tree
  18. build a fort or erect a makeshift tent
  19. identify constellations
  20. watch an eclipse (safely, of course)
  21. sketch what you see outside
  22. go on a cloud hunt
  23. splash in puddles
  24. geocache
  25. catch fireflies at night
  26. catch grasshoppers
  27. blow bubbles that freeze (in the winter)
  28. make stick boats and float them in water
  29. have stick sword fights
  30. shoot rocks with a slingshot or skip stones on water
  31. document your nature walk by taking photographs
  32. make mud pies
  33. build a snowman or ice fort/igloo
  34. draw or write in the sand or snow
  35. build a sand castle
  36. dig holes and see what’s underground
  37. examine a small area of the ground in detail
  38. find examples of symmetrical and asymmetrical things in nature
  39. make up stories about the natural places you discover (include trolls, fairies, sprites, and brownies, of course!)
  40. create a natural obstacle course or race track and time each other as you go through it
  41. wear a nature bracelet — put duct tape, sticky side out around your wrist and see what you collect on your walk
  42. get “lost” and use a compass to find your way back
  43. go barefoot and feel the grass, sand, water, etc. with your feet and toes
  44. look at things in detail with a magnifying glass
  45. preserve a spider’s web on black construction paper
  46. make plaster casts of animal tracks
  47. take the nature walk in your socks and then study what is stuck to them
  48. close your eyes and listen; identify as many sounds as you can
  49. lie on the ground and find images in the clouds; make up stories about them
  50. make bark rubbings with crayons
  51. roll or sled down hills
  52. lay a white sheet under a tree and shake it; study what you find
  53. play pick up sticks with sticks you find

Things to do after your nature walk • Jimmie's Collage

Nature Walk Follow Up Activities

Once you are back home, extend the nature fun with these post-nature walk ideas.

  1. make paints and inks from nature and create art
  2. experiment with chromatography using leaves
  3. study your nature study collections under a microscope
  4. look at pond water under a microscope
  5. break open rocks with a hammer, do streak and hardness tests
  6. use photo sensitive paper to make designs with things you found on your nature walk
  7. make paintbrushes with evergreen sprigs and create art
  8. make leaf prints by painting on leaves and pressing them to paper or cloth
  9. make leaf prints by laying leaves on paper or cloth and painting over them
  10. hammer leaves or flowers to create prints on paper or cloth
  11. make foil relief crafts with leaves or flowers
  12. preserve fall leaves with modpodge or with wax
  13. use your stick collection to paint with
  14. color mud with tempura paint powder and make mud paints
  15. paint the rocks you collected on your nature walk
  16. make art from the pebbles you collected
  17. make a simple loom and weave into it the things you collected
  18. classify the insects, rocks, or flowers that you collected
  19. press flowers
  20. write about or draw your nature walk experience in a nature journal
  21. build a terrarium with dirt, rocks, etc. that you found on your nature walk
  22. make a leaf/tree guide for your local area
  23. make a nature table for all your nature finds and collections
  24. make pictures or 3D art from the leaves, twigs, shells, feathers, flowers, insect wings, etc. that you collected on your nature walk
  25. study an ant farm (even putting ants into a jar works if you don’t have a fancy kit)
  26. make a hanging mobile from things you found on your nature walk
  27. make “fossil” imprints in salt dough (use shells, leaves, feathers, etc.)
  28. calculate the perimeter and area of leaves from your nature walk
  29. eat something you gathered on your nature walk or make snow cream
  30. study some living creature you brought home from a nature walk (Then release it.)
  31. make perfume from rose petals (or another fragrant flower)

 

There are lots more 100 Things posts. Click the image to see the other topics.

100things

 

Photo Credits: SidPix, olivierbxl, rkramer62 all via Compfight cc

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Filed Under: nature study

Comments

  1. Eva Varga says

    December 8, 2014 at 10:44 am

    Jimmie – This is not only very informative but it’s beautiful! I love the graphics you created!

    Reply
  2. Susan Evans says

    December 8, 2014 at 3:19 pm

    I LOVE this list! It makes me want to go run outside with my kids and do some nature study right this minute!

    Reply
  3. D. Freerksen says

    July 13, 2015 at 6:30 pm

    Do an alphabet hike in the woods. Carry an index card with the alphabet written, mark off each letter shape you find in vines, leaves, bark, branches, etc. The letter “V” is the easiest, of course.

    Reply
  4. Sherry says

    December 7, 2016 at 11:00 pm

    Oh my! I was such an outdoor kid. I am ready to go outside reading this list! Great ideas!

    Reply
  5. Dana says

    December 8, 2016 at 1:51 am

    We made a little scrapbook out of paperbags with the bottoms cut out and folded and stapled. We made little papers to insert in the pockets. Then the kids collected whatever they wanted, sketched them and labeled them and later decorated them with some pretty papers. The girls loved it!

    Reply
  6. Anne says

    December 13, 2016 at 6:35 am

    This is wonderful. I am so grateful for this post!!!!

    Reply
  7. Deidra L Tolliver says

    August 24, 2018 at 10:00 am

    What a WONDERFUL, insightful, and beautifully presented synopsis on Nature Walks! Thanks so much for sharing!

    Reply
  8. Lilly says

    January 13, 2019 at 9:22 am

    This is very helpful, and has a lot of fun stuff, I love using this and I will definitely do about everything on here, YEAH!!

    Reply
  9. Keltie Masters says

    May 29, 2020 at 11:24 am

    Thank you for all your great ideas! As wildlife photographers we want to share the beauty of nature & help people reconnect with nature after being isolated due to COVID for the past 2 months. We are doing a 5 day webinar to encourage people to do this and I am so delighted to find some more ideas that will help people to get back to nature – even if it’s just in their own backyard!

    Reply

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jimmie lanley
So glad you clicked over. You are welcome here. I'm Jimmie, a single, work from home mom of one teen.

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