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

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.

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

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

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.

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