i work in environmental education: any nature-related craft or activity ideas for a group of unruly children? (any age works!!)

Question

Molly · Answer

Gyutaku: i work at an aquarium, and we host gyotaku classes for our members.  you can use silicon or real fish, but it’s a fun craft that usually ends up being quite pretty and unexpected!

Sarah · Answer

parts of a plant dance!: I used to work as a garden educator at an elementary school. One lesson was about the parts of the plant and we’d act out all of the parts :)

Harper Sweeney · Answer

Andy Goldsworthy: I suggest looking at Andy Goldsworthy’s work for some inspiration! Introduce kids to him and have them make land art similar to his, through assembling leaves, rocks, and twigs in unique ways! Have them running around and scavenging for materials, it’ll be sure to tire them out!

Lisa Guo · Answer

Face nature!: Go hunt for leaves and put them on your face!

Lida Richardson · Answer

Birding: Can kids go birdwatching? It’s basically Pokémon. Every time I’ve let a kid use my binoculars they’ve been thrilled. You’d have to share binoculars but maybe they could learn some birdcalls.

audrey · Answer

Earth Day Activities for Kids at Capilota Produce: I did this on a prior Earth day, toddlers to teens loved it! I drew a bunch of cat faces on cardboard, punched some holes where the whiskers would go (I used a chopstick), then I hot glued some twigs to the back to make a handle. At the event I set up a little "adopt a cat!" station with crayons to color the cat face and instructions to pick grass, leaves, flowers, etc. to put into the holes to create "whiskers."

HVT · Answer

Sun Print Paper: These are lots of fun and just require some water.

Other ideas:

Nature scavenger hunt

Nature journaling

Jenn · Answer

Houses for Hermit Crabs: Get a bunch of boxes in all different sizes (as many boxes as children), and give one to each kid to decorate a "shell" as they please.

Then, just like real hermit crabs, have the kids line up the boxes/shells by size, and then have the kids line up by size. Each kid gets a new herbit crab "house" that matches their size.