Autumn Nature Walk Craft Activities For Kids

11 October 2019

As the colours start to change and autumn arrives, it is a wonderful time to head out for a walk with your little ones and show them how the world changes with the seasons.

Whether you’re exploring somewhere new, or seeing somewhere familiar in a new light, there is so much to show them to help them learn about nature and spark their little imaginations.

One way to make an autumnal nature walk extra fun is to collect things you find along the way, and then bring them home with you to turn into little autumn craft projects together.

If your little ones enjoy making things, they’ll love these craft ideas with an autumnal theme.

Tissue paper trees

After you return from your walk, why not sit down together and think about what you saw out on your autumn nature walk and then recreate it for yourself?

Tissue paper trees are a really fun way to engage your little one to play with colours and textures, and it is great for all ages. Not only is it lots of fun for both younger and older kids (and parents too), it also helps develop fine motor skills in little ones.

All you need is some tissue, card, and glue and you can get stuck straight into this lovely craft project. If you need inspiration, this post from I Heart Crafty Things is a good place to start.

Leaf rubbings

Leaf rubbings are a really fun but simple art project to undertake, and one that most of us probably remember from our own childhoods! 

All you need is paper, crayons, and a collection of leaves. It’s lots of fun to head out for a walk and look for leaves that are all sorts of different shapes and sizes together to bring home and rub onto paper to create your very own leafy forest at home!

You could even take some crayons and a sketch pad with you on your walk and stop and take rubbings as you go.

The Woodland Trust has an activity sheet on leaf rubbing that you can find and download here.

Nature wreath

A really fun way to display the leaves you collect on your nature walk once you bring them home is turning them into a beautiful wreath!

And autumn nature wreath can be as simple or complex as you like, depending on how much you want to participate and how many autumn materials you collect.

You could simply cut a circular base out of card, and then glue on your autumn leaves to make a simple wreath that can be displayed just about anywhere, and won’t take you long to make at all, while still being engaging and fun for your little ones.

Or, if you’re feeling a little bit more adventurous, you could weave a base out of willow (or buy one pre-made) and stick in your natural finds for something that could last you for several months and make a great wall hanging or centrepiece.

You can include everything from twigs with acorns still attached, to colourful leaves and pine cones.

Woodland fairy folk

Bring your autumn finds to life by turning them into little fairy folk with this fun and imaginative craft idea from Twig and Toadstool! 

For the bodies, you will need to collect some pine cones, and acorns make the perfect heads, complete with a little hat already. Maple keys make the perfect wings, and dried grass is perfect for little arms.

We love how you only need to gather a few different things, but it will help you to point out the different types of trees to your little ones on your walk, and the finished fairies look incredible!

Autumn collage

Creating a collage out of things you find on an autumn nature walk is a fun way to turn the items you collect on your walks into a beautiful piece of art to display in your home.

Keep an eye out for interesting things to collect on your walk, such as leaves in different colours and shapes, fallen seed pods, flowers and berries, and anything else that catches your eye and looks nice and autumnal.

When you get home, you can either arrange them on your paper or card background and then glue them straight on, or you could even paint a lovely background first in all the different colours of autumn!

We hope this has given you some inspiration to get your family together and head out into nature this autumn to find some inspiration for some autumn-themed arts and crafts this year!

If you fancy a change of scenery surrounded by plenty of natural beauty and lots of opportunities for nature walking, why not come and visit us at one of our holiday parks here at Pure Leisure?