Nature Colour Hunt- Getting Kids Outdoors this Summer
With the summer holidays fast approaching it's always useful to have a bank of activities to keep the kids busy and away from screens! I especially like to look for ones that get them outdoors and appreciating the world around them. A nature colour hunt is the perfect activity for the backyard or garden, a walk in the countryside or a visit to the park.
What you will need:
- Cardboard
- Contact paper (Sticky-back plastic)
- Something to colour the cardboard. We used paint sticks as they are so quick and easy to use but felt tips, chalks or paints would work too.
- Somewhere to play!
Preparing for the Nature Colour Hunt
Start by dividing your cardboard into sections and colouring it with the paint sticks. This is something you could easily get the kids involved in.
Next, cover the cardboard with the contact paper ensuring the sticky side is facing upwards. Attach it at the back with sticky tape.
I tend to leave this step until the last minute as otherwise you can find lots of things have already stuck to it before you even get going! Alternatively keep the backing on the contact paper and then peel it off when you're ready to play.
And they're off!
You are now ready to go on your nature colour hunt! This might be something you can play in the garden if you've got a variety of plants and flowers or something you could take on a walk or to some local gardens or parks. The girls happened to be visiting their Great-Uncle who has the most amazing garden full of beautiful flowers so it was perfect for this nature hunt.
This activity is all about appreciating the beauty and wonder of the natural world! The kids will probably want to run around like crazy collecting things for their boards which is great, but do try and take some time to point out some of the amazing details of the items they've collected.
With toddlers and pre-schoolers this activity presents a great opportunity to work on colour matching and colour recognition. With older children you might like to compare the shades of various flowers and talk about which colours are harder to find in nature.
We also spent time identifying some of the flowers we collected. To help us with this we used the book 'A little Guide to Wild Flowers' by Charlotte Voake. I bought this beautiful book last year to help all of us out with our knowledge of flower names! The girls love using it to look up flowers that they've found on walks. Handily the flowers are colour coded which made it especially useful for this nature activity!
The final nature boards really do look so pretty! We displayed ours for a couple of days until the flowers started to wilt. To preserve them longer you could think about pressing the flowers or even laminating the whole board if the cardboard used wasn't too thick.
If you love this nature colour hunt please do share it and look me up on Instagram where you'll find lots of other activity ideas to keep kids busy this summer!
