Toddler Craft Project {Nature Collage}

We had a little break in the rain and decided we should go outside for that wee bit of time. The ground was wet, which made Emory even more interested in everything around him. To capture the excitement of the freshly washed earth we made a nature collage! This turned out to be a spectacular project (and easy too) for an active toddler.

I gave Emory a small plastic bucket to collect natural flat items that could be added to our nature collage. We collected pine needles, leaves, flower petals, specs of dirt, and some non-natural objects too that included bits of glitter (not sure how he saw those!). It took us a long time as we paused, examined and considered each object that was found. Emory loved exploring the different pieces.

I cut about 2 feet of clear sticky contact shelving paper after we were finished collecting. I helped Emory place each found object on one foot  of the sticky side of the contact paper. He enjoyed arranging and placing the objects. He thought the stickiness of the contact paper was fun too.

After all his items were placed on the contact paper we folded over the remaining portion of the contact paper to seal in his collage. We hole punched a hole into the top and threaed a ribbon through creating a lovely window sun catcher. We gifted the sun catcher to E's Great Grandmother who did indeed love her great grandson's creation.

What have you and your family been doing to connect with nature?

Adventuring among the leaves again

The weather has been so amazing the last few days that we have spent quite a bit of time outside. Our maple tree in our yard is still losing its leaves as if it were October and not January (I sweep, and sweep, and sweep and there are still more leaves!), so we spent our afternoon playing among the leaves. Made it feel more like fall rather than winter...but it was still a ton of fun! E loves to have the leaves piled up around him and then he can explore each one at his leisure. He likes to pull them apart, crinkle them in his hands, and at times, yes, try and eat them. I try to avoid the snacking on the leaves as much as possible.

What has your weather been like the last few days? Do you have any outdoor explorations to share?