< Back to Safer and Funner At Home

Nature Art

Art is a wonderful way to “pause” life for a while. It gives you (and kids!) the space to be creative, meditate a little, be silly, or quiet. Here are some nature-inspired art projects to brighten your day.

Nature Journals

Check out our lessons about Nature Journaling. It’s a great way to experience nature through art, make writing fun, and create a nature routine in your life.

Take your paper out into nature or bring natural object into your home. Both ways work!

You don’t need any special supplies: computer paper and a pencil is enough to get you started.

Visit our Nature Journaling page by clicking this link.

Build A Bird

Investigate bird adaptations and imagine your own new bird! There are a few options for this lesson:

1. Visit the webpage for our Climate Change Curricula. Check out Lesson 6: Build a Bird Adaptations. This lesson has a PDF with pictures of all kinds of bird parts: cool beaks, neat feet, awesome wings, and amazing eyes. There is also a lesson outline to help parents with lots of bird facts. Follow the lesson plan for helping kids imagine their own new bird.

2. Use the Outline from the lesson described above as your guide. Head to the internet, search for images of the birds listed, and share them with your kids. Talk about the adaptations you see! Have older kids imagine their own birds: draw what the bird looks like, talk about how it catches its food and what kind of habitat it live in. For younger kids: download and print these bird parts. Have them cut, color, and glue them to make their own bird!

3. Watch a recording of our live Build A Bird lesson! Carolyn Byers will be teaching this on Friday, April 24th at 12:30 CT, and it will be live on the Badgerland Bird Alliance Facebook page. We’ll post the video here after the class is over.

Bird Art Contest for children ages 4-18

Taking Flight is a youth art show organized by Mass Audubon’s Museum of American Bird Art in Massachusetts. This is the fifth year for the art show, and they hope to have submissions from all over the world. Let’s help get lots of Wisconsin Art in the show!

This year’s theme is “Your favorite bird, or what birds mean to you,” and most non-digital mediums are allowed. Submissions are due on June 15th, 2020.

View contest details and rules here, and a PDF of the contest flyer here.

Send Art to Brighten A Day!

Goodman Community Center (Madison, WI) is requesting art to make their senior citizens smile. Email pictures of your art to socialmedia@goodmancenter.org. Goodman will then distribute the art (and love) to members of their community!

Art like Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy is a very creative artist who uses natural materials to create sculptures out in nature. Grab your kids and some internet and hunt down some images of his work. Ask kids to share which art they like best, which they would like to try to recreate. Are there any that would be challenging to recreate?

Get ready to hike & head on out to a natural space. Try to find a place where there are good natural art supplies. Rocks, sticks, leaves, and flowers are all good options.

Set parameters before you turn kids loose: are they able to pick living plants to use? Are they allowed to use water sources to make rocks darker? Will we leave the art there for other people to find, or will they be removing all trace before departing? Where are the boundaries for where they are allowed to be? Will they work together or alone?

If you like, take photographs of the art so kids can show it off while leaving it in the natural space.

At the end of your art session, discuss with kids whether this is practicing “Leave No Trace”. Do they think people would like to find art in a natural space? All people? Would some prefer to have nature appear untouched? Does this art harm plants or animals? How could we reduce the impact on plants and animals and still make this kind of art?  

Landscape Watercolors

Ideal for grades 4-8, but possible for any kid with adult help.

This fun indoor-art project is designed to set you up for success- no matter what your artistic skill level is! You’ll need: printed images of landscapes, watercolor paints, paper, and brushes (Crayola works great!), cups for water, black sharpie, tape, pencils, and paper towels.

Gather images of landscapes from the internet. Landscapes with layers work well: background, middle ground, foreground. Print images in color in the size that the final art will be (kids will trace).

Tell kids to:

• Choose a landscape picture that they like

• Outline all of the layers in black marker. Draw right onto the picture you chose.

• Tape the image to the window. Tape white (watercolor) paper over the image. Trace the black lines using a pencil.

• Paint the layers! Pick one color for each layer - it won’t look realistic, but it will look cool!

• Optional: Use the black sharpie to trace over your pencil lines. This will make it look more like stained glass.  

Tips:

• Check the lines as you trace (flip up your paper)

• Make shapes that are touching noticeably different colors.

• Let paint dry before starting to paint a shape that is touching it. The paint will run and bleed.

• For really smooth color, cover the whole shape with water first, then add paint.

Variation:

You could try this with images of any natural thing. Landscapes are a good place to start because the lines separating the different shapes are usually easy for kids to find.

Nature MANDALAS

Mandalas are a spiritual symbol in the religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism representing the universe. In common use, “mandala” has become a generic term for any image with a geometric pattern that is symmetrical.

For this activity you’ll need an area with natural objects (rocks, sticks, grasses, flowers, pine cones) and a flat surface to create some art.

Have kids collect natural materials, then create a symmetrical piece of art using those materials. Demonstrate this if kids are struggling!  

Before you start: set parameters about what kids are allowed to collect and where they can collect. Should they pick living things, or focus on dried plants from last year? Can they include rocks and sticks? Decide whether kids will leave art in place, or scatter it before leaving.

Build A Nest

Birds build complicated nests using only their beaks and feet. Can you build a nest as fancy as a bird?

For this activity you’ll need an area with natural objects (rocks, sticks, grasses, flowers, pine cones) and a flat surface to create some art.

Have kids collect natural materials especially grasses, sticks, and flowers. Help kids weave the materials together into a bowl-shaped nest. Can they build a nest with a dome over it? Can they build a nest that is shaped like a basket hanging from a branch? Discuss what it would be like to build a nest without thumbs or without using your hands.

Before you start: set parameters about what kids are allowed to collect and where they can collect. Should they pick living things, or focus on dried plants from last year? Can they include rocks and sticks? Decide whether kids will leave art in place, or scatter it before leaving.