24 nature play and eco craft activities ~ Countdown to christmas

We're doing our first advent calender this year. I shared a tutorial for our leaf advent calender yesterday.

Each day of the month corresponds to a fun nature play or eco craft activity.

The days in bold fall on the weekend and may take a few hours. Otherwise most activities will be quick and easy, as on most days we'll be squeezing the activity into our green hour (the hour between preschool pick-up and dinner preparation).

Here's our list. Feel free to join in our eco countdown to christmas.

1. Go for a walk and see how many signs of animal life we can find.

2. Build a robot out of rubbish.

3. Create a fairy house in our backyard (more here and here)

4. Visit the beach and write our name in the sand and try a few other beach art ideas

5. Visit a local nature park or zoo.

6. Make a pair of binoculars out of toilet rolls and go for a walk to spot wildlife.

7. Paint a picture using flowers and leaves instead of paint brushes.

8. Make a gift for the birds or a biodegradable bird feeder or a birdseed ornament.

9. Make a house for santas elves out of recycled cardboard rolls.

10. Go for a walk, collect some sticks, build a twig tower and bring home a few sticks (for days 11-18)

11. Make some stick blocks and threading beads.  

12. Go canoeing or make a boat out of sticks or recycled materials

13. Make a nature mobile.

14. Weave with nature (inspiration here and here)

15. Make a magic princess wand from a stick and recycled felted wool.

16. Make a branch vase

17. Do some land art: make a leaf tree

18. Create a garden loom inspired by this, this, this, and this

19. Go beachcombing and collect a few shells and other finds (for days 20-21)

20. Make beach collage or ocean diorama

21. Make some seashell or seed pod candles using beeswax.

22. Play the magazine alphabet game.

23. Nature sorting.

24. Go for a walk and see how many different types of fruit we can find.

Wish me luck :-)