Activities
Nature Craft
Seasonal making, loose parts play and hands-on creativity that connects children to the natural world around them.
Seasonal making, loose parts play and hands-on creativity that connects children to the natural world around them.
Nature craft at Perfect Squiggle brings the outside world indoors. Each week our craft table is set up with seasonal materials — leaves, twigs, seed pods, moss, dried flowers, pine cones, pebbles, feathers and more — alongside art supplies like glue, wire, paint and tissue paper. The result is open-ended making that looks different every time and is always deeply engaging.
We take inspiration from the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education, which values natural materials as rich provocations for learning. Children aren't given a template to follow — they're invited to create freely, which produces far more inventive and personally meaningful results.
When children work with natural materials, they're not just making something pretty. They're learning about the natural world, developing important skills, and building a relationship with the environment that will last a lifetime.
Handling, sorting and arranging natural materials builds curiosity about the living world and an early appreciation for the environment.
Open-ended materials with no fixed outcome invite children to imagine, invent and problem-solve in ways that structured crafts don't.
Natural materials offer incredible sensory variety — rough bark, smooth pebbles, soft moss, prickly pine cones — stimulating the tactile system.
Tearing, gluing, threading, wrapping and arranging small natural objects all build the precise hand control needed for writing.
Observing leaves change colour, understanding where seeds come from, or noticing how different materials feel builds early STEM foundations.
Making something by hand that takes time and care builds concentration, delayed gratification and a sense of pride in the finished work.
Our nature craft activities change with the seasons and calendar, so there's always something new and timely to explore. In autumn we might make collages from fallen leaves. In spring, flower pressing and butterfly art. Around Easter, we create nature-inspired egg decorations and nest-making with twigs and wool. In winter, pinecone wreaths and bark rubbings.
This seasonal rhythm gives children a sense of time passing and helps them notice and celebrate what's changing in the world around them — a skill that underpins both scientific observation and emotional regulation.
Many of our nature craft sessions incorporate loose parts — a collection of open-ended materials with no fixed purpose. Pebbles, shells, seed pods, buttons and fabric scraps can become anything: a garden, a face, a map, a meal. Loose parts play is deeply imaginative and allows children of all ages and abilities to participate meaningfully at their own level.
The best thing about nature craft is that the supplies are free and all around you. A walk in the park becomes a material-gathering expedition. A collection of sticks, leaves and flowers brought home can become an afternoon of making at the kitchen table. All you need is some glue, a piece of paper, and the willingness to let your child lead.
Explore more of what we offer at Perfect Squiggle.
Playgroup runs every Monday, 9:30am–11:30am at Bald Hills Uniting Church. $10 per family.
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