A Day of Fun Tree Themed Nature Activities for Kids • B-Inspired Mama (2023)

This post contains affiliate links. Which just means if you make a purchase after clicking a link, I will receive a small percentage of the sale – without your price being any higher! Thank you for your continued support. For more information, see my disclosure policy.

This post was contributed byJaimi ofThe Stay-at-Home-Mom Survival Guide.

Time playing outdoors does not have to be disconnected from the learning we do indoors. Children naturally notice so many things about nature – plants, sounds, textures, light, shadow – that observing their discoveries and expanding on them is a nice way to keep the focus on our child’s interests. We can use what we find outdoors to create and learn with fun indoor nature activities for kids, too.

Have a Tree Day Full of Fun Nature Activities for Kids!

While at the playground recently, my children were noticing and talking about the trees. I took a few pictures thinking I could expand on what they were noticing at home on another day.

After playing, my children collected some sticks and poked around inside the base of a tree that contained an ant nest. This all turned into some nature exploration at home.

To be honest, the sticks sat on the shelf at home for a few days. One rainy day, we finally got to them. You know those days where you are searching for a new activity you can do but don’t really have the time for major prep? This was one of those days.

Math & Measuring with Sticks

Supplies:

• clipboards
• paper
• pencils
• rulers
• sticks

I gave each child a clipboard with a plain piece of paper, a pencil, a few sticks and a ruler. My toddler was happy to be trying out what big brother was doing. My 5-year-old was ready to investigate. We counted how many sticks they had. I asked my son to arrange the sticks from shortest to longest. He then used the ruler to measure each. I drew a basic chart on his paper so we had places to write the measurements. He was asking for my help in writing the numbers, so I wrote the number, after he measured, and he wrote the same number in the second column to practice.

One of the sticks was longer than the ruler, so we had to think up a strategy for measuring it. This turned into a mini addition problem. My son measured the stick to the end of the ruler, and wrote down ‘12’. Then I told him we had to add the rest of the length so I wrote a ‘+’. I placed my finger on the stick at the 12-inch measurement and then showed my son how to align the end of the ruler at my finger and count up how many inches the rest of the stick measured. It’s a simple process for us adults, but a big learning moment for a 5-year-old.

After writing down the lengths, I asked my son to circle the smallest number and the largest. Then, he flipped his paper over and placed each stick on top of the paper. He traced around each stick-drawing rectangles around each one to help illustrate the size differences on paper.

As he was doing this, I noticed my toddler was doing her own developmentally appropriate investigation. She was visually comparing the sticks, touching them (this really is a sensory activity for young ones) and she even said, “This one looks like a snake,” about one of the rather curved sticks. Don’t count out the younger kiddos on being able to engage in scientific investigation.

Tree Themed Books for Learning

Following the table activity, we listened to a forest-themed book on CD.Lost in the Woods by Carl Sams and Jean Stoick is a great nature read-aloud. My mother-in-law happened to record herself reading it and gave it as a gift to my son when he was very young. We listened to Grammie read to us. Not only were we still studying trees, but we were also using listening skills.

Tree-Themed Books to Consider:

• The Oak Inside the Acorn
• The Fall of Freddie the Leaf
• The Hugging Tree: A Tale of Resilience

As we listened to the story of the animals in the woods, were able to talk about how they lived in or near trees and that a woods or forest is a large expanse of trees all in one place. After this I remembered our copy of the book The Giving Tree had a CD of Shel Silverstein reading, so he read us his book about the boy and the tree. We talked a little about the human effect on nature as well as a much deeper lesson of what it means to love another. It means a lot of giving. (We moms do a lot of that!)

Learning About Tree Animals with Bambi

Supplies:

• Bambi
• paper
• pencil or pen

When we had our quiet time, my children suggested that we watch Bambi since there had been a deer in Lost in the Woods. I grabbed the clipboard again, as well as a marker and a piece of construction paper. I asked my children to look for animals that lived in or near trees in the movie. My son sat by me watching as I wrote the words when he or my daughter called out an animal name to be included. We spent most of the movie just relaxing together, but when it was over, I asked them one more question: “How did the trees help the animals?” I wanted them to make a connection beyond the fact that trees exist in nature. My son answered that trees helped the animals get rain (the rain drops fall on the leaves and drip near the animals in a very memorable scene in the movie), and he stated that the trees are the homes for many animals.

This tree theme took us from about 10:00 o’clock in the morning until about 2:00 o’clock in the afternoon. I had used my children’s interest to expand their learning. My children were able to develop a bit of understanding about a piece of nature around us, engage in scientific processes of discovery as well as learn new animal names and what those names looked like in print.

I hope you can use this idea of expanding on your child’s interest in simple ways to allow them to explore concepts and topics on a deeper level. “Tree Exploration” and nature activities for kids are fun no matter the season. Have fun exploring and learning with your child!

For more Fall-themed fun, check out my list of seasonal activities. Want another example of teaching through your child’s interest? Check out this post.

This post contains affiliate links. Which just means if you make a purchase after clicking a link, I will receive a small percentage of the sale – without your price being any higher! Thank you for your continued support. For more information, see my disclosure policy.