It’s important for children’s development for them to get outdoors and have plenty of time to play and explore. We’re lucky in the UK to have so many great woodland spaces, and we’ve been working with the Woodland Trust to help spread the word about their work and the importance of preserving our woodlands.
The Woodland Trust is Britain’s largest charity protecting our woodland and the wildlife that lives there. Over 250 of our most threatened species depend on our native woods for their survival. Yet in the past 70 years, more than half of our ancient woodland has been destroyed.
Today I’m going to share a few simple and fun ideas of how you can enjoy the woodlands together with your family.
When you join the Woodland Trust with your family, you’ll be sent out a pack full of information on your local woods, and receive Nature Detectives packs for the children with some activities for the kids to get involved in too.
You can use the supplies in your Nature Detectives pack to get more out of your woodland visits, like this handy leaf spotter that kids can use to recognise leaves they find on the trees or floor and match up with their pictures.
There’s also a booklet with lots of nature crafts and creative ideas you can do following your visit
But if you can’t wait until your pack arrives, here are a few more crafty things to make and do, to get you started, using supplies that you can collect in your local woods – sticks, twigs, leaves, bark, pine cones, conkers and more!
- Go on a Woodland Scavenger Hunt – If you do this first, this activity can help you gather the supplies you’ll need for the rest of these ideas!
- Make Bark Owls
- Make Stick and Leaf Butterflies
- Autumn Leaf Lacing
- Painting Sticks
- Make your own Woodland Fairy Folk
- Make your own Acorn Necklaces
- Make Story Stones – you could make them with a woodland animals theme!
- Make a Bird House
- Play Conkers
You can become a member of the Woodland Trust and help to support their important work from just £5 a month. Find out more about the Woodland Trust by visiting their website
For even more fun woodland ideas, Check out our post from last year
or try 12 Fun Things to Make and Do with Sticks / Crafting with Sticks