Make your own nature bracelet
This is such a simple activity to do but it’s a great way to add a bit of extra fun to a nature walk with your children or even to explore the plants growing in your own garden! We were visiting my two boys’ Grandad and they were keen to do this activity in his garden as it is full of so many different plants and flowers.
What you will need:
A sheet of card
Double-sided sticky tape
Your nature finds!
What you need to do:
For this activity, we used the bracelet cards in the August Mud & Bloom box but you can easily make your own. To make the bracelet card, you need to cut a piece of card about 22cm long and as wide as you want the bracelet to be. Apply strips of double-sided tape to your card along the length. You may need two strips if your bracelet is wide. (And if you don’t have double-sided tape, you could even just use duct tape wrapped around your wrist, sticky side out!)
Put your bracelet card on by peeling off the backing from the strips of double-sided tape and fitting the card loosely around your wrist. Instead of a bracelet, you could also make an arm band above your elbow.
Use the sticky strips to fix the bracelet in place. The bracelet should be narrow enough to stay on but not so narrow that you can’t take it off!
Go for a walk in nature or explore your garden and see what items you can find along the way. Stick them onto the bracelet as you go! You can stick on petals, leaves, twigs, feathers and even berries or small pine cones.
As you collect your nature items, see if you know what their names are. You can take photos of any that you don’t know to help you try and identify them later.
If you are going on a nature walk, try to collect things that have fallen onto the ground, rather than plucking them out of the earth, or off a tree. If you spot wild flowers, make sure they are growing in big bunches before you pick them, so there are always some left for the bees and other insects.
My two boys loved this activity and the beautiful, colourful bracelets they made. We loved how the colours of the flower petals became more muted as they dried and also flattened out on the tape. We also really enjoyed exploring the garden: we found lots of spiders and even a toad!
Author: Denise Hope, home educating mum of two boys
