Woodland Crafts for Kids

Greetings to the golden season of Autumn! I love Autumn for all the exciting Autumn Outdoor Activities you can do with kids. Autumn is a perfect time for woodland walks, followed by blankets and hot chocolate and then a spot of woodland crafts with all the treasures filling your pockets from your walk. See below for our favourite Woodland Crafts for kids to make.

The lovely clothing brand Joules have partnered with The Woodland Trust for their latest collection which is inspired by long Autumn walks in the woods to help your whole family explore your local woodland. Our Joules wellies are perfect for woodland walks. We didn’t need much encouragement to shake off the week with some weekend woodland strolling so we headed out, baskets in hand (because Autumn woods are full of treasures) and explored. The kiddos climbed trees, they filled their pockets with a stash of chestnuts and conkers, kicked the leaves and even discovered a beautiful pink mushroom. Elodie marvelled at the layers before stating that she wanted to ‘take it home as it matched her bedroom!!’ Thankfully, we managed to persuade her that some leaves might be a better crafting material and distracted her by going on a hunt for forest animals instead!

If you love spending time in the woods – check out our favourite games to play in the woods with kids!

Woodland Crafts for Kids

There are lots of fun woodland crafts for kids to make with the brimming baskets of Autumnal treasures that they will inevitably bring back. (Or is this only my children?!) There are some more craft ideas in this post along with activities to do on a Woodland Walk too but as we collected a record amount of leaves on our walk, we settled for these simple leaf crafts below………

Woodland Leaf Printing

A fun woodland craft to try is leaf printing with paint along with leaf rubbing with crayons.

A simple splatter of paint and you can turn a leaf into a beautiful piece of art. Leaves are a perfect woodland craft for kids because the veins on the leaves make beautiful, intriguing patterns. Try using a variety of colours and if you leave to dry and cut them out, you can use the leaf prints to make greetings cards.

Leaf print ideas for Kids

Leaf Print Dragonfly Twig

Another woodland craft to try is to make a leaf print dragonfly! Once you’ve painted some leaf printed paper, cut out dragonfly shaped wings and stick them around a dragonfly body (a twig) and hey presto! you have a very simple leaf print dragonfly.

Leaf Story Art

Woodland story art is a fun craft for kids that encourages their imagination. How about a simple craft which allows your kids to create a story of their woodland trip? Once you’re home after your woodland walk, lay all your nature treasures onto the table and let your kids choose the nature pieces that remind them of story elements. Maybe an acorn looks like a little man in a hat? Maybe red leaves could become a fire breathing dragon? Encourage your kids to map out their story on the paper before they do any sticking – once they get gluing it’s hard to change their story! You could even have your kids present their story and narrate it with their mini art piece as a backdrop.

If you’d like some more ideas for Autumn crafts for kids – try these Autumn Leaf Crafts or if you’re like us and your house is full of conkers – try these great conker ideas!

Leaf Nature Faces

An easy woodland craft that can be made with kids of any ages is to collect lots of leaves on your walk and then turn them to nature faces! These can be made out of any nature materials. Find more examples of leaf nature faces here.

Nature Journey Stick

A lovely woodland craft for kids is to make a journey stick to carry on your woodland walk. Journey sticks are similar to story sticks made by Native Americans. While walking through the forest, the kids can pick up natural materials to tie onto their stick. This “journey stick” can then serve as a “map” of adventures they’ve had.

Nature Adventure Journal for Kids

If you’re looking for more woodland craft ideas and outdoor activities to inspire your kids with the wonder of nature? This Nature journal contains everything you need to have magical outdoor adventures with your little explorers. If you’re looking to get your kids to play outside more – there are lots of easy nature journal activities to inspire kids to explore nature’s wonderland from cloud watching and scavenger hunts to designing their own garden and rock pooling.

This simple and easy to use kid’s nature journal was designed with children ages 5-12 in mind (but my three year old also loves it and it can be used by children of any age!). This is a fun and easy nature workbook with beautiful watercolour drawings encourages kids to look a little closer at nature and gently develop the lifelong habit of nature observation. Buy it here.

For more fun ideas to play with nature outdoors – see our bumper list of Outdoor Winter Nature Activities for Kids here!

*All clothes and wellies shown are from the Joules Woodland Collection. This is collaborative and sponsored post by Joules. All words, photos and thoughts are 100% my own.*