Exciting Garden Crafts to Keep Kids Busy During School Breaks

As the summer holidays roll on, it’s common to run out of ideas to keep the kids entertained. But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! These fun and easy nature crafts will get your kids outdoors and exploring their own backyards. Most of these activities don’t require a trip to the store and can be done independently. In fact, the more you leave children to their own devices (depending on their age), the more creative and unique the results will be.

Miniature Gardens

Remember these? Many of us made them for primary school galas or pet days, but back then they were called sand saucers. You’ll need a saucer or plate that is at least a couple of centimeters deep. Terracotta plant saucers work great because of their depth, but even a meat tray or an ice-cream container will do. Add a few centimeters of sand or soil from the garden so you can easily insert flower stems and twigs into it.

Next, gather materials to create your miniature world. Moss is wonderful to touch and can be used to create lovely, lush lawns. Pebbles and tiny shells can become pathways, and twigs and bark are ideal for archways, bridges, and other structures. Bury a bottle cap or jar lid in the sand to make a little pond that you can fill with water.

Once the hard landscaping is complete, your child can decorate their garden with flowers or individual petals, leaves, pine cones, and berries (make sure they’re non-poisonous!). They might also like to add clip-on butterflies or miniature plastic animals. There’s a universe of fairy gardens on Pinterest if you’re looking for inspiration, but it’s also fun to leave the kids to it and see what they come up with on their own.

Flower Crowns

Who doesn’t want to be adorned with flowers? Flower crowns are surprisingly easy to make. Find a vine with bendy stems – wisteria, jasmine, and willow are ideal – and cut a long piece that should extend approximately two or three times around the circumference of a child’s head. Wrap the vine around the intended wearer’s head once, so that it fits comfortably. Remove it from their head, being careful to hold the circle of vine together, then twist the loose length of stem around the circle until you have a wreath. You can usually make a knot to attach the loose end of the vine, but if this doesn’t work, tie it with string or bendy wire.

Next, collect your flowers and leaves and cut the stems to size. Insert them between the gaps in the vine to keep them in place. Any heavier flowers can be attached with string or bendy wire.

Nature Wands

Any fairy or nature sprite worth their sparkly salt has a magic wand. Find a suitably long twig or cut it to size (make sure the ends aren’t sharp), then decorate it with leaves or flowers, attaching their stems to the wand using pieces of bendy vine, flexible wire such as floral wire, ribbon, or string.

Another way to do this is to wrap string or wool around the twig, trapping flowers, leaves, and feathers underneath it as you go. Get ready to be turned into a pumpkin!

Fairy Lanterns

Make illuminated miniature gardens inside jars of seed lights. These are available online or from stores, and the batteries sit just inside the lid of the jar. Because you’re working within a smaller area, this is a slightly more fiddly activity than working on a flat surface like a saucer, so the kids will probably only be able to add a few objects to the jar if they want to see everything inside it clearly.

Once the sun sets, play a game of fairy spotlight, where players hide with their lanterns in the garden waiting to be discovered. Or hide the lanterns under bushes or on trees, then take a magical journey through the garden, collecting each lantern as you go until they’ve all been discovered.