Download these fun Explore activity pages for creative nature crafts, puzzles, scavenger hunts, and more! If you would like us to email these materials (as PDFs) directly to you when we create new activities, email us and ask for EXPLORE PAGES in the text of your email.
Thank you for the great ideas! We headed out for a walk yesterday and did your Rainy Day Scavenger Hunt, and the kids loved it! Best thing about this situation is all the outside time for the kids 🙂 — Sky, Nearby Nature Parent (kids 9, 10, and 11)
2022 Activities:
August 15: Make Rainbow Sun Tea: Dress up a summer garden drink!
August 8: Make Your Own Paper: Be your own recycling machine!
June 20: Make a Celebration Sun! Create a solstice sun from your recycling.
June 13: Super Stars Scavenger Hunt: Look for stars in nature.
June 6: Make a Garden Sprite: Bring your garden to life with this fun creation!
May 18: Rainbow Scavenger Hunt: Hunt for colors in nature.
May 2: Make Garden Pop Up Cards: Celebrate special people like Moms with fund homemade popup cards!
April 18: Create An Earth Day Card: Celebrate Earth Day with some fun recycle art!
April 2: Busy Birds Bingo: Go on a neighborhood walk and look for busy birds!
March 14: Water Wonders Bingo: See how many water wonders you can find in nature nearby.
March 7: Get to Know Pacific Treefrogs: Learn some fun facts and enjoy a coloring page about Pacific Treefrogs.
February 21: Get to Know Great Blue Herons: Learn some fun facts and enjoy a coloring page about Great Blue Herons.
February 15: Water Web of Life: Draw a line between everything connected in this water web of life puzzle.
January 31: Track Trappers: Discover who’s creeping and crawling around in your neighborhood!
January 24: Make Natural Paint Brushes: Use materials from nature to make your own paint brushes.
January 3: Winter Survival Match Up: Learn more about how our natural neighbors survive the winter.
2021 Activities:
December 21: Make a Winter Solstice Sun Wreath: Celebrate the return of the light!
December 13: Make One-of-a-Kind Gift Boxes: Use recycled cards to make something new!
November 22: Natural Harvest Scavenger Hunt: See who else is feasting this week on this fun scavenger hunt!
November 15: Make A Storytelling Bag: Save special family stories from the holidays in this homemade story bag.
November 1: Who’s Who: Match night critter fun facts with their faces.
October 25: Haunted Hike Scavenger Hunt: Go on a walk in nature nearby and look for all things naturally spooky!
October 18: Make An Acorn Matching Game: Have fun with the abundance of acorns you can find this fall!
October 11: Kalapuya Quest Word Search: Celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day!
October 4: Make A Falling Leaves Mural: Use crayon rubbings and paint to make a leafy mural.
September 27: Make Rain Drums: Make music with the rain!
August 30: Bug Bingo: Go on a walk in search of creepy crawlies of all sorts and keep track of what you find with this fun game.
August 23: Naturebuild Your ABCs and 123s: Use natural objects to build letters and numbers.
August 16: Water Saver Word Search: Learn some ways to be a water caretaker with this word search puzzle.
August 5: Illustrate a Nature Frame: Use nature to illustrate a blank cardboard frame.
July 26: Flower Petal Prints: Save some of summer with this easy and fun printing activity.
July 19: Design a Bug: Draw an imaginary creature with mixed up bug parts!
July 9: Make a Tin Can Xylophone: Use your recyclables to make music!
July 1: Make a Bark Boat: Enjoy this good excuse for some fun water play!
June 21: Make a Celebration Sun: Celebrate the Solstice with this sun-making craft using old CDs/DVDs.
May 24: Pollination Patrol: Help a lost bee get back to the hive after visiting our Learnscape with this fun maze.
May 17: Tree Trek Scavenger Hunt : See how many of these tree-related things from nature that you can find on your next neighborhood walk.
May 10: Garden Stepping Stones: Use broken plates plus things like marbles to decorate these fun garden creations.
May 3: Come to Your Senses: Match up the animal parts with what senses they help provide.
April 25: Noisy Nature Scavenger Hunt: Take a walk and discover what’s noisy in your neighborhood!
April 18: Build a Nest: Use natural materials to try to build a bird nest.
April 12: Egg Match Up: Match the eggs with their mamas!
April 5: Scrambled Egg Critters: In the spring of spring, unscramble the names of these critters from nature nearby who hatch from eggs.
March 29: Nature Tales: Look and listen for the tales nature has to tell next time you venture outside.
March 22: Earth Art: Enjoy creating art wherever you are with natural gifts from the earth.
March 15: Super Spring Blossom Bingo 25! This is last week’s activity’s super-sized! Find 25 blossoms on this card!
March 9: Spring Blossom Bingo 9: See if you can find all nine blossoms on your card this spring!
March 1: Signs of Spring Scavenger Hunt: Print out copies of this hunt and see how long it takes to collect all ten signs!
February 21: River Quest Quiz: See how much you know about local rivers!
February 8: Natural Love Notes: Spread some good cheer this week by making natural loves notes to send to friends and family members.
February 1: Take An Unnatural Hike: Play a fun hide and seek game while you enjoy a hike or a walk in the neighborhood.
January 25: Kalapuya Quest Word Search: Learn about our area’s native people by doing this word search puzzle. Learn more at our website page Honoring the Kalapuya.
January 11: Animal Homes Scavenger Hunt: Go for a winter walk in search of nearby animal homes!
January 4: Nature Notes Calendar: Use this template to print a new calendar page each month for recording nature notes.
2020 Activities:
December 14: Winter Weather Words Puzzle: Use the key code to unlock the winter weather words in this puzzle.
December 7: Greeting Card Stencils: Just in time for the holidays, use plastic lids to make card stencils or make a set of cards as gifts.
November 30: Shapes Scavenger Hunt: Take a walk and discover the shapes of the natural world!
November 23: Grateful Collage: Create a seasonal collage and take a photo to send to friends and family.
November 16: Falling Leaves T-Shirt or Paper Print: Capture the beauty of autumn on a t-shirt or paper.
November 9: Hide and Seek Raccoon Trail: Help Raccoon find her way home in this paper and pencil maze.
November 3: Resilient Nature Scavenger Hunt: This one is for the grown-ups as well as the kids — something to keep you thinking positive during these stressful times.
October 26: Make a Wild Critter Mask: Fun project using stuff from your recycling just in time for Halloween!
October 19: Night Critter Fun Facts Match: Choose the fun fact that matches each of our nocturnal costumed Kinder Critters! Learn more about each of these Critters at the Virtual Haunted Hike on October 23rd!
October 12: Night Critter Word Search — Get ready for Halloween with this fun nocturnal critter puzzle.
October 5: Harvest Hunt — Look for tasty treats for wildlife in your yard or neighborhood in this photo scavenger hunt.
September 28: Autumn Treasures Scavenger Hunt — Take a neighborhood walk and enjoy the colorful wonders of autumn!
September 21: Make a Twig Journal — Celebrate the start of fall by making a twig journal for creative projects.
Handmade Tree by Erica and Kalen
September 14: Make Trees Out of Paper Bags — Help us honor the trees we’ve lost and the trees we still love. Make a tree using a grocery bag from your recycling pile, scissors, glue, and colored paper scraps. Send us a picture at info@nearbynature.org (or reply to our recent Facebook post () and we’ll make a gallery on our website.
September 10: Nearby Neighbors Word Search — Look for the names of your natural neighbors in this fun word search for older kids.
August 31: 3-D Edible Animal Art Show — Use garden and market veggies to make fun edible animal art!
August 24: Build A Bug — Create an imaginary creepy-crawly out of materials in your recycling and trash!
August 17: Water Wonders Scavenger Hunt — Go on a walk in the neighborhood and looks for these water wonders!
August 10: Make a Rock Tower Town — Use rocks you find in your nature adventures to make a rock tower town at the river, beach, or at home.
August 4: Make a Nature Detective’s Center — Use cardboard shoe boxes and natural objects to create a fun guessing game.
July 27: Make a Bug Catching Net: A more complex project for adults, but great for long-term exploring with kids in the grass or water!
July 20: Make An Edible Critter Collage: Use veggies and fruits to make tasty art project!
June 18: Make Forest Fairies: Use natural materials you collect on a hike to make forest fairies.
June 11: Start of Summer Scavenger Hunt: Kick off your summer with this fun scavenger hunt.
June 8: Magic Rain Wands: Make fun wands out of forest finds and scrap decorating materials from home.
June 5: Create Wind Chimes: Add to the noisiness of nature by making wind chimes out of recycled materials.
June 1: All Natural Egg Scavenger Hunt: Take this on your next walk in the neighborhood. It’s not only birds that lay eggs!
May 28: Caterpillar-Butterfly Puppet: Make a fun puppet that changes from a caterpillar to a butterfly.
May 25: Bicycle Word Search: Find the biking words in this challenging puzzle for older kids!
May 21: Window Reflectors: Use old CDs and DVDs to make decorations that will help keep birds from flying into your windows or birds from eating your berries!
May 18: Who Laid That Egg Puzzle — Match the critters with info about their eggs! Plus see some real eggs on the live cam of the Osprey nest on the UO Law School here. Cool!
May 14: Alphabet Scavenger Hunt — Help us find all 26 letters in nature…so we can make a cool poster to share!
May 11: Rainbow Scavenger Hunt — Rain or shine, see how many colors you can find in nature nearby.
May 7: Critter Quest Scavenger Hunt — Look for things that relate to water critters next time you take a water walk!
May 3: Make a Garden Sprite! — Use recycled materials to make a fun guard for your garden. Plus enjoy a Garden Word Search.
April 30: Recycled Flower Bracelets and Bouquets — Use recyclables to make never-wilt flower just in time for May Day (or Mother’s Day in a couple weeks)!
April 27: Rain Painting — Let the rain help you paint a picture — or create rain to make dry day art even more interesting!
April 23: Conservation Quest Scavenger Hunt — Check out how nature is using and recycling resources in your neighborhood.
April 19: Make an EarthDay Card — Use recycled and natural materials to create and Earth Day card collage.
April 15: Enjoy Nature Jokes! — Everyone needs a laugh these days!
April 13: Numbers in Nature — Go on counting adventure in your yard or a walk through the neighborhood.
April 9: Natural Dying in the Kitchen — Use red cabbage to make different colors!
April 6: Gnome Homes and Fairy Houses — Use natural and recycled materials to create a fanciful habitat for forest friends.
April 2: Egg Critter Word Search — Find the hidden words related to butterflies and frogs, critters that hatch from eggs!
March 30: Rainy Day Scavenger Hunt — Have fun exploring outside even on a rainy day.
March 27: Earth Art — Create temporary art out of natural materials collected from nature nearby.
