Fall Nature Wreath

A couple of times a month we get together with another family and have what we call a "mini co-op"

of sorts. Since between our two families there are 9 children ages 11 and younger we try to keep our meetings simple and easy. We have done a park day, a back to school party, cool crayon canvas art that I need to show you all, and our most recent, a nature adventure with a Fall theme. It's always a fun time and the kids (and I) look forward to our get togethers.

I found the idea for our last activity while browsing through a magazine and immediately thought that it would be perfect for our little group. I was especially excited that it met our criteria: quick, simple and cheap!

Here's what you need:

Poster board cut into wreath forms - this is simply a donut shape cut 7 inches diameter

glue - either tacky or hot glue (2 glue guns would be great)

paper clips, small hooks or anything you have to use as a wreath hanger

paper plates - for the glue

sponge paint brush

plastic ziploc bags for each child

access to a woodsy area

Okay, the first step would be to find a woodsy area that is safe enough for the kiddos to roam around in. Thankfully our friends live in the country so we were able to take advantage of the area surrounding their property. 

Next, we gave each of our kids a plastic baggy and let them fill it up with anything that they like. My

youngest filled hers with mostly rocks (which we didn't use) while the older ones found nuts, pinecones, pretty weeds, dry pine needles, colorful leaves, etc.

Once everything is collected, go back to the house and give each child a wreath form. We had ours

 glue on the leaves first. We just painted their wreath forms with tacky glue using a foam brush and then they covered their forms with the leaves. Then we had each child position the rest of their decoration on the leaves as they wished and us Moms manned the glue gun.

We did have to help quite a bit thus there are no pictures of this part. It was a little crazy but so worth it! I love the way these things turned out. I hung mine using small 3M hooks but you can use paper clips, or whatever else you have on hand.
This was our first nature project that turned out this nice. I think we will try to do this every year.

What nature projects have you been working on lately?