Nature Crafts
Marble Acorn Necklace Craft
Make yourself a piece of beautiful jewelry with this simple craft!
Make yourself a piece of beautiful jewelry with this simple craft!
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Oak trees are a deciduous and reproduce with acorns. The hard exterior protects the seed from potential predators and harmful weather. However, animals like chipmunks and squirrels are able to pierce the tough exterior with their teeth! You may find many of the discarded acorn tops in your woods, and here is something you can do with them. Create a beautiful necklace with this simple craft using plentiful acorn tops!
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Bark Rubbing Craft-Discover the different textures of bark with this simple and colorful craft.
Trees have many different bark textures. Some, like the aspen has very smooth bark, while oaks become craggy with deep grooves as they age. In the winter when many trees don't have leaves, you can try and identify trees by looking at their bark!
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natural-art.weebly.com
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Mushroom Craft-make a colorful mushroom with an egg carton!
With our recent mushroom post, we thought we'd share this fun, low budget mushroom craft with you. Decomposers are an important part of our ecosystems. They are able to break down dead plants and animals and cycle the nutrients back into the environment. Without decomposers, this dead material would never break down and become part of the soil to be used again by plants and other organisms. Mushrooms are one type of decomposer, and are considered a type of fungus. Mushrooms often prefer damp places to grow, so on the warm, wet days of summer, be sure to keep an eye out for all the interesting mushrooms out there!
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Bald Eagle Craft - make a beautiful bald eagle with a toilet paper roll!
With our recent Bald Eagle sighting, we thought it might be fun to share this new craft! It is relatively simple, and the materials required will probably already be in your home! Eagles are considered birds of prey. That means they are a predator, and have a sharp, hooked beak and big, strong talons (claws on their feet). Eagles can catch and eat prey like fish, squirrels, and rabbits. They are also opportunistic carnivores, meaning they will eat just about any meat they can, including carrion (dead animals).
This bald eagle was spotted perched in a tree right next to Lake Myosotis!
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Porcupine Craft - make a cute porcupine from a pine cone and paper!
We have been seeing lots of signs of porcupine over the last couple of weeks, and we thought it would be fun to share a porcupine craft! 
It’s a rare treat to see a porcupine, since they are shy, live in forests, and are most active at night. If you do see one, don’t be afraid – they can’t really shoot their quills. If they get scared, porcupines will raise their quills, but they aren’t released unless grabbed by a predator (like a family dog or a fisher).
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We found these quills in the woods near a den!
Porcupines spend time in trees or dens during the day and den together in trees in winter. Look at all that porcupine poo!
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Dragonfly Craft - make your own dragonfly from sugar maple seeds and a twig!
Sugar maple seeds fell from their parent trees last summer and fall. Do you see what sugar maple seeds are doing now? Look around your yard -- some of the seeds won't germinate (sprout) -- collect some and try this fun craft with an adult in your house. 
Our friends who have come on spring 5th grade field trips remember that dragonflies don't always look like this. They actually spend most of their lives in water as nymphs and only come out of the water as adults to find a mate in the spring and summer.
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