Children making leaf art

Resources for children and families

This activity aims to promote creativity, imagination and wonder based on the book ‘Stick Man’ by Julia Donaldson. At the bottom of the page you can view and download PDF posters with ideas for activities and questions.

Activities you can do with children

  • Produce a drawing or picture story book.
  • Make a collage or piece of art made from natural resources they find.
  • You child could collect objects and make a college or maybe even a stick person. In these examples we collected leaves, twigs, moss, pine cones, bark, small stones and glued them to a piece of cardboard to make a textured collage.

Some plants can be poisonous so always check what your child is collecting. Also, picking wildflowers can prevent them from growing again the next year. Stick to picking up fallen leaves and petals and having a close look at the beautiful flowers you find.

This activity is dependent on the season. Try again in a different season to see the contrast between Autumn, Winter, Spring or Summer.

Questions to ask children to promote learning through play:

  • Where are we going on our adventure?
  • What is the weather like today? Is it hot or cold? Can you feel the wind? It is sunny or cloudy?
  • What is your favourite weather? Do you like it when it is snowing, raining, sunny, foggy or windy?
  • Who else is coming on our adventure?
  • What colour are the leaves today?
  • What does it feel like? What texture is it? Is it smooth? Rough? Cold? Hot? Bumpy? Hard? Soft?
  • What are you going to make out of the nature you find?
  • What else can you see?  
  • What can you smell?
  • What sounds can you hear? Can you hear the wind, birds, trees moving in the wind or people?
  • What are we taking on our adventure? Water, food, wellies or hand sanitiser?

Children running around in the woods, building a den.

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