Nature-Based Activities for Preschool

Children are drawn to the natural world around them, splashing in water, admiring the color of leaves, or building with rocks or sticks. It is so special to see young learners enjoy their desire to be in nature.

When we purposely design our learning environments around nature, we tap into something that comes naturally to us, biophilia, the innate human desire to connect with nature and other living things. We create time and space for curiosity, play, and multisensory, experiential learning. Let’s look at a few inclusive, science-supported choices where nature isn’t just a setting, but an opportunity for wonder. I find these activities also allow time and space for me to observe each child’s talents and preferences, as they creatively and freely work together and socialize.

Share Books Rooted in Nature

Children’s literature can provide the common context to begin meaningful reflection and exploration in nature. Here are a few examples of books that pair well with nature-focused activities.

Green, written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, is an interactive picture book that explores shades of green in nature. From forest green to forever green, the creative cutouts will keep your students engaged and guessing what comes next. The imaginative series also has Blue and Red books. Creating sensory bins full of natural items collected together allows for many sorting and matching activities as you share the series together.

Outside In, written by Debora Underwood and illustrated by Cindy Derby, shares a mindful reminder inviting us to pause and enjoy nature’s beauty, no matter where we are or what we are doing. Consider sharing Cindy Derby’s beautiful outdoor video with your students. In it, she demonstrates a technique she used to create the book’s illustrations. Using string, paintbrushes, and paint, children can create their own painting about how nature speaks to them.

Ricky, the Rock That Couldn’t Roll, by Jay Miletsky and illustrated by Erin Wozniak, shares a meaningful message that shows how friendship and encouragement can lift us all up. You can pair the book with a push and pull STEAM project that allows children to reflect on the story. Using rocks, tape, play dough, and string, students can experiment with different modifications to which rocks roll down an inclined surface best. Decorating the incline with mud, grass, or other natural materials can offer more opportunity to connect with nature and each other.

Grow a Nature ART Studio

Art adds many benefits to our children’s development. Collecting natural items to design a nature studio in the classroom nurtures cognitive flexibility and spatial reasoning, while offering a calming space that helps lessen stress. During outdoor excursions, encourage your young explorers to gather different-sized twigs, leaves, grasses, and flowers for painting. You can also take special walks to find medium-size and larger rocks and logs for building. With these artists’ tools now on hand, the possibilities are endless.

Students can use the grasses, leaves, and twigs as paintbrushes to provide dynamic multisensory experiences with different textures and brushwork during art sessions.

As a group, design a large calming circular design or mandala, using a variety of items from your nature collection. Beginning with a center piece, let the children work together as they creatively grow their nature circle outward. Adding patterns, colors, and shapes in layers, this creative-collective art project encourages social and emotional skills, including cooperation and thoughtful decision-making as the production takes form. Because this art is temporary—even if done indoors, the flowers and grass wilt quickly, or another group of students might remove things or add things to the mandala—the process becomes as magical as the completed project, so be sure to take a few pictures from start to finish as a keepsake of the activity.

Similarly, students can make a model of their face, communicating how they are feeling in the moment. This emotion-centered check-in provides a creative and nonverbal way for students to express their emotions as they connect to art, nature, and self- and social awareness.

The larger items gathered can serve well for power play creation, where students build with the logs and rocks they find. This proprioceptive experience is especially helpful for children needing sensory integration and emotional regulation support. The inclusive activity builds much more than a creation; it also boasts confidence and connections for everyone involved.

USING Water AS A SENSORY TOOL

Ice packs can have a calming effect on the mind while a child is dealing with big emotions. The following short, supervised, towel-ready activities have not only bring relief in warmer weather, but redirect a child in frustrating or disappointing moments.

Providing cool moments with small ice packs, whether held in the hands, placed on the back or side of the neck, or gently pressed to the cheeks, can help soothe stress. Taking three deep breaths while holding the ice packs and then taking a break creates a natural timer and pause in the activity.

Another sensory idea is watercolor ice cube painting. Simply add a few drops of washable paint to water, freeze into cubes, and invite children to explore what happens as they move the ice across paper with their hands. They might find that some of their worries melt away, as their fingers melt the cube. Students can paint and experiment with the watercolor cubes, blending colors to create a pond, a sunset, or a favorite animal.

A STEM play and match activity offers another engaging project and is an excellent choice for warmer days. Select a few items from your nature collection, take a picture of them, and place each item in a container slightly larger than its size. Add water and freeze them to create nature blocks. Then, create individual or group bingo-style cards with the images and laminate them for reuse. When ready, place the frozen blocks into a bin and let children observe as the ice melts through play. As the objects are revealed, they can match the nature items to the pictures, bringing science, play, and connections with each other together.

The benefits of nature can simultaneously lift our spirits and ground us. As educators, when we intentionally create time and space for our children to explore and connect with the world around them, we are reminded that learning doesn’t have to be rushed, and our students thrive as they move and play. Through stories, art, building, and sensory exploration, we are rooted and grow to respect and care for nature, each other, and our own wellness.