Nature Based Art Projects For Kids

Rock Art: Draw a line or spiral with a long stick and collect rocks and pine cones - place on the line in a pattern. Show them a picture of “The spiral Jetty” by Robert Smithson.  

Camp Kitchen: Collect cooking gear from the thrift store, see if you can find items on small scale, find a flat rock, log or camp bench and draw in chalk a stove top (two circles with an “X”) Fill a pitcher of water and tell them to go to town making mud pies and cooking them. (keep mud away from where people walk).

Rock & Stick Art: Hunt for sticks and rocks then paint with washable tempera

 
Pine Cone Critters: Glue small rocks, sticks onto pine cones to make different figures. Tacky glue works best.
 

Hide & Seek an old stand by.
 
Bug Hunt with a bug jar.
 
Hopscotch: Use a long sticks to make squares in dirt & small rocks to throw.
 
Beading: $1 store good for this, I like using a tray or baking sheet to contain everything.
 
Journal: Glue, tape found leaves etc... and write about nature finds add photos later.
 
Photo Fun: Use disposable camera and let kids take any pictures they want or send them on a mission to take five Pict's. of brown things, fuzzy things etc...
 
Tree Hugging: Hug a tree and close your eyes tell me what the tree is saying. Write or draw your experience. Write a letter to the tree or an animal in your campground.

Leaf Mail: Find a fairly flat leaf and use paint or marker to write a few words on leaf and mail it. You can write things like "Fun Camping In Tahoe" or "Found This Leaf For You" or "Miss You, Love Ruth". Make sure to bring an envelope and stamp before you leave for your trip. 
 
Fairy House: Build a fairy house out of leaves, rocks, sticks and use or make a doll 3".
 
Alter Art: Decorate a special location on campsite with feathers, rocks, art etc...

Find It: Paint a rock and have as many players hide their rocks when no one is looking. Then send every player off to find a rock that they didn't paint
 
Treasure Hunt: Give your child a list of things to find, rock two inches in size, green leaf etc... and see how long it takes them to find them.

Camping Manors Game: How many pieces of trash can you collect on campsite esp. when you leave. 

A great resource for more ideas

Leaf Rub: Place leaf under paper and crayon/pencil rub over top of paper

Tribal Camp: Using non toxic face paint your child can face paint their own design and pretend they are setting up their own tribal camp, playing pretend activities like cooking, dancing and exploring.

Search & Find: Gather sticks as small round as your little finger and break into 5" pieces. Have one child or adult make arrow shapes to create a path to the person who is hiding or the "treasure" is hiding. Then ask a child or adult to fallow the clues to find the person/treasure. You can use rocks or leaves to do this as well.

SEE ART KIT FOR KIDS
SEE CAMPING WITH KIDS