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Evergreens and Pinecones (Nature Study & Craft)

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Since most of the green things have died in this part of the world, nature study becomes a little more challenging. We had a really fun one the other day, though. We decided to study the evergreens and pinecones that grow around our home and do a craft with the pinecones!

Pinecones & Evergreens- Winter Nature Study and craft

Evergreens and Pinecones~ Winter Nature Study

We have a large property with quite a variety of plants growing on it. We went out to find and study the different evergreen plants on our land and see how they differ from one another. We checked out their needles, and their pinecones to see how they differ.

Evergreen nature study

In The Handbook of Nature Study (a fabulous resource for nature study) we learned about different kinds of evergreens and how the different needles grow along the stems. We had fun looking at them and also feeling the variety of needles. Winter Nature Study

Once we had studied and collected all of our samples, the kids drew them in their nature notebooks and we picked out favorite pinecones to make pinecone animals.

Evergreens & Pinecones Nature Study

My daughter taught me how to make a pine needle necklace chain, too!  Isn’t that fun?! You just pull out one of the needles and loop it around.

pine needle chains

Pinecone Birds Craft

I have been wanting to make some pinecone animals with the kids for a while and thought this would go well with our evergreens & pinecones nature study lesson. We decided to make a few different pinecone birds: a cardinal, an owl, and a penguin.

pinecone animal supplies- teach beside me

Since it is winter, we were thinking winter animals and ended up doing all birds. We made a penguin, an owl, a cardinal, and an evergreen tree.

painted pinecone birds

We started by painting the pinecones. We used a combo of our Elmer’s Squeeze n’ Brush paints ( these are SO cool!) and just regular tempera paints. Once the paint was dry we accessorized the pinecones. We used felt and large wooden beads to add heads and wings. Instead of painting the owl, we stuffed cotton balls (that were pulled apart) in-between the sections of the pinecone. Everything was glued on with my favorite Elmer’s X-Treme glue. It is super strong.

Pine Cone Birds

My kids are in LOVE with how they turned out. Aren’t they adorable?  This is such a perfect winter nature craft.

Check out more Winter Nature Study Ideas! Also learn about Animals that Hibernate in Winter.

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