Every year when I was growing up, my family would pack up the car and drive 16 hours to visit family in Canada. We always looked forward to these visits, which were  accompanied by homemade treats, soccer games, and fabulous hat parties. Our hat parties included dressing up with my grandma and cousins in the most outrageous hats, costume jewelry, and cheap makeup (think electric blue eyeshadow), and sitting down to milk and cookies served in tea cups with decorative saucers. Building on the idea of hat parties, my preschooler and I decided that we would host our own tea party. We decided it needed to be complete with story time and a hand-made nature crown. Oh, what fun we had. I hope you enjoy this preschool nature crown craft as much as we did!

Preschool Nature Crown Craft

Objective

By creating a nature crown, your preschooler will identify and collect natural plants and materials. This task will help foster e a deepening connection with nature and science. They will work on fine motor skills by gluing the found materials to their crown, and they will exercise creative thinking through pretend play.

Materials

• Construction paper
• Glue
• Plants, sticks, and other found natural materials

Process

To begin, have your child glue two strips of construction paper together. The goal is to create a piece of paper that can fit the circumference of their head. Lay the paper flat and allow for the glue to dry while you and your preschooler hunt down plants for their crown. 

While searching for organic materials for the nature crown, try to identify the flowers, seeds, bark, grasses, or weeds found. This way, your preschooler will learn varying plant traits that are used to differentiate between species, such as leaf shape. This will also help prevent them from adding anything that may trigger allergies or rashes, like poison ivy. I highly recommend downloading an app on your phone to help with nature identification.

 Next, your preschooler will apply glue and their nature materials to their crown. If they use too much glue, show them how to spread the glue using a leaf or piece of bark. 

Finally, leave the crown in the sun to dry. Once dry, tape or glue the crown into the circle shape.

Pretend Play

The afternoon after creating the crown, my preschooler was eager to congregate his stuffed animal royal subjects at the table for tea. Toy saucers were set out, imaginary tea was served, and territorial disputes amongst the attendees were settled. As the play party was winding to a close, I brought out real cookies and tea for his highness, along with a surprise virtual visit with his floppy-hat wearing Mimi. She read a book as he ate, and they discussed his highness’ future plans for his kingdom.  

My preschooler loved his nature crown, the treats, and the pretend play that ensued. I loved that he was engaged, the simplicity of the project, and that from several states away and across generations, my family’s hat party tradition carried on. I hope you have just as much fun in this simple nature crown craft and activity as we did.

Based in Maryland, Amy is a nature-enthusiast who loves hiking, reading, and creating. With a MFA in painting and university teaching experience, she loves combining visual art and nature to create crafty and play-based learning experiences for her preschool-aged son. Extra crafts and fine art can be found on Facebook and Instagram @amyfixart or at www.amyfixart.com.

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