Nature / Outdoor Activities for 4-Year-Olds

Build a lean-to shelter from sticks, branches, and leaves in the woods or backyard — a construction challenge that sparks problem-solving and teamwork.

Weave leaves, flowers, and grasses through a chain-link or wire fence to create living outdoor art — a creative nature craft for preschoolers.

Create a simple picture checklist of outdoor items to find — a feather, a pinecone, a smooth rock — and hunt for them together.

Collect nature items and sort them by type, color, size, or texture on a muffin tin or egg carton — a hands-on classification activity.

Build an outdoor obstacle course using logs, rocks, and sticks — jump over branches, balance on logs, crawl under limbs, and climb over boulders.

Arrange leaves, petals, stones, and seeds in circular patterns on the ground to create a beautiful mandala — meditative nature art for kids.

Weave leaves, flowers, and feathers into a cardboard crown band for a wearable nature art creation — part craft, part outdoor adventure.

Crush berries, petals, and leaves to extract colors and paint with natural plant dyes — a hands-on nature science and art activity.

Take a magnifying glass on a nature walk and examine tiny worlds up close — leaf veins, ant trails, bark patterns, and spider webs.

Freeze small nature items inside ice cubes and let your child melt them outdoors using warm water, salt, and sunshine — a hands-on science experiment.

Lie on the grass and find shapes in the clouds — then make up stories about them together for an imagination-fueled outdoor activity.

Set up a simple weather station with a rain gauge, wind sock, and thermometer — then check it daily and record observations on a chart.

Sit outdoors and sketch plants, bugs, or rocks in a nature journal.

Hold paper against a tree trunk and rub with crayon to capture the bark texture.

Freeze flowers, leaves, and berries in water to make beautiful ice decorations.

Make a wind sock from a paper cup and streamers, then hang it to watch the wind.

Dig in damp soil to find earthworms and observe how they move.

Collect sticks and use them to build structures, letters, or shapes on the ground.

Set out containers to catch rain and measure how much fell.

Listen for nature sounds outdoors and check them off a bingo card.

Collect pinecones outdoors and sort by size, shape, or how open they are.

Draw a hopscotch grid and hop through numbers. Builds balance, counting, and gross motor coordination.

Explore outdoors with a checklist of natural items to find, like acorns, feathers, and flowers.

Play tag by stepping on each other's shadows instead of touching.

Classic hide and seek plus fun variations. Builds spatial reasoning, patience, and problem-solving. No materials.

Lie on a blanket and look up at the sky, imagining shapes in the clouds.