What is a nature doll?
A nature doll is a doll or an animal made from natural materials like sticks, seed pods and leaves.
Why is making a nature doll good for kids?
Natural materials are stimulating and tactile, without being overwhelming. Making a nature doll encourages kids to be resourceful, creative and imaginative with natural materials.
What you need to make a nature doll
For this activity, you can use things from around your home and local area:
- sticks, gumnuts or seed pods, and leaves or flowers
- string, rubber bands, wool, sticky tape or PVA glue.
Avoid small seeds and brittle natural materials that might be choking hazards. Product Safety Australia’s free, do-it-yourself Choke Check tool can help you identify toys and other objects that are choking or ingestion hazards. And check information about dangerous plants before using leaves or flowers.
How to make a nature doll
Your child can make a doll or animal in any way they like.
Tips and ideas
- Attach a seed pod to the top of a stick to form a head. Attach a smaller stick crosswise to make arms. Decorate with leaves or flowers for hair or clothes.
- Use string, sticky tape, rubber bands, wool or glue to hold the materials together.
- Attach 2 Y-shaped sticks to another stick to make the body and legs for an animal.
- Arrange leaves around a gumnut to make a lion’s mane.
- Plait or weave grass to make hair or clothes.
- Try making more than one nature doll, so your child can play with them and create stories and imaginative scenarios.
How to adapt nature doll craft to suit children with diverse abilities
Children who have difficulty with fine motor skills
You could use larger and less delicate natural objects – for example, a pinecone instead of a small gumnut, or a large oak leaf instead of a petal. You could also help your child make the doll, following your child’s instructions and ideas for how they want it to look.
Children who find it difficult to organise and plan
You could draw or write simple instructions. For example:
- Choose a stick for the body.
- Choose a flower for the head.
- Glue the flower on the top of the stick.
Children who are shy or anxious
You can build your child’s confidence by playing and ‘talking’ through the doll. For example, rather than asking the child about their doll, you could say to the doll, ‘What do you like to do?’ or ‘Can you dance? Will you show me?’
Children with restricted mobility
It can help to collect a range of materials beforehand and then let your child choose what to use.
You can get more ideas for adapting this activity from our articles on play and autistic children and play and children with disability. You might also like to explore our other activity guides. They can all be adapted to suit children with diverse strengths and abilities.