Make a stick family using natural materials
Help your child to have fun in nature by creating their own family using twigs and natural materials
Published:
Children love collecting sticks and other natural materials on walks. You can put this to good use, collecting sticks and smaller twigs to create a stick family, along other materials like string and old fabric.
You Will Need
- Sticks of different sizes. The number depends on how many family members the child wishes to make.
- A smaller twig for each larger stick
- Different coloured string
- scissors
- Scraps of old material
- White paint
- Paintbrush
- Black marker pen
- Glue
- Other natural materials such as acorns, pinecones etc., See what you can gather each season
Step 1
Collect sticks of different sizes to represent the people in the child’s family. Collect smaller twigs for each stick — these will be used to create the stick person’s arms.
Step 2
Position the smaller twigs a quarter of the way down each stick, and attach them by weaving string around in a ‘figure 8’ pattern. When secure, cut the string with scissors, then tie in a secure knot.
Step 3
Now it’s time to get creative and decorate the stick people. Tie on old bits of scrap material to create dresses, skirts, or shirts using string.
Step 4
Create hair by gluing on string of different lengths and colours for each stick person.
Step 5
Create a face for the stick people by painting on white eyes. Wait for the paint to dry before adding pupils with a black marker pen, and then drawing on a mouth. If your child is feeling particularly creative, they could paint the entire stick person.