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
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.
