Fall is here! It’s been so nice, but now we’re in a cold front. Dig out those fall coats, and go on an acorn hunt.
My family went to a few local parks. We have a lot of nice parks and places to hike around Omaha.
I spy with my little eye a pinecone and a few acorns:
My 9 year old loves to collect things. He collects rocks, pinecones, seeds, and more. We don’t keep all of his little collections, but it’s fun to see if he uses them in an art project on his own.
Ask your child if they’d like to collect other things on your walk or hike besides acorns. That makes the adventure more fun if it’s tailored to your child.
Once you find acorns, remove the caps. Most of them come off pretty easy, but if they don’t you can pry the cap off with a knife or flat screwdriver (adults do this part!).
Now it’s time to dig out a variety of markers. If you’re like us, you have many markers that are dried out. Here are a few tips for revitalizing a dried out a water based marker.
Color the acorn caps with different colors.
If it’s a lighter color, you may not be able to see that it’s colored.
Lighter
Darker
Start filling the acorn caps with glue or modge-podge. We used glue.
Make a Base
We couldn’t set our soon to be acorn gems in a container because they kept falling all over. We got creative in a fast way. I had my son make a Lego base. It was just a Lego plate, with standard Legos spaced out. You could do the same thing with Duplos or blocks. An empty egg carton would probably work as well.
Since my son loves glitter glue, I mentioned to add some of that in the top of select acorn gems. We didn’t know what the glitter glue would do. The results were pretty neat!
My son loved the whole process!
I helped problem solve by making the Lego base in a hurry, and put the glue in the acorn caps.
He colored the acorn caps with markers, put the base together, added the glitter glue, and placed the acorn caps in their spots on the base.
Wait Time!
Just wait to pick them up until they are dry. It took about 24 hours. For kids this is where patience comes into play.
Mid Stage of Being Dried
Dried Most of the Way
We have a ton of cool acorn gems now
Glitter:
Earthy:
Cool Colors
Warm Colors
How to Display
You can display them in a Mason jar, vase, pot, terrarium glass container, or bowl.
What I like about this craft:
- It’s for girls and boys
- It’s inexpensive
- We got out in nature for a bit
- It’s colorful
- It’s for many different ages
- It gave me time with my child
- You can talk about what to collect and discuss colors
My son loved this craft so much that he wants to take his acorn gems to school to show them off.
What color of acorn gems do you like the most?
