Things to do with pinecones and kids

Pin It

We are enjoying our 'things to do with' series, so far we've done carrots, chestnuts and acorns, this week carrying on our Autumn theme...... pine cones!

1 - Yarn wrapped pinecones
I found this idea from Family Chic on Pinterest (check out my Autumn board), I think it was intended more as a decoration than a kids craft, but this was great fun for Champ and involved a lot of concentration on his part.

And here are the results!  The wool we used is multi coloured and I think quite pretty, if a little loopy!

2 - Pinecone playdough prints

Not the best photo, but the base of pinecones make lovely imprints in playdough.  As always the boys made me a birthday cake with playdough, with some nice pinecone patterns on it!

3 - Pom pom pinecones

The idea for this is another Pinterest find, this time from The Wool Acorn.  Theirs are made using felted wool balls, but using pom poms is a great kid friendly alternative.  Instead of gluing these in we just pushed them in, again requiring lots of concentration!

They are meant to look like little Christmas trees, I reckon if I went back and glued them in they'd make a nice little decoration for our Christmas tree.

4 - Pinecone toss

The idea for this came from Toddler Approved, check out their post as they created a counting game with their pinecones, all we did with ours was set up a bucket and see how far away we could stand and still get them in.

5 - Pinecone bird feeders

Yeah for Pinterest (again!) I discovered you can make bird feeders from pinecones.  The idea came from Bebehblog which also has other decorative pinecone ideas.

You start, by covering the pinecone in peanut butter.

Then you roll it in bird seed

We did this whilst in a nearby forest so got to hang them from trees straight away.

6 - Glittery pinecones

I mixed loads of glitter into glue and then Champ brushed it onto the pinecones.  This worked really well, glitter didn't go everywhere and you can see where you've painted as the glue goes on white, but dried clear.

I really don't think this picture does them justice, they are super sparkly!

7 - Pinecone counting

Now Bud is at school he has homework, which we call 'learning time', well Champ wanted some learning time too, so we used the pinecones for some quick counting fun.

I hope you've enjoyed our pinecone fun!  Don't forget to check out Making Boys Men on Facebook & Pinterest