It's holiday season, and summer is at its warmest right now. With temperatures like these, a quiet afternoon in the woods or along a shady riverbank is just what everyone needs. For exactly these cozy family moments, we’ve teamed up with Gabrielle from kindwaldundwiese to create a simple yet beautiful nature craft project for you.
Right now, you can find beautiful, fresh green maple seeds outside. Their shape looks just like delicate wings, making them the perfect material for crafting little dragonflies. They look best arranged in a circle, dancing as light as a feather in the slightest breeze.
This project is ideal for kids around five and up, working together with an adult. Older kids, with a little practice, can pretty much make the dragonflies on their own.
Nature materials: What you'll need
Working with natural materials encourages kids to look closely, collect treasures, and truly connect with the seasons. Before heading outside, take a quick look at what you’ll need for your mobile:
- Maple seeds (undamaged, dry "propellers" in various sizes)
- Small forked twigs for the dragonfly bodies
- Two flexible ivy vines to make the frame of the mobile
- Jute twine for tying and hanging everything up
- Craft glue or superglue (best handled by adults)
- Scissors or pruners for cutting and trimming the twigs
- Watercolors or eco-friendly paints (optional)
Step-by-step guide: How to make your mobile
1. Gather materials: Head outside on a mini discovery tour and collect maple seeds, small forked twigs, and two long, flexible ivy vines.
2. Shape the wreath: Form the ivy vines into a ring, twisting the ends securely around each other until the loop feels sturdy.
3. Prepare the dragonfly bodies: Trim the twigs with your scissors to the length you want for your dragonfly bodies.
By the way: We know dragonflies don't actually have antennae. But we just liked it better this way, it makes them look a bit more elegant.
4. Design your dragonflies: Find four maple seeds that fit well together for each dragonfly. Two slightly larger ones make the front wings, and two smaller ones work for the back wings. It helps to lay them out on the table first to see which combinations look best.
5. Trim and prepare the wings: Snip the tips of the maple seeds at a slight angle so they sit flush against the twig later. Gently open the seed pod, remove the fuzzy inside, and carefully split the pod open.
6. Glue the wings: Now, glue the split seeds onto the forked twig – one seed half goes on top, one on the bottom. Craft glue takes a little time to dry, so a bit of patience is key here. If you prefer, an adult can help use a hot glue gun to speed things up.
Note: Let the glue dry completely before hanging the dragonflies to keep everything secure.
7. Paint them (optional): You can leave the dragonflies completely natural or give them some color. Many real dragonflies shimmer in beautiful shades of blue, green, or gold – great inspiration for the kids.
8. Assemble the mobile: Tie the finished dragonflies to the ivy ring using different lengths of jute twine. This gives the whole thing a light, airy feel. When tying them, try to find each dragonfly's balance point so it hangs horizontally. Finally, attach three pieces of twine to the wreath to hang it up.
Note: The mobile looks most balanced when the dragonflies have enough space between them to spin freely in the breeze.
Gabrielle’s tip: The kids really wanted to add an extra touch of summer to our wreath. So they spontaneously tucked a few fresh wildflowers and blades of grass between the ivy. Feel free to let your kids run wild with their own ideas here.
Why we love this project
Crafting with kids is never about making everything look perfect. It’s all about experimenting together, the hands-on experience, and spending quality time as a family. If you have kids of different ages, you can easily divide up the tasks: younger ones can look for the right twigs, match the wing pairs, or help paint. Older kids can handle the glue more independently or assemble the mobile. This way, every child gets to contribute, while naturally working on their fine motor skills and focus.
Exploring and discovering along the way
A project like this doesn't start at the crafting table, it begins outside while foraging for materials. For Gabrielle’s kids, gathering materials quickly turned into a mini expedition: they looked closely and noticed that sycamore, Norway maple, and field maple all have completely different kinds of "propellers". Now, they even identify the tree species just by looking at their seeds.
So why not combine crafting with a little family outing? A stroll by a local pond or stream is the perfect chance to see the real deal in action. Gabrielle’s family spotted huge, shimmering dragonflies there, as well as beautiful, smaller blue ones resting in the reeds. They even found old dragonfly nymph casings on the shore, a massive highlight for little explorers.
Observations like these spark curiosity, helping kids see nature through a completely different lens. Back home, the matching song "Monster im Teich" (monster in the pond) by Andrew Bond played on repeat while they crafted.
Have fun foraging, crafting, and exploring together this summer!
