How to make a magical tracking stick to look for the wild things in your garden

There’s something magical in your backyard. Do you know what it is? Could it be fairies? Could it be magical unicorns? Could it be the wild things? No one knows for sure, but with this magical tracking stick, you may be able to find out. We are sharing this activity from the Wild Things book with you today, so you can go in search of fairy creatures easily next time you are out and about.

As you know, KiddyCharts enjoys featuring printables that help expand a child’s imagination. Today we’re sharing how to make a magical tracking stick so that you can easily get outdoors and have some fun tracking magical creatures that live among us.

This activity is taken from Wild Things, the new book from Lonely Planet Kids, the children’s imprint of the world’s leading travel authority. With over 100 magical outdoor activities, Wild Things will unleash young imaginations and help kids unlock the magical power of nature as they discover fantastical creatures of the natural world in forests, meadows, ponds, school playgrounds, and back gardens. Visit Lonely Planet Kids to find out more.

The best way for anyone to find those magical creatives called the Wild Things is to look for clues that they left behind. This magical tracking stick will help you find those little clues that all Wild Things leave behind.

All you need to make this magical tracking stick is our free printable below, plus a magic stick, an elastic band, a pen knife, a tape measurer, and a permanent marker. Gathering all of these items together and following the instructions to make a magical stick will be your first step towards finding those magical creatures in your backyard.

This tutorial to make a magical tracking stick may need a grownup to supervise as there is use of the knife during the creation of the magical tracking stick.

Otherwise, this is a completely kid-friendly way to get outdoors and enjoy finding the clues that wild things leave all over our backyard, school playgrounds and other areas that we often overlook. Discovering magical creatures in our backyard is such an exciting way to encourage kids creativity and imagination for years to come. Remember those who are able to keep their creativity and imagination intact end up going big places in their adult life.

If you’re ready to make your own magical tracking stick, click the image below to download the tutorial and everything you need to start tracking wild things today.

We have a few other outdoor activities that you might like to try on the site too:

• Printable leaf compass – help children enjoy the magic of fairies, track dragons, and brew magic potions,
• Nature activity for kids: Wild world colour palette – encourage children to connect with nature through some colour observation activities, and
• Forest school activities for all seasons – help children to build so many different skills, from problem-solving, to communications, and social awareness through some outdoor activities.

There are also some other outdoor activities out there too, why not take a look at some of these after doing some of ours?

• No Time for Flashcards has 50 simple outdoor activities for kids,
• Happy Hooligans has 8 Simple Outdoor Activities for Toddlers, and
• Don’t miss Creative & Inexpensive Outdoor Activities for Toddlers from Carrots are orange

Your little ones should be very busy with those activities, shouldn’t they?

As always it is a pleasure to have you on the site, so do come back again. And why not sign up to our newsletter as well? We only send it weekly and it should help you to keep up to date with everything that we are doing on the site. We are worth it, I promise!

Helen

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