Pinecone Learning Activities for Kids

In the winter there aren’t as many natural materials to work with and learn about in a lot of the world. But if you live where there are deciduous trees, you’ll always be able to find pinecones, so let’s do some learning with pine cones!

Learn and label the parts of a pinecone and record other observations about pine cones with these printables from Superstar Worksheets. And grab these cute pinecone coloring pages from Nature Inspired Learning.

We love a good science project, and this investigation from Lemon Lime Adventures into why pinecones open is a good one. Basically all you need is pinecones, jars and water and some observant and curious kids. MomBrite has a similar experiment but goes more into the science of why pinecones open and close, rather than just observing that it is happening.

Because the opening and closing has to do with humidity, you can use pinecones to predict the weather. Rainy Day Mum made a pine cone weather station she shared about at Science Sparks, complete with printable worksheets you can use to record your observations.

I’ve said before that just about any classic STEM experiment can be altered to fit whatever season it is, and this post from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails proves it by making a fizzy pinecone experiment.

Use pinecones and other natural materials in a find and count activity like this one from Little Pine Learners. Go on a nature walk to collect materials or use natural stuff you already have (just me?) like rocks, acorns, even seashells. You can count each thing, make a chart of how many you have of each, make repeating patterns, build creatures and so much more with a nice stash of natural materials in the classroom or home.

And of course there are so many crafts you can make with pinecones! One of my favorites since I always have yarn handy is a yarn-wrapped pinecone, which you can see over at Laura Radniecki. Or make cute animals with your pinecones like these owls from Curated by Michelle.

Amazing recycled shovel giant pinecones [Recycled Crafts]

Beautiful Zinnia Flowers Made from PINECONES! [Home and Garden]

Free Thanksgiving Printables for Kids

Kids all seem to go through a phase of loving trivia, and if you’ve got kids who want to know about the tallest, biggest and weirdest things in nature, they’ll enjoy the book Once in a Blue Moon by Emily Hawkins.

The book explores wonders of astronomy, meteorology, big trees, weird animals, volcanoes and more to show off the rarest events and phenomena in the natural world.

Kids ages 7-10 will learn about the lake (Lake Hillier, on an island off Australia) that has water that’s bubblegum pink, the world’s deepst came (Veryovkina Cave in the country of Georgia) and the world’s biggest tree, a banyan in southeast India with a canopy that covers more than five acres!

Readers will learn what a blue moon is, how supernovas happen and about Haley’s comet and solar eclipses, among other space-related phenomena. Closer to home they’ll learn about stinky flowers, bleeding trees, glowing fungi and pizzly bears.

There’s content about times when it’s rained frogs (and when frogs have exploded en masse), when snow made giant snowballs all by itself and how clouds stack on themselves like pancakes. The book also explores ball lightning, sun dogs, St. Elmo’s fire and more.

I love books like this and I know kids do, too. There’s so much weird and wonderful about our world and even as adults we don’t know about all of these things. I found it fun to learn, for example, that there’s a volcano on the island of Java that not only sends out blue flames from vents near its crater, it’s also home to an acidic lake.

Illustrations by Vlad Stankovic illuminate these weird natural wonders and are sure to get kids interested in learning more about some of these remarkable animals, plants, rock formations and more.

About the book: 80 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail price $30.

Have you read?

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