Outdoor Autumn Games for Parents and Kids

Acorn Toss

This is a bit like Bocce with acorns. Of course, if you can’t find acorns, you can use small pebbles. This is a game of control; not wild tossing movements.

Materials: Acorns, pinecones, sticks, marking pens

You can play this game between you and one child; two children can play opposite one another. If you have a group of kids with you, then divide players into pairs or two teams with two players each. As you are walking you can collect game markers. For fairness, opposing teams should use similar game pieces (acorns or pebbles) and color a dot on their team’s pieces with a marker.

You will need to find a playing area that is clear of shrubs, trees, and small plants for a distance at least as long as three times the tallest child’s height. Use sticks to mark a starting point, where players will stand. One player (or the adult) tosses a pinecone or another object onto the ground. The other players then try to toss their marker as close to that pinecone as they can. Each team gets four tries with four acorns. The player or team that gets closest wins.

Target Practice

Help kids develop hand-eye coordination while focusing their urge to randomly pick up and toss small objects.

Materials: Acorns, pebbles, pine cones, and sticks gathered on the walk.

Some kids just want to pick up and throw things. Sometimes they don’t grasp the implications of their actions and it can become tiresome to continuously say, “Sticks and rocks stay on the ground,” (because you’re opening yourself to all those acorn and pinecone loopholes).

Like Acorn Toss, this game directs kids’ energy. Make it clear, “If I don’t have to tell anyone to keep the things on the ground on the ground, then for 90 seconds you can play a game that involves tossing acorns.” I’ve found this technique works with kids I’ve just met on a field trip and they will monitor one another so to reach the promised activity near the end of the walk.

Look for a clear area where kids can throw things without endangering things or other people. Gather some acorns and pinecones in a large pile so players don’t go wandering around during the activity or feel frustrated that they are losing out on game time by collecting game pieces.

For one game, place a stick to indicate where kids should stand. Then kids take turns trying to toss their acorn further than other players. Another option is to try to land their acorn as close as possible to another player’s game piece.

For another version, construct different sized and shaped boxes with the sticks and set them at different distances from the starting point. Toss the acorns in these targets

Nature Investigation and Imagination

When walking with your child or children you can keep a few games in mind to play along the way. The games help to focus both you and your children on your surroundings. It is easy to get caught up in conversations, which, although valuable to your relationship, can move you out of the present moment. Instead of noticing where you are walking at the moment you are busy talking about going to the mall and selecting a birthday present for the child’s friend.

You can still talk, but every so often try to bring everyone’s awareness to the moment with sensory activities. The following game starts off with observation and works its ways to a (sometimes wild) imagination activity. Whether your child is a preschooler or a preteen, this word game allows kids to stretch their creativity.

One person starts this game by looking around and selecting something fairly large that is within view, such as a mountain or a tree, and says, “I see a tree.” The next person then picks something big on the tree, and says, “I see bark on the tree.” The next person has to pick a thing that’s on the bark, “I see a branch on the bark.” (If two people are playing, then you would go back-and-forth with your child.)

Participants continue in this fashion, noticing smaller and more specific details until they can no longer actually see anything to mention. Then they are free to make up details, such as, “I see a bug on the leaf,” and the next person might say, “I see a baby bug on the back of the big bug,” and so on until players can’t think of anything smaller. Move down the trail and have a different individual start another round.

Backyard Summer Fun

Although summer brings family vacations and camp experiences for some children, kids may best enjoy the simplicity of spending time in their own backyard. Whether kids are getting together with siblings, neighbors, or friends and relatives who are over the house for a play date or a party, there are an endless number of ways kids can have fun right at home.

Cool Summer Fun with Icy Kids' Activities

Backyard Games for Active Kids

Games Played with Sticks for Indoor and Outdoor Fun

How Kids Can Invent Fun Games to Play Outdoors

How to Make Bubble Blowers

Water Balloon Games

Backyard Camping for Kids and Families

Easter Games and Passover Activities that Welcome the Return of Spring

What is it about spring holidays that encourage a tradition of hide-and-seek? Those who celebrate Easter hide real eggs or plastic treat-filled eggs; and, a Passover custom is to hide a piece of matzo and then send the children to go look for it – the finder gets a treat. Is it that flowers are popping out of the ground where nothing but dirt was for months and leaves are starting to crack open the tight buds that hid them for so long that games of hiding and revealing seem appropriate?

Celebrate the season with a game of hide-and-go-seek. For variety, try the game probably best known as Sardines, in which everyone goes searching for “It” and then joins her when they find her. The challenge is for the increasingly larger group to remain hidden from those who are yet to find “It.”

Plan a scavenger hunt – there’s no reason it has to be for eggs. Theme Walks with Children describes six different scavenger hunts that you can do in nature or in an urban or suburban neighborhood. Or, play a game of Hot and Cold. Hide something, indoors or outdoors, and as seekers get closer to the object, call out, “tepid, warm, warmer” and as they move away from the item tell them, “cool, colder, icy.”

Although children might not care for the symbolism of these games, they are a reminder that Nature is revealing herself throughout this season.

A Teeny Tiny Nature Hunt

This hike requires kids to look for small items in nature and therefore forces them to walk more slowly. I find that one of the hardest challenges with taking kids into nature – convincing them that they can only really see things in nature if they move slow, giving them the opportunity to look around at their surroundings. If they are dawdling it’s either because they are deep in conversation or they are tired from charging along earlier.

For this nature hunt, give each child a penny. As they walk along, they try to look for things that fit, whole, on the penny. Rocks, seeds, nuts, evergreen needles, buds, grass heads, clover, moss, flowers, ants, millipedes, etc. can all fit on this small surface. If you feel a penny is too small for a child, you could use a yogurt lid, a poker chip, or any other flat surface (it doesn’t have to be round).

Children can do this activity in their backyard as well as any other location in nature. You can play this while walking along a trail or when you stop for a break and the kids want to wander around and explore the area where you’ve paused.

Because the items are so small, you can tell children that they can pluck a bud from a tree branch or a needle from a spruce tree; although, if you’d rather they not damage living plants you can ask kids to hold their penny up to an object in order to confirm the size.

Kids may want to play this game for five minutes or thirty minutes. If the children aren’t inclined to continue moving slowly after finding one or two tiny items, you can randomly call out, “Penny Hunt” while walking and give the children thirty seconds to find as many small objects as they can within that time.

However you play the game, it encourages everyone to notice things that they may have missed while walking along at top speed.

Nature Trail Code Game

This game requires two teams of at least two players each – one of the players on each team can be an adult. You can play this in a large, forested backyard or along the trail in a state forest. Avoid playing this in a wide open space because one team will be setting trail markers that tell the other team where to go.

You can make the patterns below with sticks or stones (or leaves, but they can get blown away). Of course, you can create your own codes, but both teams should do this together so the teams speak a common language. A representative of each team should record the codes on index cards or in a nature notebook so they don’t forget their stick and stone language.

One team heads out, laying trail codes that the other team will follow. Set the markers in the center of the trail. Although the sticks or stones should be large enough to be easily seen, there is no need to make them so large that they become a tripping hazard. After a ten minute or so head start, the second team sets out, reading the codes and following the team.

The first team continues laying markers for another ten minutes and then they can find an ending spot, just off the trail, where they can wait, perhaps with some snacks to share with the second team. For the trip back, the second team heads out first, laying new trail markers for the other team to follow.

/|\
Go Straight

----->
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Turn Right (reverse the direction of the arrow to indicate “Turn Left”)

|--|
| \ /
Turn around and Go Back


\ /
/ \
Not This Way

_ _ _ _
_ _ | _ _
Cross the Stream

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Gone Home

Snake Deer Eagle Nature Walk

This walk encourages children to look around and notice things they may otherwise not have notices as they are moving from one place to the next. You can play this game along a nature trail but you can also do this while walking along a street, playing at the park, moving through a museum, or even while in a store.

Start off by explaining to your children that they are going to take an animal-eye view of the area as they travel along the way from one place to the next. Ask them where snakes, deer, and eagles focus their attention. Snakes slither along the ground, getting their view of life from that level. Deer see things from human eye level. Eagles see things well above our heads and even look down on us.

As you walk, call out “snake,” “deer,” or “eagle.” The kids stop for ten seconds and look down, straight ahead, or up (depending on the animal that you called). They then call out something that they see from that angle. The important part is to stop walking so you don’t bump into a tree, another person, fire hydrants, etc.

If you have two or more kids with you they, along with you, can take turns calling out the names of the three animals. Although you can randomly call out and have kids stop to discover what they will notice, you can also notice something interesting, say on the floor, and call out, “snake.” If kids don’t notice what you noticed, you can again call out “snake,” prompting kids to look around a bit more.

This game shouldn’t slow your walk much, even though the kids stop for a few seconds. You can change the names of the animals to suit your child’s interests or the area you are investigating.

Animal Movement Games for Preschoolers

These funny animal walks can focus preschoolers indoors, as they move about the room; or outdoors while walking at the park, along the street, or even, I suppose, at the mall. Because today was a cold, rainy day and school vacation is just a few days away, I figured the preschool class that I visit throughout the school year wouldn’t be up to learning about another local animal. I thought that today would be a good day for games.

Duck Walk – The children are ducklings; the instructor is mother duck. Everyone mills about the room. When mother duck calls out, “quack, quack, quack” then the ducklings hurry over to their mother and follow behind her in a straight line.

Hawk & Vulture – Have the children stand and bend over at the waist. To be a soaring hawk, they hold their arms straight out to the side. To be a circling vulture, they hold their arms up, in a “V” formation over their backs. Call out “hawk” and “vulture” as the children then bring their arms to the correct formation. Throw in a few tricks, “hawk, hawk, vulture, hawk, vulture, vulture, vulture.”

Hummingbird Flight – The children hold their bent arms close to their sides and flap their hands very fast. Hummingbirds can fly forward (step forward), backward (step backwards), up (stand on tippy toe), and down (bend knees). With the children flapping their “wings,” call out different directions to move. Can the children understand why hummingbirds each nectar (sugar) from the flowers for enough energy to move so fast?

Fox Walk – After the frantic hummingbird movements, have the children step in the perfect tracking pattern of red foxes. The children walk with heel touching the toe, moving in a straight line or as if they were on a tightrope.

Pigeon Bop – Have the children walk while bobbing their heads front to back with each step.

Deer Walk – You’ll need to do a bit of preparation for this one. Make a deer tail prop from a piece of brown and a piece of white felt or craft foam. Cut both into a wide tail shape, the white piece smaller than the brown. Glue together, leaving a pocket between the two pieces so you can slide your hand inside. Explain that white-tailed deer seem to have brown tails until they see some dancer and move to run way, at which point their tail flips up and the more obvious white is showing. This signals the deer to follow the deer that gave warning. Have the children mill about, pretending to be deer eating grass. When you flip up your tail, the other deer should get in line behind you.

Some of these games work well at gathering the children to you. Other games focus a burst of energy and get kids’ attention for a few moments. Once kids learn these silly movement games, you can use them in an instant, whether you are at home with one child or at school with a group.

Secret Squirrel

Originally published 4/09/2011 at explorealongtheway.com

You can have kids do this activity in your backyard on their own. (If you live in a city, you can take them to a park.) Ask them to spy on the local wildlife. By local wildlife, I mean squirrels, birds, snakes, lizards, spiders, or whatever other non-threatening animals the kids are likely to find in at home. If neither you nor the kids are certain what animals are out there, then the kids will need to go on a scouting mission.

Depending on your children’s temperament, they can transform themselves into spies, wildlife biologists, or nature photographers. They can decide what they will need with them to complete their mission.

Encourage the kids to dress in colors that will allow them to camouflage with the natural surroundings. Many diurnal (daytime) animals can see in color since daylight allows them to determine if food, such as berries, are ripe. Kids should also take a mechanical pencil (no worries about dull points) and notepad with them and/or bring their camera.

Now, if kids have only ever paid attention to wild animals moving around in enclosures and exhibits, they may not know what to expect from the critters in their backyard. Before heading outside, ask the kids how the animals would respond to a creature or two running around the yard and making a lot of noise. If the kids agree that everything, including a few amoebas, would go into hiding, then ask them how they should behave.

Sneaking, walking on tiptoe, walking slowly, freezing in place, hiding, using peripheral vision (looking out the corner of one’s eyes), being quiet, etc. are all good behaviors for encouraging animals to behave as if those wild humans aren’t suddenly going to start snacking on chickadees.

On a scouting mission, the kids’ job is to find out what animals are moving around in their yard during the day. They should sit or stand in one corner of the yard for five-to-ten minutes; afterwards, move to another corner. Kids should repeat moving to other locations as desired. Kids can take notes, describing what they see, where they see it, and what the creatures were doing.

Kids can use these notes for another expedition, this time focusing on one of the animals. Their goal for this more specific exploration is to observe and record five different behaviors of this animal. It is a bit of a thrill to get animals that normally shy away from humans to act as if you aren’t there and go about their normal activities.

Rock Collecting as a Kid

Origninally published 3/31/2011 at explorealongtheway.com

I like rocks, but rocks are a hard subject to learn. (Did you laugh at my joke about rocks being hard? Sigh. I keep trying that with kids, but it is such a weak joke no one ever even notices it.) My fascination with rocks may be because when I was a kid the Pet Rock phase hit. Now, my parents, being practical, wouldn’t buy me a real pet rock, but had me go out and about looking for wild rocks.

I had a tin filled with rocks. I was particularly fond of white rocks. Even nowadays I have to restrain myself from picking up every white pebble that I see. I don’t know what happened to my collection. I do remember that it was forced to live in the basement (I suppose that is because they weren’t domesticated rocks). I’m sure that someday I’ll be cleaning the basement and I’ll discover my collection. The cool thing is, it will be just the same as when I left it unlike the yellowed pages of childhood books or the disintegrating artwork done on Manila paper.

I do have a current rock collection, started as an adult when I worked in an educational toy store. There I got tumbled rocks, rough cut pebbles, and slices of agate dyed in colors not found in nature. Whenever I go into a nature-oriented gift shop chances are that I’ll walk out with a rock.

I even have an acquaintance who owns a rock and crystal shop. (Originally, she owned a used bookstore with a few rocks up by the register. I tried to look at the books, but I got distracted by the rocks. All of my return trips were to buy rocks. I was incredibly happy when she moved and got rid of the books but expanded the rocks and crystals.)

At the nature center where I work, I tackled the buckets and boxes of rock collections that were donated when their owners died. It was then that I discovered that a whole lot of rock collectors just collected rocks without necessarily identifying them. Whether I do in-class presentations or field trips about rocks, I always point this out – yeah, the rock cycle is fascinating but picking up and keeping rocks is fun.

I know, parents would prefer to keep rocks outdoors instead of lining windowsills but might I instead recommend, Activities for Kids Who Collect Rocks and Make a Stone Cairn? I still have the compulsion to pick up rocks.

Taking Mental Pictures of Nature

Originally published 2/28/2011 at explorealongtheway.com

Many ways exist to encourage children and adults to see nature in different ways. The following nature game, often referred to as “Camera” encourages observations skills. Individuals should work in pairs. Preferably, the two paired together are similar in height, because one will guide the other individual who will keep her eyes closed. One player will be the photographer and the other the camera.

This isn’t the best activity to do with one adult and one preschooler because the child won’t be able to determine that he is directing his father into a low-hanging tree branch. This is a good activity for children to work together. Adults can try this observation game with preteens who will be able to direct an adult.

One person will be the camera and the other the photographer. After five-to-ten minutes, the players will switch roles. The camera closes her eyes as the photographer gently moves his camera, walking to a nearby location where he wishes to take a picture. The photographer can also tilt the head of the camera so she is at the proper angle for the photographer. When the photographer wishes to take a picture, he taps the camera on the shoulder, essentially pushing the shutter button.

The camera responds by opening her eyes for a count of one and then closing her shutters/eyelids. The photographer continues guiding his camera through the area snapping “pictures” while within the time limit. At the end of the time, the camera “processes” the images and tells the photographer what she remembers seeing or what she most enjoyed.

Switch roles. By acting as the photographer, an individual focuses on what he finds interesting and hopes that someone else will find interesting. The camera, by only looking at what the photographer wants her to see, is capturing small parts of the area she and her partner are exploring. This nature game allows both players to gain a different appreciation of the area they are investigating.

Seeing Nature

Originally published 2/27/2011 at explorealongtheway.com

If you don’t know anything about nature can you really explore the outdoors with your children or students?

Appreciating nature is about much more than identifying the naming the things around you. When I walk through a local park I’ll often walk along testing my so-so tree identification skills. However, when I do, I miss seeing the trees. Instead, I focus on leaf shapes, branching, and bark – the tree is reduced to parts and a name.

When I don’t care about identification I see shapes of trees. I see the way the wind plays with the leaves. I better appreciate the colors and textures of the leaves and the bark of those trees. I notice buds, the play of light, and the sound of the wind rustling the leaves. I am certain that trees generate different sounds but I lack the ear to discern such variations.

Am I suggesting that there is no value to identification? No. But if we zip by something, naming it (correctly or incorrectly), without really seeing the uniqueness of that sycamore or that white ash, what have we experienced?

Do this – go outside with your children and pick up something they can hold in their hand. One person looks at the object and names something they can observe. Pass that same object to another person who holds up the item and describes another feature. If you are with one child, pass the object back and forth; if you are with a group, pass the object to different people.

Look at the object from the top, the bottom, each side (if there are sides), from different angles so two views are seen at once. Hold the object close to the face. Look at it from a distance. Name its colors. Smell the object. Rub it against your cheek or your wrist. How many different ways can you and your child (or children) view that pine cone, sea shell, piece of bark, etc.

If you are doing this activity with a group, switch objects when your observations of one item are exhausted. What happens if you suggest to a child who says that there is no other way to describe an object that there is one more way to look at the item?

This activity develops observation and creative thinking skills. Try it with a variety of objects found in different places.