15 Minutes Outside

Whether you are at home or on vacation today, go for a walk with your child. It doesn’t have to be a lengthy walk – 15 minutes will do; and you don’t have to go anywhere ‘special’ for this walk. One of the goals of the walk is to remind yourself and your children that nature isn’t ‘out there’ – some place that takes effort to get to, a place that by some definition is ‘nature.’

Today, walk around the neighborhood and name ten wild things that you and your children can see, hear, feel, or smell. Yep, even if you are taking a 15 minute walk, notice ten things in nature – a crow flies overhead, the rough bark of the tree along the side of the road, crickets chirping, the smell of fresh cut grass, etc.

The time limit, layered onto the simple observation activity, forces you and your children to pay attention to your surroundings. Even if you were going for an hour-long walk, you wouldn’t be able to keep up the intensity of observation. Instead, you’d drift into conversations about schedules and other activities that you’ve done or will do.

After fifteen minutes, you’ll return home full of your experience in nature. Although there may be more trees in the forest, your children will have felt the bark, noticed the shape of the leaves, and seen the birds perching on the branches of the trees you walked past. Nature is everywhere.

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.

Play the "What Will We Find?" Scavenger Hunt

Originally published 4/03/2011 at explorealongtheway.com

This may be the ultimate scavenger hunt game, one that requires no materials, no gathering of items, miniscule planning, and can be played day after day. The guidelines are simple, before you head out the door on your walk or while on the car drive to your hiking site create a list of five things that you’ll look for during the walk.

The first few times that you ask kids for a list of things that they think they will find you might end up with a list that looks something like, “rock, cloud, bird, dirt, grass.” However, you can start to guide children toward being more specific. For example, if kids can identify robins, then ask them if they will find the robins moving in a large flock (as in winter and early spring) or hanging out solo (after they’ve formed mated pairs in the spring and summer).

Look for a yellow flower as opposed to a flower, a white rock instead of any old rock. If you play this game one day after another, then kids will remember what they saw the day before and they can decide beforehand how many things will be there for a second or even third day in a row.

Everyone notices the first day the daffodils bloom but will you notice the day the blooms are gone? How about challenging kids to a “What Won’t We Find?” Scavenger Hunt? Keep the list realistic since it’s just cheating to say that you won’t find an elephant on your New England-based walk. This could be a fun option during the spring or fall when kids can predict the day all the leaves will finish falling from the Japanese maple at the corner of your street.

This self-directed scavenger hunt can be tweaked for any age child that you are walking with. Older kids could create their own lists so two or three kids walking together would be looking for their own set of items. How specific the items are depends on a child’s background and level of nature knowledge – so, butterfly, orange butterfly, monarch butterfly.

And don’t limit your hunt items to something you can see. Try a sound scavenger hunt, a texture hunt, or a scent search not only for variety but to help kids develop their nature awareness with a variety of senses. Want a little more focus to your walk? Try Theme Walks with Children for ideas that will add a little diversity to your journeys with kids.