Games in nature: discover the environment with children

Reading time: 4 minutes of exercise in the fresh air is important for children. Because children get bored quickly, these games and activities spice up your trip in the great outdoors. The children have a lot of fun, let off steam and the activities also appeal to the children’s senses. In addition, they get to know the biological diversity in nature.

Games in nature: discover the environment with children

Natural colors Rally

Material:

manual

Preparation: Take a sheet of paper and draw small circles with each other in these colors: white, yellow, red, blue, green, purple, brown, black.

Both children and adults receive their own sheet of paper at the start of the walk. Everyone has the task of finding these colors in nature, for example a green leaf, a blue flower. Please do not tear out the corresponding object and take it with you, but trace it on the sheet of paper. Who can find all seven colors in nature? However, only natural materials really count, so no candy wrappers or the like.

Alternative: Adolescents now almost all have a cell phone with a camera. They have a lot more fun when they are allowed to take a photo of the evidence.

Nature image

Material:

small bag / basket for each participant
lots of natural materials

Manual:

Creative games in nature are enjoyed by children of all ages. Everyone gets a small bag at the beginning of the hike, in which many different natural materials are collected. The search in autumn is particularly productive. Small sticks, leaves, pine cones, acorns, chestnuts, seeds or stones end up in your pocket. The only rule: Only natural materials are collected from the ground and, for example, no branches are broken off from the trees.

At the end of the excursion, everyone creates a picture or a forest spirit figure from their finds. Take pictures of the small works of art and hang the picture of the winner on the fridge or the pin board. You can also create a common object from all the finds.

Hide

Material:

Manual:

Children love old-fashioned hide and seek games in the park or forest.

Alternative: Instead of hiding yourself, you or your child play a nature search game. First, agree on a limited playing field. A player hides previously selected natural materials, such as leaves, chestnuts, acorns, sticks, stones. The others try to find these things as quickly as possible.

Pause Memory

Material:

Manual:
You don’t need a long preparation time for many games in nature. Simply spread some natural finds on the floor. Your child will memorize things for a short time and turn around. Now remove one piece. Your child will find out which part has been removed?

Tang throwing

Material:

fir cones of the same size if possible

Manual:

This game idea cheers up children who complain on the way back. Everyone stands at a starting line and tries to throw a pine cone as far as possible. Young people and adults sit or kneel on the floor so that even small children have a chance of winning. Explain to your child that small fir trees grow from the seed of the pine cone.

Tang target throwing

Material:

Manual:

Place a stick against a tree so that it falls over easily.
The participants line up a few meters from the floor. Small children are allowed to take one or two steps closer. Everyone tries to hit the stick with the pine cones so that they fall over.

Alternative: You can also lay a large leaf on the floor and try to hit it with the pine cones.

Forest Quiz

Manual:

Your child or several children will line up approximately 7 meters away from you. Tell Each child make sequential claims about nature. The child now thinks and answers with yes or no. If the child has typed incorrectly, it stops. If the child has typed correctly, he may take a step towards you. Whoever reaches you first wins.

Examples: "Is the foxglove poisonous?" "Are mature chestnut leaves the size of a walnut?" "Is this tree an oak?" "Does a kangaroo live in this forest." "Do strawberries grow on spruce trees?"

Cobweb Hüpfspiel

Material:

Manual:

Preparation: paint with the Stick a spider web on the earthy floor. Outside the distances are wide, then the space becomes narrower.

The children jump with closed legs from the edge of the net to the middle and out again. Whoever touches the net stays stuck. If you can do it, repeat the exercise first on the right leg, then on the left leg. Can someone jump backwards through the net??

Memory-catching game

Material:

Manual:

You need at least three players to play this game. All of them stand loosely in a circle. The game master throws the pine cone at someone. The latter throws it to the next person. This continues until everyone has caught the pine cone. Then the pine cone ends up at the game master again.

Now everyone throws the cones back in the same order. If that works out quite well, another object can be thrown in a different order. Does that also work with a third item?

Nature Bingo

Material:

Previously made bingo cards
pens

manual

Preparation: Take a piece of paper or an index card in Din-A-5 format. Draw a square on it and divide it into 5 x 5 equally sized boxes. In these 25 boxes you write terms from nature that you will most likely see on the walk.

Example: oak, chestnut, moss, pine, spruce, rowanberry, bramble, ant, squirrel, toadstool, mushroom, dandelion, nettle. Double entries are also possible. Arrange the terms differently on each card.

Everyone calls loudly on the walk when they have found one of their objects in nature. Everyone looks to see if it’s the right object. Whoever discovered it first may cross out this term on their bingo card with a thick cross. The first player to have five crosses horizontally, vertically or diagonally on his card wins.

Natural search game

Material:

manual

Preparation: Make small cards on which you can stick or print pictures of plants and animals from local nature. Examples: oak, chestnut, spruce, birch, squirrel, fern, mushrooms, birds, moss.

Each participant in the hike receives the same number of cards. As soon as someone finds one of the objects they are looking for, they hand over the corresponding card. Whoever does not have a card first, wins.

Sapling, change yourself

This catch game is suitable for children of different ages.

Manual:

Everyone is looking for a tree or something similar as a Freimal. A player stands in the middle and shouts "Little tree, change yourself". Now everyone, including the player in the middle, changes the Freimal. If you don’t have one, you will be the player in the middle.