Fun Nature Games with Kids
One of the best gifts you can give a child in your life is your time helping them explore the natural world. You don’t have to be an expert naturalist to help a child fall in love with nature. Facilitating their interaction with the natural world is one way to ensure they will grow up wanting to preserve the natural world.
Here are a few games I have played with kids outdoors that they have loved.
1. Nature Sounds Game – Go to a relatively quiet place outside. Close your eyes and raise a fist up in the air. Every time you hear a new sound, raise an additional finger. Hopefully you will hear a bunch of different sounds: leaves rustling in the wind, a bird chirping, maybe water flowing, or squirrels scampering up a tree. After a few minutes, ask the kids what sounds they heard. This is a great exercise in quieting the mind and practicing deep listening.
2. Animal Count – Take a leisurely hike and count how many different wild animals you see. Can you find 10? 20?
3. Animal Charades – Take turns acting out different animals for others to guess.
Last weekend I took my son hiking with a small Flip video camera. I let him videotape a bird, a butterfly, a squirrel and some cows. He enjoyed the hike more than usual and worked on his observation skills.
Do you have other ideas about ways to engage children with nature? We would love to hear them.
Justine Burt is the Chief Green Officer at Greenwala.com.
