I love nature school! It’s so fun to watch kids explore and make up games and activities on their own. But sometimes when the kids are asking for lunch at it’s only 9:30am or the kids are having trouble getting in their groove, I pull out an activity to help pass the time and get them having fun in nature again. Here are lots of nature school activities I do with my kids as well as ones I do when I run a nature school/nature camp with community kids.
Nature School Activities
Make fishing rods and go fishing.
Make bark boats and float them in the water.
Go on a safari and look for wild animals. Make up the game as you go along.
Make bows and arrows from sticks and yarn/string you bring along.
Carve magic wands with pocketknives.
Make leaf and bark rubbings and label the tree they’re from.
Play hide and seek or sardines.
Read nature books out loud.
Write or sketch in nature journals.
Collect small leaves and petals and glue them on paper to make pictures with them.
Binoculars are a fun way to look at birds. 
Read aloud time is relaxing and bonding after lunch. Kids love making bows and arrows out of sticks. The magnifying glass is also a winner nature toy. Bark boats are fun to make for kids of all ages. Sailing a bark boat with a worm on it made these older kids laugh and laugh.
Things to bring along for spontaneous activities
I’m a light packer but there are some things I bring along in my backpack for kids to use.
- yarn or string
- pocketknife
- sketchbooks, pencils, colored pencils, paperless crayons for leaf rubbing
- sweatshirt or blindfold
- magnifying glass
Nature School Games We Love To Play:
1. Tree Bark Game
DIRECTIONS: Blindfold one child. Turn him around until he is disoriented. Walk him up to a tree and let him feel the bark all over. Walk him in circles around the camp again until he is disoriented. Take off the blindfold. Have him point to which tree he had felt. He can go around feeling the trees again and see if he can figure it out. Take turns with each child.
NOTES: This is best done in a grove of trees or strand of tress. Even the ones surrounding your picnic table at a park could work. But the more trees like a forest, the better. Kids love to play this game for a long time. They all want several turns. It’s so fun to see if you can tell the differences between trees with your fingers. Great for when you have a big chunk of time to fill, say it’s cold and the kids don’t want to play. This helps you forget you’re tired, hungry, or bored. The time flies by!
2. Deer Hunter
DIRECTIONS: One person is the deer. He takes a bag of white flour and runs through the woods as if he got shot and is a dying deer. He sprinkles flour every 5-20 feet as he goes, leaving a trail of “blood”. Then he hides. Meanwhile, the other kids are counting loudly to 20. When they get to 20 they go in search of the deer they just shot, following the trail of flour blood. When they find the deer another child gets to be the dying deer and the rest of the children are the hunters. Take turns until everyone gets a turn.
NOTES: Best to do on dry days so that the flour doesn’t get absorbed into the leaves of plants or the bark of trees.
3. Find the Treasure
DIRECTIONS: A child takes a special object like brightly colored rock, a huge leaf, a unique stick or double acorn. Or even a house toy such as a Matchbox car, army man or pocketknife. This is the treasure. He goes off and hides it while the others close their eyes or work on a project at the table like leaf rubbings. The hider comes back and draws a map in the dirt using natural objects for trail markers. For example, he might stick 3 tiny twigs standing up to represent a cluster of 3 aspen trees. Then use a pebble for a boulder, a tiny piece of the end of a pine tree to represent a big pine tree. He then draws an “X” where the treasure is hidden. Using the dirt map, the children have to figure out where the treasure is hidden.
NOTES: I used groups of 2-3 children as the hiders and the rest finders so that more children got to hide and the game went quicker. It’s also good for kids to consult and decide together where to hide the treasure.
Kids studying a map one child made in the dirt to show where he hid the treasure.- A treasure map made in the dirt with sticks and small leaves to show where things are. The small clothespin represents where the large clothespin is hidden.
4. Growl Bear Growl
DIRECTIONS: This is another favorite nature activity and a fairly quick one. The children stand in a circle. One person is blindfolded in the middle and holds a stick the size of a wooden spoon. He spins around while the kids walk around or change places. Then he stops, points the stick and says, “Growl, bear, growl!” The person getting pointed at growls and the pointer guesses which friend it is. If he gets it wrong he spins and they walk around again. If he gets it right, the growler gets to be “it” and blindfolded.
NOTES: Sweatshirts or long sleeve shirts make excellent blindfolds. This is fun with groups of all ages or varied ages. Adults enjoy joining in and making funny growls.
I hope you’ll try some of these nature school activities and games. And that they’ll get your creativity flowing to think of more your kids will enjoy. Let me know your kids’s favorites in the comments! Enjoy nature schooling! It’s among my favorite memories.
PS For more information on nature journaling as an activity check out my post here.
PPS Check out my friend’s blog all about nature activities. And her post about making a bird’s nest.