Fun & Easy Nature-Based Activities for the Whole Family!

In what has been repeatedly named as an “unprecedented” time, you may be finding yourself with your family at home a lot more! Perhaps you’ve gone through every puzzle in the house, read every book, and used up every paint jar together. Or maybe you have just been trying to survive the messy transition to online education and homeschooling. Regardless, A Rocha’s Environmental Education team is delighted to share some family-friendly, nature-based activities that you can add to your repertoire. Some can be done in the comfort of your living room while others challenge you to explore the outdoors. Let us know which activity your family enjoyed most!

1. ANIMAL CHARADES

Aim: to think about how living things move and sound

Ages: Grades 1-7

Space: anywhere dry

Materials: charade cards of animal pictures

Activity: Get the kids to select some animals that they are interested in. Ask them to find pictures from magazines or the Internet, and cut them out or print them out. Get the kids to silently act out charades that include the animal, in which environment it is, and what it’s doing. (e.g. a snake slithering through grass)

2. FEEL A ROCK

Aim: to observe with senses other than sight

Ages: all ages

Space: anywhere dry

Materials: rocks of different shapes and sizes, enough for each participant (or cones or leaves or any objects from nature)

Activity: Ask everyone to sit or stand with in a circle, with eyes closed and hands behind their backs. Hand each person a rock (variation: use a cone or any other object such as a shell from nature). Allow them a couple of minutes to get to know their rock/object only by feeling it. Then collect the rocks back. Give each player a rock (that’s hopefully not their original one). Players pass the rock around the circle behind their backs. When they feel their rock they keep it, but they continue to pass the other rocks around the circle until everyone thinks they have found their rock. OR when they find their rock, they step back out of the circle. Can everyone find the correct rock?

3. RE-NAMING

Aim: to observe closely the characteristics of an object, engaging the imagination

Ages: any age

Space: any space large enough for the group to sit

Materials: any natural object at hand (cone, clover, leaf, etc.)

Activity: Pass the object around the circle. Ask each person to re-name it as what it reminds them of: e.g.- a clover leaf might look like an umbrella, a mushroom, a mouse nose and ears, a tree, etc. Keep going until you run out of ideas! A second time around the circle with the same object is very challenging or try another object! Get creative!

4. MINI HABITATS

Aim: to observe and identify components of a habitat

Ages: any age

Space: area with mixed ‘life’

Materials: strings tied into a circle, pencil & paper, optional: magnifier

Activity: Place the circle string on the ground anywhere you like (choose an interesting area), and observe what is encircled from bird’s eye view. Observe and identify if possible, all the kinds of life in the habitat (plant, insect, animal—in the ground, on the ground, above the ground) Or just draw whatever you see! If time allows, explore several different habitats and compare the kinds of life found in them.

5. SENSORY MAP

Aim: to observe surroundings using all senses

Ages: Grade 4-9

Space: outdoors in a ‘wild’ place

Materials: clipboard, paper and pencils

Activity: Find a spot in a nearby forest and give everyone a clipboard with paper and pencil. Ask them to spread out from each other but not out of your range. Instruct them to mark an X on the paper to represent where they are. Participants then make up pictures, symbols, and words for all the things they sense around them – whether by sound, sight, smell, or touch. Come back together and discuss their ‘maps’. Did it cause them to be better observers?

6. I SPY

Aim: observe life in your neighbourhood

Ages: any

Space: where you can see out the window

Activity: Look out the window. Notice something living (could be a bug, plant, animal, bird—look carefully!) Say “I spy with my little eye something that is……(name a characteristic: could categorize by colour, type, body shape/size….or whatever you can come up with). See who can guess correctly

—they get the next turn. You might be surprised by how many things you can spot right in your own area!