Bored while outdoors? Impossible! Gather supplies found around you to play some familiar games with a nature twist.
Nature Tic Tac Toe
You won’t need paper for this version of the popular game. Gather five pebbles, leaves, or pinecones for each player. Mark off the tic tac toe board with four sticks or by scratching the pattern in the dirt. Each player selects a different marker and plays the game.
Hot and Cold Pebbles
This seek-and-find game keeps players guessing. You will need either a distinctive fist-sized rock or a rock you’ve identified with a crayon mark.
Everyone closes his and her eyes and counts up to thirty while one person hides the rock in a pre-defined area of play. After hidden, everybody runs off to try to find the rock. If nobody finds it in sixty-seconds, the questions begin.
Each person asks a yes or no question about where the rock is hidden, such as, “If I were a bird flying overhead, would I be able to see it?” After ten questions, there is another sixty-second search for the hidden rock. If it still isn’t found, the person who hid it reveals its location and another person hides the rock.
Acorn Toss
Collect a few acorns, pinecones, or pebbles. With a stick, mark off a starting point. Players take turns trying to toss their acorn, pinecone, or pebble further than the other player’s marker. If this becomes easy, increase the challenge by creating different sized and shaped boxes on the ground with sticks and try tossing the acorns into these targets.
Nature Charades
The first player notices something in nature and then forms his body into the shape of that object. Players can try mimicking a rock, a tree, or a flower nodding its head in the breeze.
Grass Snap
All you need is a pair of players and grass, although more people can play. Each player starts with one blade of grass. One player makes a loop with his piece of grass and holds both ends in one hand. The other player loops her grass through the starting player’s loop. Count to three. On three, both players pull.
The player whose grass does not break takes the two pieces of the other player’s grass. If both pieces of grass break, neither player earns a point. If you only have two players, you can continue playing, using the broken grass as point keepers. Establish a winning score as your goal or keep playing until you’re bored.
If you have numerous players, create a Grass Snap Tournament with several pairs starting and the winner of each round continuing the contest with the other winning players. The child with the most broken pieces of grass is the winner.
Creepy Crawly Race
You are going to race up to six tiny critters. You’ll need bug boxes or jars to collect them in and a light-colored cloth.
Look for up to six different types of crawling insects or other invertebrates (any animals without backbones - beetles, caterpillars, worms, spiders, millipedes, etc.) After you’ve collected the critters, draw a circle in the dirt with a stick and mark a spot in the center of the circle (or, stretch out the piece of cloth over the grass). Look for a spot that isn’t in direct sunlight so the critters won’t dry out.
Before you release your critters, predict the order in which the animals will leave the circle or the cloth. Release the animals at the same time and root for the critter that’s working its way outside the circle first.
All of these games can be played at home, over a friend's house, or at a campsite. Because you are using items found in nature, you don't need to hunt around for toys or equipment before heading outside to play.
