Activities For Young Kids
Build tree house, fort or hut.
Take your parents for a hike in the woods.
Find 10 Critters (this can be tracks or mole holes - any sign of critter life).
Invent your own nature game.
Build a bird house, bird bath, bird feeder, bat house, bee condo.
Make your backyard wildlife friendly by providing food, water, and shelter for birds and small mammals in your area. Don’t forget the insects! Find out which ones are good and which ones are bad for your garden.
Plant a vegetable garden. Be patient and then help your parents cook and eat your produce.
Get your school to plant a community garden.
Get your teacher to do wildlife projects.
Do your service learning project on nature.
Photograph nature up close and personal and post on our facebook page.
Post your nature activities and adventures on our facebook page.
Go for a family walk when the moon is full - all you need is a flashlight, warm clothes. Be sure to listen and look carefully. Report your findings on our Facebook page!
Keep a journal of your nature experiences. How does it make you feel to be outside?
Write a poem about nature.
Write a song about nature.
Keep a Wonder Bowl. Collect items from nature (things you can’t hurt or hurt you) and put them in your Wonder Bowl instead of leaving them in your pockets and letting them go through the washing machine!
Develop hidden powers - try to experience nature with all your sense at the same time. What are the five senses? See if you can do it all at once. What was it like?
Ask your parents or grandparents about their experiences in nature as a child. What are their favorite memories?
Explore a board. Place a scrap board on a pile of dirt - come back in a couple days and see what has crawled under there. Wait another couple days and note the changes.
Make a leaf collection.
Press flowers.
Create a terrarium.
Go camping! visit Camp Parents.
Sleep outside.
Be a cloud spotter. What is a cirrostratus? Cumuloimbus? Lenticularis?
Mandate a Sunny Day Rule - If it is sunny - no tv or plug ins of any sort - you have to go outside for at least a few hours.
Rainy day rule - just because it is raining doesn’t mean you can’t go outside and play. Just be warm and try to stay dry. Ditch dam, float a boat, stomp in puddles - just have fun!
Create a water garden in your backyard - you can create one with a pot to sit on your patio if you can’t dig up the yard.
Make snow angels.
Go on a moth walk. Mix overripe fruit, stale beer, wine or old fruit juice and sweetener (honey, agave, molasses or sugar) in a blender. At sunset spread it on half a dozen trees or unpainted or untreated wood. Go back out in a couple hours with a flashlight and see what you lured.
Help restore butterfly migration routes. Plant seeds of indigenous pollinating plants that provide nectar, roosting, and food for caterpillars. Hollyhocks are great host plants for painted ladies, lupine for the Karner blue and milkweed for monarchs.
Raise butterflies.
Harvest fruit and vegetables.
Drive the Hood River fruit loop.
Join a co-op for fresh organic vegetables
Visit the Farmer’s Market in downtown Vancouver
Treasure hunt - visit Geocaching.
Go birding - urban or suburban, rural or wilderness. Check out the Celebrate Urban Birds program for youngsters.
Start a neighborhood nature club. Check out Geeks in the Woods.
Read outside.
Ask for nature guides for your birthday or spend your allowance on a guide.
Learn to track. Explore dirt roads, stream banks or backyards in search of animal tracks.
Collect stones.
Get in the water - swim, canoe, sail. Be safe.
Be prepared. Have fun, but be sure to be safe. Carry a first aid kit on long hikes or in your car. Take care of cuts and scrapes. Click here for more outdoor safety.
