Fun Nature Themed Games

Play is essential for a child’s development and for learning life skills. Try these fun games from the KinderNature website to keep your students active all year long.

Bats Eat Bugs

Have all players stand in a large circle. Choose one child to be the bat and place a blindfold over her eyes. Choose five other children to be bugs inside the circle.

The bat moves around inside the circle calling out “Bug, bug, where are you?” The bugs call back “Here, here!” as if the sound was bouncing off of them back to the bat. When the bat hears the echo, she attempts to catch the bugs by tagging them. The bat may call as many times as she wishes. Each time the bugs must answer.

The last bug to be caught becomes the new bat.

Camo Frog

Define a playing area using ropes or cones, etc.

Spread small colored plastic frogs (green, yellow, red, and blue) 1 of each color for every child throughout the grassy playing area. (You can use colored macaroni instead.)

Line the children up at one end of the marked area.

Show the children a plastic frog.

Explain that they will be going on a frog hunt.

When you say “go”, they are to walk out and find only one frog.

After the first round, line the frogs up according to color.

(You are building a pictograph.)

Ask the children to notice which color was found the most.

Repeat the rounds, each time adding to the pictograph and comparing the number of each color.

Usually the red and blues are discovered before the yellow and greens.

Ask the children why green might be a good color for a frog that lives in a pond covered with green plants. You can then introduce the term, “camouflage”.

Owl I Spy
Have the children sit in a large circle. Ask one child to be the owl and leave the room. While the owl is out, designate a leader to begin a motion (for example: tapping toes, blinking, turning heads).

All the children in the circle need to follow the leader. Bring the owl back into the room and have them watch with their owl eyes and guess who is being the leader.

Sticky Spider Web Play

When an orb weaving spider spins its web, it makes some strands sticky and leaves some strands dry. The prey will be trapped in the web but the spider will be able to move about.

Hang a large laminated web on the wall. Make long loops with the sticky side out of clear packing tape. Put these on most but not all of the strands.

Let the children take turns throwing cotton ball “bugs” into the web. The cotton balls can be reused but after a few rounds of play the tape needs to be replaced.

Life as a Honeybee

Change your classroom and children in to a colony of bees. Select a queen bee and have her wear a crown and sit on a chair in the middle of the classroom. Select one drone to sit with the queen. The rest of the children are the workers and baby bees. The workers wear aprons. Some of the workers may feed the queen, drone, and the babies honey cereal. Other workers may pack pollen cells (use blocks), clean the hive, stand guard, or collect pollen and nectar.