Trust walk:
This exercise shows students just how much they rely on the sense of sight, that a lot of information may be conveyed by the other senses - and that it is important in this life to be both trusting and trustworthy!
Divide students into pairs. Have one of the pair blindfold their partner, and have the “sighted” partner slowly lead their “blind” partner to a unique feature in the area: an old stump, perhaps, or an interesting patch of moss, explaining to them what it is they are touching and smelling. The blindfolded partner, after being brought back to the starting area by a roundabout route, is then challenged to find the feature that they just explored through their senses. Next, have the two students switch roles.
Important: natural areas contain many hazards for unsighted students. Caution students to remain trustworthy, and don’t hesitate to have any unruly students sit this activity out if they can’t show their “trustworthiness.”
Discussion: The importance of trust and of effective communication can also be introduced into the discussion.
Tails:
○ Materials / Prep: Strips of fabric - enough for 2 tails per person
Mark a playing area about 50 ft X 50 ft and have each student stick 2 tails into the back of their pants. Students try to steal one tail at a time and add them to their tails. Once you are all out of tails you need to sit down on the ground. Someone can give you a tail to help you get back into the game.
Scavenger Walk:
In this activity students are divided into groups and each group has to find (and tick off) as many of the objects on the following list as possible. Every student in the group must observe and feel the object before they can move on to the next object.
In a normal scavenger hunt, you’re supposed to collect items. This is NOT the case in this activity: tell students that objects certainly must be seen, touched, and felt, but not picked up (unless they are lying loose, like a pine cone). Objects are definitely not to be collected. Tell students that the Nature Scavenger Hunt is not a race! During the hunt they are to be calm, relaxed, and observant. Ask them not to run and to stay with their groups.
Camouflage: best done in an area that has lots of natural hiding spots - leafy shrubs, fallen logs, varying sized trees, hollows, etc.
Ask students what all animals need to survive - food and water, etc. Ask how prey protect themselves from predators. Ask them to give you an example of a predator - prey relationship in the local ecosystem (eg. cougar and hare).
Get one volunteer to be your predator. They need to choose a spot, usually in the middle of the area, on the path. They can rotate, but one foot is always stuck on the spot. They cover their eyes and count to a specified number (maybe 30 to start,
depending on how challenging the area is), all of the “prey” run and find a place to hide or be camouflaged. After the “predator” finishes counting, they open their eyes and catch as many “prey” as they can by yelling out who they have seen by name, or description of clothing. Those “prey” come back to a designated decomposition pile.
Then the predator counts to a lesser number, all the prey need to move closer, and then the predator tries to find people again. You can keep going until there is only one “prey” left.
Predator-Prey-Protector: Large open area. This is a great warm up game or a game to play
when people are cold and need to move around.
Have the group stand in a circle. Everyone needs to silently look around and choose one person who will be their predator and one person who will be their protector. No one should tell anyone who they have picked. When the game starts, tell everyone that they need to move around in order to always keep their protector between them and their predator. Because everyone has different protectors and predators, everyone will just be constantly running around trying to keep that configuration.
Prey:
Materials / Prep: Some kind of objects that can be thrown - colourful bean bags,
hacky sacks, sticks, balls. Large open area, grassy and even is best.
Get students in pairs and have them choose an animal to be, no pairs can have the same animals. Sometimes making a list of all the chosen animals will help.
Get people to line up in two rows with partners facing each other about 15 m apart.
Stand in the middle, but to the side of the rows. Throw some “prey” (eg. bean bag) into the middle and yell an animal. The two partners who are that animal need to run into the middle and try to be the first to grab the “prey” and run back to their line. If the other partner tags them, they have to drop the prey and try and chase that person and tag them to get them to drop the prey, and back and forth until one of them makes it back to their line.
To make it more complex, start throwing prey and yelling multiple animals at a time.
Outdoor Stretching:
Lead students through various yoga poses. There are many nature yoga posters and examples that can be used based on a different theme such as nocturnal animals or a different season (https://www.kidsyogastories.com/yoga-for-spring/).
This exercise shows students just how much they rely on the sense of sight, that a lot of information may be conveyed by the other senses - and that it is important in this life to be both trusting and trustworthy!
Divide students into pairs. Have one of the pair blindfold their partner, and have the “sighted” partner slowly lead their “blind” partner to a unique feature in the area: an old stump, perhaps, or an interesting patch of moss, explaining to them what it is they are touching and smelling. The blindfolded partner, after being brought back to the starting area by a roundabout route, is then challenged to find the feature that they just explored through their senses. Next, have the two students switch roles.
Important: natural areas contain many hazards for unsighted students. Caution students to remain trustworthy, and don’t hesitate to have any unruly students sit this activity out if they can’t show their “trustworthiness.”
Discussion: The importance of trust and of effective communication can also be introduced into the discussion.
Tails:
○ Materials / Prep: Strips of fabric - enough for 2 tails per person
Mark a playing area about 50 ft X 50 ft and have each student stick 2 tails into the back of their pants. Students try to steal one tail at a time and add them to their tails. Once you are all out of tails you need to sit down on the ground. Someone can give you a tail to help you get back into the game.
Scavenger Walk:
In this activity students are divided into groups and each group has to find (and tick off) as many of the objects on the following list as possible. Every student in the group must observe and feel the object before they can move on to the next object.
In a normal scavenger hunt, you’re supposed to collect items. This is NOT the case in this activity: tell students that objects certainly must be seen, touched, and felt, but not picked up (unless they are lying loose, like a pine cone). Objects are definitely not to be collected. Tell students that the Nature Scavenger Hunt is not a race! During the hunt they are to be calm, relaxed, and observant. Ask them not to run and to stay with their groups.
Camouflage: best done in an area that has lots of natural hiding spots - leafy shrubs, fallen logs, varying sized trees, hollows, etc.
Ask students what all animals need to survive - food and water, etc. Ask how prey protect themselves from predators. Ask them to give you an example of a predator - prey relationship in the local ecosystem (eg. cougar and hare).
Get one volunteer to be your predator. They need to choose a spot, usually in the middle of the area, on the path. They can rotate, but one foot is always stuck on the spot. They cover their eyes and count to a specified number (maybe 30 to start,
depending on how challenging the area is), all of the “prey” run and find a place to hide or be camouflaged. After the “predator” finishes counting, they open their eyes and catch as many “prey” as they can by yelling out who they have seen by name, or description of clothing. Those “prey” come back to a designated decomposition pile.
Then the predator counts to a lesser number, all the prey need to move closer, and then the predator tries to find people again. You can keep going until there is only one “prey” left.
Predator-Prey-Protector: Large open area. This is a great warm up game or a game to play
when people are cold and need to move around.
Have the group stand in a circle. Everyone needs to silently look around and choose one person who will be their predator and one person who will be their protector. No one should tell anyone who they have picked. When the game starts, tell everyone that they need to move around in order to always keep their protector between them and their predator. Because everyone has different protectors and predators, everyone will just be constantly running around trying to keep that configuration.
Prey:
Materials / Prep: Some kind of objects that can be thrown - colourful bean bags,
hacky sacks, sticks, balls. Large open area, grassy and even is best.
Get students in pairs and have them choose an animal to be, no pairs can have the same animals. Sometimes making a list of all the chosen animals will help.
Get people to line up in two rows with partners facing each other about 15 m apart.
Stand in the middle, but to the side of the rows. Throw some “prey” (eg. bean bag) into the middle and yell an animal. The two partners who are that animal need to run into the middle and try to be the first to grab the “prey” and run back to their line. If the other partner tags them, they have to drop the prey and try and chase that person and tag them to get them to drop the prey, and back and forth until one of them makes it back to their line.
To make it more complex, start throwing prey and yelling multiple animals at a time.
Outdoor Stretching:
Lead students through various yoga poses. There are many nature yoga posters and examples that can be used based on a different theme such as nocturnal animals or a different season (https://www.kidsyogastories.com/yoga-for-spring/).