5 Kid Outdoor Activities Great For Your Back To School Schedule

Two young boys wearing deuter Kikki backpacks by a river

With summer ending and school starting back up again you might find it harder to squeeze in those outdoor activities you once had time for during summer break.  With that in mind we have teamed up with our ambassador Tyler Fontes, to provide 5 engaging outdoor activities to keep your little explorers adventuring throughout the school year!  These activities can be done while out hiking, by the lake/river, local park or even in your own backyard. The idea is to get them outdoors and engaging/learning with nature!

  

Build a life size spiderweb:

The only materials needed is colored yarn or string.  Building a spiderweb can be fun and engaging for kids and the only thing needed is string and an outdoor area with trees or bushes.  When starting this activity engage your explorer in a conversation about how they think a spider would start to build its web and guide them to a great starting point to tie the string to. Then let them go wild taking the string with them to other trees or bushes or objects to hook the string on and see what kind of a web they create!  Once the web is made they can start finding other objects like sticks, pinecones, leaves, flowers, and have them include the items into the web as if they were bugs stuck in the web. Just don't forget to take it down when they are done so no animals get caught in it later. 

A young boy puts orange yarn on a bush

 

 

Nature Band:

This activity is all about sound and discovering how different objects make different sounds.  To start this activity, have your little explorers collect a bunch of nature items like rocks, sticks, pinecones, acorns, or any other nature treasure they may find.  Once all the items have been gathered, let them explore the different sounds they make when tapping them together. Does tapping a stick on a pinecone sound the same or different than rubbing the stick along the pinecones side? Or does the sound change when tapping the stick on different size rocks?  After exploring the different sounds let each little explorer select their favorite and make those sounds to one of their favorite songs.  Another option is to bring a few small containers for them to put some rocks or acorns (or other items) in to create shakers for them to shake around. 

 

Photograph the rainbow:

Nature is naturally full of every color of the rainbow and makes the perfect activity to try and find every color!  I recommend taking a photo of each colored item they find so you can always go back and reference all the colors they have found so far. (Unless you are in your backyard or an area where they can freely pick and collect all items). You can even take it a step further and have your explorers find the colors in order so when you scroll back through the photos they will be in the correct order of a rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.) 

Two children kneeling by wildflowers and looking at a bookTwo children looking at a field of yellow wildflowers

 

Bug Hunt:

This activity sounds simple and easy, because it is, but it can also be very engaging for your explorers minds to see just how many bugs can be found where you are!  They can look in bushes, on trees, in flowers, and then take it the next step further by flipping over rocks or large branches on the ground.  By flipping over these items they can discover what’s crawling underneath like worms, roly poly, ants, and beetles.  If you are near water, have them explore the edge for different water bugs. 

Holding a leaf with a grasshopper on itLooking for bugs on a river bank

 

Painting with nature:

The only additional materials needed for this is paper.  Mud is a great item to use for nature paint and let your explorer feel it with their fingers and paint with it on the paper. They can use one finger like a paintbrush or their entire hand for hand prints. Other great nature materials to paint with are grass to make green or flowers to paint yellow with the pollen. 

A young boy holding a plate with a mud and rock art project

 

Do you have outdoor activities you do with your little ones? We'd love to hear hear about them. 

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