Activities to do Outdoors

Ages: 8+

Resources needed: Wats Education Cloud Finder

Activity: Print out the Wats Education Cloud Finder. Cut the middle section out. Hold your cloud finder up the the sky and follow the instructions on the outside of the cloud finder to determine what type of clouds you are looking at. Try it on multiple days and see how many types of clouds you can find.

Ages: 6-12

Resource needed: magnifying glass

Activity: Go to an area outside that is close to home. Look at the landscape. What do you notice? You may notice the "big things" such as trees, grass, branches, clouds, squirrels, birds, etc. Now, explore the world using a magnifying glass. How many insects do you see? How are they moving? Do you notice any lichen or fungi? Think about the world from the perspective of the small animals and creatures in nature, how is it different from your own perspective?

Ages: 8+

Resources needed: a phone or tablet with the Seek app by iNaturalist

Activity: Are there plants and trees near your home that you would like to ID? We suggest you download the free app, Seek, by iNaturalist. The app allows you to put your phone or tablets camera over a plant and it will tell you what species of plant it most likely is. You can also do a scavenger hunt with the app, where you find different species and collect badges. You can also use the app to ID birds, insects and mammals!

Ages: 13-16

Resources needed: measuring tape, a live tree with a nearby fallen tree of its kind near it, calculator

Activity: Find a tree that you would like to measure. In order to measure the age of a tree, you need to know the diameter and the circumference of the tree. Measure the circumference of the tree about 1.5 metres from the ground. Note the circumference. To find the diameter, divide the circumference by Pi (3.14). Then, to find the radius, divide the diameter by 2. For example, if the circumference is 390 cm, the diameter is approximately 124 cm, and the radius is about 62 cm. Now, look at the nearby fallen tree that is the same kind as the tree you measured. Measure the width of one of the tree's rings. In this example, let's say that ring width is .7cm. The total estimated age of the tree equals the radius divided by the ring width. In this case, the answer would be 88 year olds. Note that this is an estimate and not the exact age of the tree.

Ages: 7-11

Resources needed: Handful of small rocks or gravel, plastic bottle (500ml-2L) , scissors, ruler, permanent marker

Activity: This activity will allow you to measure the rainfall, and also use rainwater to water your plants! In order to measure how much rainfall there is, you will need to first make a rain gauge. Gather the materials required. Cut the top of your plastic bottle (save this piece) and place the gravel or small rocks at the bottom. Pour water in the bottle so it just covers the pebbles. At this water line, use a ruler and permanent marker to mark the bottle in 1cm increments. Put the lid back on the bottle upside down, to act as a filter to catch the rain. Place the gauge outside, somewhere where there is no cover above it. BC Hydro offers a worksheet for you to record how much rain you caught.

Ages: 5+

Resources needed: toilet paper rolls, sticks, bark, cones, leaves, structure for your bug hotel such as a wooden box, large plastic bottle cut into two cylinders, or a large milk container.

Activity: There is no one right way to build a big hotel so please use your imagination when doing this activity. Gather your materials and start with creating the outer cover for the bug hotel. This may mean cutting a large plastic bottle into cylinders, finding a wooden box, or cutting a large whole in a large plastic milk container. It is important that the container for the bug hotel is waterproof. Arrange your materials inside the container. You may use the toilet paper rolls to organize different materials into different sections. If you are able to, you can hang your bug hotel with twine or place your bug hotel in a yard. Bug hotels can be placed near a garden and will benefit the garden. For examples of bug hotels see this page.

Ages: 3-8

Resources needed: Empty egg carton, marker

Activity: On your egg carton, write "opposite words" in the holes of the egg carton. For example, you can write: warm, cold, smooth, rough, soft, hard, wet, dry, pointy, round, shiny, dull, or any other words you can think of. Each person then goes on a hunt with their egg carton, looking for items in nature that match the words written inside the egg carton. Once all the items are collected, you can give the nature museum "tour" to members in your family. Talk about each item and why you chose them. For a video on how to conduct this activity, see this video from the Kingfisher Lake Outdoor Education Centre.

*To follow "leave no trace" ethics, be sure to put the natural objects back where you found them once you have completed the activity

Ages: 4-12

Resources needed: paper & pencil

Activity: Find a tree close to your home and give yourself some time to be with the tree. Examine its leaves, its bark, its shape and its branches. Write a note to this tree and post it on instagram or twitter with the hashtag #notetoatree and you will be entered to win a prize pack of nature themed books. Don't have instagram or twitter? Email your note to contests@groundwoodbooks.com.

Age Range: 10+

Resources Needed: A set of stairs outdoors (or indoors will work too if the weather isn't conducive), a comfortable pair of runners and a water bottle

Activity: Do you like to count steps? If so, this activity is one for you! Due to BC Park closures, we aren't able to hike many of the peaks around us right now, but Renew Retreats has put together the number of steps it would take to tackle some of our local mountains. All you need to do is put in the steps needed by climbing sets of stairs! Based on a challenge rating, you can see the different levels below:

• Level 1: Eagle Bluffs - climb up 1100 steps

• Level 2: St. Mark’s Summit - climb up 1500 steps

• Level 3: Grouse Grind - climb up 2830 steps

• Level 4: Coliseum Mountain - climb up 4080 steps

• Level 5: Black Tusk - climb up 5700 steps

Extension: Do some research on the location and facts about the mountain that you have chosen to 'climb'

Ages: 5-8

Resources needed: Download and print the Take a Hike Challenge from Heartlands Conservancy.

Activity: Take your printed challenge outside & see how many of the objects you can find in your own backyard or green space near home.

Ages: 5+

Resources needed: paper, different colour markers, crayons or pencil crayons, clipboard if desired

Activity: Go outside and sit in one spot. Be sure you are able to draw on your paper using a flat surface outside (or bring a clipboard/hard book). Once you have found your spot, put a mark ("X" or a dot or something more creative!) at the centre of your paper. This mark in the centre of your paper represents where you are sitting. The space around the paper represents your surroundings. Sit quietly, with your eyes closed, and listen to the sounds around you and the direction they are coming from. Write or draw each sound on your paper and mark the direction with an arrow, representing where each sound came from.

Extension: Mark the cardinal directions N, S, E & W on your piece of paper and draw an arrow to the cardinal direction that the sound is coming from.

Ages: 8+

Resources needed: SkyView app (optional)

Activity: One of the brightest stars in the night sky is the north star which is also called Polaris. Polaris is located within a constellation called “Ursa Minor” (Little Dipper or Little Bear are other names for this constellation).

In order to find Polaris, you will need to go outside on a clear night. First, locate the “big dipper.” (see photo) and find the two stars at the outermost portion of the Big Dipper’s bowl. Imagine a line continuing from these two stars, and this will lead you to spot Polaris.

Extension: The SkyView app will allow you to see many other stars and constellations. See how many you can find!

Ages: All

Activity: When we sit silently outside and really focus our attention on the outside world, we can hear various animals communicating. Birds have two main reasons to communicate: baseline and alarm. Birds that are comfortable and happy will use baseline bird calls, and you might also feel the feeling of being relaxed as the bird is too. Alarm calls are calls that birds make when there is distress or there is a predator nearby. Sit outside and see if you can hear any baseline or alarm bird calls. Bonus if you can identify the bird by their call!

Extension: Download the Merlin Bird ID app. to see if you can match the bird call to the type of bird on the app. If you see the bird, you can also make a guess at what kind of bird it may be.

Ages: All

Resources needed: phone to take photos

Activity: Lichen is made of two organisms: fungi and algae. There are over 20,000 species of lichen and they can be found growing on rocks, trees, the ground, etc. Watch this video on lichen and go to your own backyard/nearby outdoor space and see how many types of lichen you can find. We think you’ll be surprised at just how much lichen you can find in areas close to home.

Ages: 5-16

Resources needed: pencil, paper, sunglasses

Activity: Work through this “Types of Clouds” worksheet and label the clouds with the appropriate description. Now, head outside and get into a comfortable position. Grab some sunglasses, and lay down on the grass or in a chair. Do the clouds in the sky match any of the clouds you see on the worksheet? See if you can label the types of clouds that are in the sky. You may also want to find pictures in the sky and draw what you see.

Ages: 6+

Resources needed: seeds, something to put the soil in such as toilet paper roll or egg carton, soil

Activity: If you need to hunt down seeds, ask your local nursery if they deliver or if they are available to pick up. First you will need to fill you container with soil until its about 3/4 full. Next, put 2-3 seeds on top of the soil, and put a little bit of soil on top of the seed. Put a little bit of water in the soil. If the seeds require sun place them in a sunny spot and watch them grow! See the videos below for a visual of this activity.

Video 1, Video 2, Video 3, Video 4

Ages: All

Resources needed: Gardening gloves, garbage bags, garden scissors

Activity: English Ivy is an invasive vine that can be found in many areas around Vancouver. English Ivy has the ability to quickly smother an area, preventing other Indigenous vegetation from growing. It can engulf shrubs causing them to die. For this activity, we encourage you to go for a walk near your house, find and pull out English Ivy vines with your hands. You can put it in your green bin when you get home. Mother nature will thank you!

Colours of the rainbow

Ages: 3-7

Resources needed: Rainbow colouring page, colouring tools,

Activity: Print of the Rainbow Colouring Page. Colour in the rainbow with the appropriate colours. Once you have completed the colouring, take it outside with you to see what you can find in nature that matches the colours found in the rainbow. Place each of the objects on your “Rainbow Colouring Page” (for example a leaf can represent the green portion of the rainbow).

*To follow "leave no trace" ethics, be sure to put the natural objects back where you found them once you have completed the activity

Ages: 8-12

Resources needed: paper, national park cut outs, and/or non-living items found in your backyard

Activity: Using these cut outs, create your own national park outside. Include the following in your park: boundaries, a park name, 5 rules to enforce at the park, creative "natural wonders" to the park, animals, bodies of water, plants and trees. Why did you choose the animals you did? How would the bodies of water help or not help the park? Why did you choose the plant you did?

Extension: Create your national park using natural items (i.e. rocks, sticks, fallen leaves) that you can find on the ground in your yard or a neighbourhood park. Create your park in miniature (Make it for humans that are the size of your thumb) that way you won’t need huge pieces to create it. Work from a plan that you created on paper.

Ages: 3-6

Activity: Go out for a walk with your children. On your walk, examine trees thats you pass and ask your child what animal the tree would be if it were an animal. Ask you child what animal the plants would be. Maybe your child will “see” ladybugs, giraffes, bears, cats, turtles in the shape of the plants and the trees.

Ages: 6-10

Resources needed: access to a wall or fence, sponges, bucket of water, measuring tape or rulers

Activity: Children can use the tape measure and see how high 1 metre, .5 metres and other lengths are on the fence. One at a time, throw the wet sponge against the fence/wall and have them guess how high the mark the sponge made is from the ground. Then, measure the actual length to see how close you were to your guess.

Ages: 5+

Resources needed: various obejcts that can act as "bowling pins" (e.g. empty drink bottles or milk cartons), a ball (soccer, basketball, etc) for the bowling ball., a flat surface outside

Activity: This activity can be done in a driveway or flat area of grass. Fill the containers with 2 cm of dirt, gravel or sand. Set these up at the top of your chosen area and then choose a distance to bowl from. One by one, bowl and try to knock down as many “pins” as you are able. For a more challenging game, increase the distance between the pins and where you bowl from. You can create your own scoring system as well! See this link for a video of how to play the activity.

Ages: 5+

Resources needed: buckets, balls or bean bags

Activity: Create a series of “golf holes” using buckets or boxes. The golf balls will be thrown and can be a small foam ball, bean bag or a ball of socks put together. Place the buckets around a "field" and create “golf tees” (the area you will throw from). Stand at each golf tee while tossing the ball in the bucket. Play each hole until you get a hole in one. For an increased challenge, increase the distance between the bucket and the golf tee.

Ages: 3-8

Resources Needed: A piece of paper with the numbers 1-100 written on it. Here is a template to use for the Number Hunt.

Activity: While going for a walk around your neighbourhood, as the numbers are found, your child can “check off” the number. Numbers might be found on the addresses of houses or the license plates of cars or by the number of a certain tree that is counted.

For a video example of this activity, see this tweet. You can bring the same piece of paper out on every walk you go on until you find all the numbers. (You can also do this activity with the letters of the alphabet.)