455 Backyard Fortunes

In this hunt-and-learn game, children explore the backyard while learning in-depth aspects of a specific topic.

In this example, we’ll be using food as the topic, though honestly any topic that kids may have even a remote interest in could be used with success.

The game prep includes coming up with various trivia facts, physical activities, questions, and other engaging things that should be tailored to each specific group of kids or unique topic. Write each of these questions down on sturdy notecards. Tape the notecard on top of another, just at the top of the notecards’ common spine, to create a opening/revealing action. Write the answer (if there is one) on the inside. If there isn’t an answer, skip the taping. On the backs of these notecards, they can be either numbered, lettered, or just simple put “?” on them to indicate that they are questions.

Make between 15 and 30 of these, depending on the size of your play area, size of the group, and desired length of the activity. Group the cards into a few piles, and choose locations around the play area that these card groups will be. If the locations aren’t too vague, the questions and topics of the cards can even be specifically related to the locations in some cases, for bonus fun! Place the cards in a pile face down at each of these locations.

This part is optional, but with smaller children definitely enhances the fun factor. Create a paper fortune teller, and write the locations inside of it where the “fortunes” would otherwise be. Get creative in customizing the fortune teller in other ways.

Once ready to play, gather your group and introduce them to the fortune teller, explaining how it works if they’ve never seen on. Choose a kid to start, and let them use the fortune teller to determine which location the group will visit first. Have the children safely walk (or.. jog..) to the first location with you. Once there, allow the kids to pick one of the questions at random, and walk them through the activity on the card. Once complete, have a different child use the fortune teller to determine the next location to visit. Repeat! The game ends when time runs out, or alternatively if all the cards are used.

(This one was almost all Madeleine!)

[ Today I Was Playing: Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright ]

#childrens-game, #outdoor-game, #physical-game