Purple Thurple
Children are naturally anxious about nature and will often point to a flower or tree and ask “What is it?” If I answer, “That’s a red oak,” or “That’s a wild carrot,” they are likely to forget. Names of trees, flowers, etc., often block our ability to really see.
What’s in a name? Flowers, trees and animals have all been given common and scientific names, and if a child points to a flower and asks, “What is it?” I may be tempted to tell the child, “Oh, that’s a sticky monkeyflower.” Often the child will then continue down the path. But children seldom remember the names and often seem to lose interest once a name has been assigned. If I instead answer the child’s question with another question—“What would you name this flower?”—suddenly the naming process becomes creative and personal. The child must look at the flower carefully and try to extract its real essence. What makes it different from other flowers?
During the day you might give each child a chance to name a flower, tree or insect, and attach the child’s own name to the name they create—hence: “Joannes’s yellow plant flower.” The children eagerly look for more of “their” flowers and never, ever forget them.
Ant Palace
On a trail, begin by shaking a film canister filled with pennies. This will immediately grab their attention. Pass out a penny to each child and explain we are about to go on a “micro-hike.” During the next part of the trail, ask the children to find three interesting things that are small enough to fit on their coin. Ask them not to pick anything alive. At the end of the next trail, ask each child to bring their tiny treasures and show and explain. Together we will build a fine palace for an ant—with seedpods, bits of fur and feathers, mushrooms and lichens, twigs, buds. Let imaginations soar. More than half of the time, an ant will even obligingly appear at exactly the right time to explore his new, splendid abode.
Camera
Divide children into pairs. One partner is the “photographer,” the other the “camera.” The “camera” must close his eyes and let the “photographer” guide him to a place where there is an interesting “close-up”—a pattern of leaves, a mossy stump, a flower, and some wet shiny rocks.
When the photographer says go, the camera must open her eyes and let her image enter her mind as if she were a blank film, simply absorbing and capturing their image as vividly as possible for a count of five. The camera then closes her eyes to “capture” the image, and tries to describe it as clearly as possible: “I saw lights and straight lines and a spiral pattern” rather than “I saw a tree trunk.”
Reverse roles, and do several times. This is a wonderful strategy for awakening unusual capacities of our sense of sight.
Blindfold
In general, we rely most heavily on our sense of sight for our impressions of the world around us. Blindfold games help us to become aware of less often awakened senses of touch, smell, hearing and taste.
Blindfold Walk: In pairs, with one blindfolded, the other takes the blindfolded one to a particular tree and helps the partner explore that tree—the feel of the bark, its trunk size, what’s on the ground underneath it, etc. Then the blindfolded one is led back to the trail, unblindfolded, and then tries to find his particular tree based on what he felt, smelled, etc.
Blindfold Trail: In advance, set up an interesting “course” along a roped trail. With one hand they hold on to the rope, with the other they explore what is around them. Go for a variety of experiences—sounds, textures, etc.
Caterpillar Walk: place hands on shoulders. Lead them to an interesting spot. Either a) remove the blindfolds and ask them to find their way back or b) lead them back after they explore the area with their hands, and see if they can find it again.
Shapes
Use index cards and allow each child to select one card (square, circle, star, oblong, triangle, spiral, etc. During the hike, ask them to be alert to finding their shape—have them show it to you or another guide. When they’ve successfully found their shape, they can ask for another card. (Cards should be laminated.) Talk about what they found.
Colors
Similar to shapes, only using strips of sturdy colored paper; ask the children to try to match their color to something exactly their color. Talk about what they found.
Sounds
Children lie on their backs, hold up both fists, close their eyes. Every time the child hears a new bird song he lifts one finger. You can also have them count all sounds—both man-made and natural.
The Unnature Trail
One of my favorites for sharpening observation. Tell the children we are going on an “unnature trail.” Set it up by taking a half dozen or so small man-made objects and placing them near the edge of the trail, in tricky but not impossible places to see. You might put a coin on the path, tie a ribbon to a branch, stick a bottle cap between twigs, wrap a piece of plastic around a leaf, and so on—use your imagination. Some of the objects should be bright and easy to see, others camouflaged. Don’t tell them how many there are. Ask the children to walk down the trail, one by one, quietly counting to themselves how many “unnatural” objects they have noticed, and whisper this number in your ear at the end. Then you and the children go back over the trail, collecting the objects as you go, and asking a question like “What would it be like to play this game on a path near your home?” Discover camouflage and how it helps animals and plants.
Trail Tea
I often carry a small thermos of hot water and keep a sharp eye out for small mints and other fragrant plants that the children and I can gather and place in the thermos to make “trail tea.” In California, we use yerba buena, pennyroyal, sage and other mints. The children love the “wildness” of the tea. Sharing the tea together some hours later can become a “thanking ritual” (see Everyday Thanksgiving) or some other simple ceremony. For example, “The thing I like best in myself is….” before sipping the tea. This game requires a hot thermos of water and knowledge of local plants, particularly which mints grow where. Be sure to thank the plants for giving you their tea (see Thank You Plant).
Burma Shave Cue Card Hike
One of my favorite strategies combines elements of many others. You will need a small stack of index cards, and it is helpful if you have another adult assistant. Leave the children with your assistant as you set up the hike. (Perhaps playing a simple game in the meantime that does not require them to move down the trail.) At intervals of 10 to 30 meters [32 to 100 feet], place a card with printed instructions on the trail. The children will one by one come to the card, read it, do the activity it suggests, put the card back and go on. These activities can range from simple sensory awareness exercises, “Crush this leaf in your finger and smell.” or “Take off your shoes and walk to the next card.” to thoughtful questions like, “What would you do with this forest if you owned it?” Over time you will develop skill in how to vary the pace and level of surprise. A Burma Shave hike can last anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour, from a hundred meters to a kilometer. It is a beautiful way to give children alone time in nature while at the same time gently guiding them and helping to get the most out of the experience.
About five minutes into the hike, one of your cards may read, “Turn around and howl very loudly like a wolf.” This is the cue for the next child to begin the hike. At the end, review the cards and listen for thoughtful and unusual answers. The last child picks up the cards. Some of my favorite cue cards that I always carry with me are listed below. I also always take blank cards, so that I can take advantage of the unexpected—a pile of feathers, spiderwort and a freshly fallen tree.
1) Find three things that you would use to decorate your home if you were the size of an ant.
2) Who might like these berries?
3) Find two decomposers and two producers. How can you tell?
4) Slow down and enjoy—you’re almost there!
5) Would you put a MacDonald’s here? Why or why not?
6) Smell…What would you name this flower?
7) Get down on your hands and knees, and think about what the world looks like to an ant.
7-A) Think about what trees give us, and then thank this tree any way you like.
8) Feel these leaves. Why does this plant have prickles? Would a deer like to eat it?
8-A) Close your eyes and stick your arms high over your head.
9) Anything different about the trees here?
9-A) What do you like best about walking in the forest?
10) See the “almost-butterfly?”
11) Smell the forest. Is it a nice smell? What can you smell?
12) Run to the next card.
13) Stop, pant, and look up for a count of 30.
14) Have you found your color/shape yet?
15) How would a bunch of old cans, bottles, and wrappers look here? How would it change this place?
16) Look at these rocks. Did they come from a volcano, an ocean or a stream-bed? What do you think?
17) Stop, close your eyes, and listen for a count of 30. How many different sounds did you hear? How many were man-made and how many natural?
18) Feel these orange things. Are they plants?
19) How far can you see?
20) Put your cheek against this tree and close your eyes.
21) Give this tree a big hug!
22) Look around for diamonds.
23) Rub this leaf and smell.
24) Take off your shoes and walk to the next card.
24-A) How does the forest change when you are barefoot?
25) Do you feel like thanking shoes? Where do shoes come from?
26) Turn around and very loudly howl like a wolf.
27) Will you eat this for lunch?
28) Look around for your favorite color. Can you find it here?
29) Do you feel silly doing what these cards say? If so, why?
30) Look around carefully and count how many shades of green you discover by the time you reach the next card.
31) Look up! For a count of 10.
32) Pretend you are a deer and walk as quietly as you can to the next card.
33) Would a panther have heard you?
34) Can you find an animal home here?
35) Who here is eating the sun?
36) Who here is making dirt?
Alone Walk
City children often have many fears about being alone in nature. Working with black and Hispanic children from an inner-city ghetto in San Jose, I discovered that they were often terrified to walk alone through the woods as I might be to walk alone through their neighborhoods. The Alone Walk is a special experience for all children and is especially magical for these kids. Simply tell the children they will have a chance to walk a short part of the trail alone, noticing their own feelings and everything inside them. When they come to a red bandana tied along the trail, they should turn around and make a wolf or coyote howl as a signal for the next child to begin.There are three rules: no running, no talking, and be fully alert. At the end, I like to give each child a writing board (small sheets of paper stapled to a thin wooden rectangle) where they can write or draw their thoughts and feelings. The children can then share these with each other.
Deer Ears
A great way to quiet a rowdy group—ask them to put on their “deer ears” and notice any differences. Why do deer and rabbits have such big ears? Cup your hands around your ears and ask the children to do the same. Do they notice any difference? From time to time, ask the children to put on their “deer ears” and walk quietly.
Thunderstorm
An indoor strategy for a rainy day. Divide the group into four and teach each one of them a sound: 1) Slowly pat the floor. 2) Loudly and quickly beat the floor. 3) Clap irregularly (loudly and softly). 4) Rub hands together. Sounds: leaves splattering, downpour, wind, and lightning/thunder. Other actions: paddle arms (wind); beat one finger from each hand together (raindrops); beat two fingers (harder rain); slap hands on legs (progressively harder yet); pound fists on the floor (thunder)
Barefooting
For warmish days, on trails with no possibility of glass! Ask the children to take off their shoes for part of the hike. If you have a creek to wade through, all the better. Think about what things are the warmest and coldest, roughest and smoothest.
Wake-Up Lichens
Use your water bottle to “wake up” small patches of lichen, mosses and mushrooms—watch them become soft/colorful. Why do these plants usually sleep?
Magic Circle
Make small circles of string or yarn between 25 to 50 centimeters in diameter [10 to 20 inches] and drop them on the ground. Ask the children to spend several minutes looking very closely at the world within their “magic circle.” What can they find? Are there decomposers, sun-eaters, plant-eaters, meat-eaters? Is there anything in their circle that doesn’t belong there? Explore for different leaf shapes, seeds, decomposers, animals, evidence of animal life.
Micro-Hike
Tie short sticks to a string or piece of yarn 1 to 2 meters long [about 3 to 6 feet], and create a mini nature trail or “nature hike”—encourage the children to create their own and lead each other through their “micro-hikes.”
Small groups construct a “micro-trail” using the yarn in a path and the sticks for making points of interest. They should shrink themselves to the size of an ant and keep their eyes no higher than one foot above the ground.
Duplication
Gather from the area about 10 natural objects—rocks, seeds, plants, animal activities—that they’ll be able to find nearby. Lay them on a cloth; tell them that they have 25 seconds to look at the objects and then cover them with another cloth. Tell them they will have five minutes to try to collect identical items. Pull objects out from under the second cloth and ask them if they found one just like it and tell interesting stories about each one.
Decomposition Dance
At the compost pile or a rotten log or pile of scat or manure, pick through, turn over and see how dead leaves and other organic material are being actively recycled into soil by hard-working little bugs, fungi and bacteria. Ask the children questions: “What would happen without decomposers?” “Why are they important?” Then teach the children the “decomposition dance” as a way of encouraging and thanking them. Say “decomposition” and at the same time bend knees, wiggle hips, and crouch down to the ground. Repeat the decomposition dance every time your group finds a good example of natural decomposition.
Chocolate Factory
A role-play for teaching basic concepts of photosynthesis. First, role-play how a chocolate factory makes chocolate. You need two children to be the factory machine, one to be milk, one to be sugar, one to be cocoa and one to be the electrical cord plugging into a socket. The milk and cocoa enter the “machine,” (two children holding hands) and are stirred around a bit (electrical cord plugged in); they then emerge on the other side, arms linked, like a chocolate bar.
Talk about what plants eat—water, sun and air. Now do the role-play again. This time the two children playing the factory are now playing a green plant. Milk becomes water and cocoa becomes carbon dioxide (or “air” for younger children). The child playing the electrical cord now plays the sun. The two ingredient children are mixed together as before and emerge, arms linked, as a molecule of sugar, which the plant may eat itself or give to others to eat.
MMM (Manure To Meadow To Milkshake)
A game about food cycles. Begin by pointing to a pile of manure, animal scat, or a very rotten log. Exclaim, with great enthusiasm, “Fantastic!” “Yum!” “Strawberry ice cream!” This will definitely attract the children’s attention. Then ask the children, dramatically, “How could we turn this into strawberry ice cream?” Let them come up with the answer (let it decompose, turn into soil, grow strawberries and grass in the soil, the cow eats the grass and gives milk, the milk becomes ice cream).
Continue to ask, doing the rest of the day—“How could this leaf become an apple?” “How would this apple become a wolf?” And so on.
Create A Plant
Ask the children what are the parts of a plant? Have the children role-play each part: root, stem, leaf, flower, fruit, seed. “Interview” each part—”What does it do?” “Why is it important?” This strategy also is good in a garden setting.
Fingertip Test
Have the children try to push their finger into the soil on a path, and then try again in a place a few feet off the trail. If they were seeds, in which place would they rather grow? What does this mean about where we should walk in forests or gardens?
Lunch Strategies
1) Apple: Ask the children to imagine the apple is the world. The peel represents the soil, a drop of water, and all the fresh water. “Where will the apple go after you eat it?” “Where does it go after that?” Follow it through the toilet, sewage system, into a river … a river plant, fish. Imagine the journey of this apple. “How would it come back to you?” “How could it come back to this forest?”
2) Dinosaurs: Ask who brought a dinosaur with them for lunch. Explain about their plastic bags. “Does anyone hear a dinosaur-eater?” (car, train, plane sounds) Discuss what petroleum really is and where it really came from. “Are there still dinosaurs around to make more?” “Even if there were, would we have time to wait?” “What will we do when we run out of dinosaurs?”
Camouflaged Toothpicks
Throw a handful of colored toothpicks into a meadow or a forest clearing. Ask the children to find as many as they can. “Which ones were easiest to find?” “Green, yellow, blue or red?” Discuss camouflage and why animals and plants use it.
Gale Warner
Unpublished, 1980