Great hiking game for kids: Nature Bingo

She can put an x through the "deer" square on her Nature Bingo card.

Generally, exploring and discovery is enough for kids, but sometimes even they can grow bored with that and become restless. Remember that they naturally have shorter attention spans than adults.

Fortunately, there are lots of tried and true activities you can do on the trail that’ll keep kids from getting bored. Among them is Nature Bingo.

Before going on the hike, have the kids brainstorm about what they might see on the hike: trees, lizards, dragonflies, puddles, pine cones, etc. Have each one make a bingo card with those objects on them. When they see each object on the trail, they mark it off on their card. The first one to get a line of words across, down or diagonally, wins.

Materials: Bingo cards, pencils (or pen or crayon).

Ages: 5 and up.

More great day hiking games and activities for kids:
g Butterfly nets
g Grab bag

Learn about more than a hundred other hiking diversions for kids in Hikes with Tykes: Games and Activities.