Motivate kids to hike: Nature Envelopes

"This berry won't make a great addition to my nature envelope."

Even if you're excited, the kids’ calls to instead hit the local water park may drown out your announcement that a family hike is planned this weekend. What to do? Try this pre-hike activity with children to get them (and you!) excited about hitting the trail rather than the Wii console.

What to do? One tried and true possibility is to have kids create Nature Envelopes.

Have children cut out pictures of different objects they might see on the hike: trees, flowers, rocks, animals, etc. Tell them that when they go on the hike, all of you will look for the objects in the pictures they’ve placed in the nature envelopes. During the hike, have the children collect the objects (or a piece of the object) they’ve found that match their pictures (obviously, they can’t collect the animals!).

Materials: Outdoors magazines or brochures, envelopes, scissors

Ages: 4-12

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