Fun activity for kids on hike: Same Thing

"Keep looking - there's got to be something just
like it somewhere around here."

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 Same Thing. 

If multiple children are on the hike, have them divide into two teams. For the first leg of the hike, have one team collect items along the way – leaves, pine cones, rocks, etc., but nothing living or that must be broken off. During a rest break, having the first team lay out the materials and identify something about each one – orange oak leaf, ponderosa pine cone, gray granite.

On the next leg of the hike, have the other team find the same objects on the hike. At the second rest break, they lay out the items to see if they have matches. If you have two more legs in your hike, have the teams switch off, with the second team finding objects for the first team to locate.

Materials: Items found on trail

Ages: Four and up

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