Fun game for kids on day hike: Last Letter

If the category is "plants" and the word is "fern," an answer could
be "nettles." Photo courtesy of Dreamstime.

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 Last Letter.

Number off and select a topic, such as animals, people or geography. If the topic is animals, the first person names an animal, such as “gorilla.” The second player then must name an animal that starts with the last letter of the first person’s animal. In this case, it’s “a,” so “aardvark” would work as an answer. The third player now must name an animal that starts with the last letter of the second person’s animal, which is a “k,” so “kangaroo” would work. The round ends when a player can’t come up with an animal name or gives one that doesn’t start with the last letter of the previous player’s animal.

Materials: None needed

Ages: Five and up

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