Age guide: 3 to 8 years. Best outdoors or in a large room.
Children already know a lot about animals and plants, and they usually love showing it with their bodies. These four games use movement, imagination and the sky to explore how living things look and move. All you need is a patch of floor or grass.
1. Fly, crawl, hop or walk
Time: 10 minutes. You need: space to move.
Ask your child to name animals that fly: eagle, bee, bat. For each one, they flap or glide like that animal. Then name animals that crawl or slither, such as ants, caterpillars and snakes, and move like them. Do the same with animals that hop and animals that walk on two legs, like penguins and ostriches. Next, call out an animal and watch how your child chooses to move. Change every 30 to 45 seconds. Ask what they noticed: how many legs, whether it has wings, how it travels.
2. Jump like…
Time: 5 to 10 minutes. You need: space.
Ask your child to name an animal that jumps, such as a kangaroo, frog or grasshopper, and jump like it. Take turns choosing. See how many different jumps your family can find. You can also tie it to a theme, such as the rainforest or the farm.
3. Be a tree
Time: 5 to 10 minutes. You need: room to stretch.
Ask: “Can your body be the heavy trunk of a tree? The tallest, thinnest stem of a flower? A butterfly landing on a leaf?” Show me. Watch how your child tells the difference between heavy and thin, tall and low. Listen for the words they use. You may hear heavy, tall, thin, wobbly. Try a frog, a caterpillar or a seed that becomes a plant.
4. Cloud pictures
Time: 10 to 15 minutes. You need: a blanket and a day with some clouds.
Lie on a blanket in a safe place. Tell your child you have spotted a cloud that looks like a rabbit. They have to find it. When they do, check together: “See the tall bit on one side? Those are the ears.” Take turns spotting. Draw the clouds you found afterwards. Never look directly at the sun, and use sun protection.
Let them lead
Children often add details you never thought of. Ask, “How does a spider move?” and see what happens. For another way to explore the outdoors, see a basket of puzzling things.
