FOREST SCHOOL GAMES
Sticky Elbows
Aim: to get the groups attention to organise or evenly space the children. Everyone sticks out their
elbows and while making a sucking noise, touches their elbow to someone else’s near them.Can also be
played as sticky hands or sticky feet depending on your aim.
1, 2 3 Where are You?
Aim: teach the children to call out and to listen when they are lost or when a group member is lost. The
whole group is split in half. Half go and hide, the other half count to an appropriate number. When
they have finished counting they call out ‘1,2,3 Where are you?. The hidden children call out in reply ‘
1,2 3 we’re over here!’ . During the search the children can continue to call out ‘ 1, 2 ..’ so they can
follow the sounds of the replies.
Mud Monsters
Aim: introduce children to using natural materials; help them discover textures, smells and colours of
mud, encourage use of imagination. Overcome fears of getting dirty etc. Collect a bucket of clay like
mud, if needed add a small amount of water to make it pliable (if required). Allow each child to take a
handful to shape into a monster / woodland animal and use natural resources to decorate – leaves for
wings etc.
Ivy Crowns
Aim: Encourage use of natural resources, teach about camouflage. Starting at one end of a length of ivy,
measure around the head and weave remaining ivy around and around this loop to create a crown.
Collect more leaves / feathers etc. to insert into the crown to decorate. Every wears crown to play ‘1, 2,
3, Where are you?’
Giant Birds Nest
Aim: to get the whole group moving to keep them warm and enthusiastic. Team work, use of role play
and imagination. Encourage group to explore boundaries, to search for items and to consider others as
they work. Whole group stands in a circle, each finds a stick and brings it back to his / her position in the
circle. All sticks are place on the floor, this forms the guideline for our nest. All the group collect more
sticks and keep adding them to the edge of the nest (don’t place any in the middle of the circle). This
continues until a large birds nest has been built to the groups satisfaction. Once nest is built everyone
gets inside, leader discusses birds and purposes for nest building. All chirp like birds! A good time to
play ‘woodland sounds’ while in the nest. Also a good place to tell bird stories etc.
Woodland sounds (Fistful of sounds)Aim: encourage awareness of surroundings and eventually to
teach different bird songs. All stand very quietly and hold up one hand. For each noise that you hear,
fold down one your fingers until all are down. Discuss sounds heard, compare with last time you played
this game – more birds? Different sounds, .. can we imitate the sound? What can we use around us to
make a similar sound?
Ground Pictures
Aim: Use of natural resources, imagination, individual or team work. Collect four sticks, lie them on the
floor in a square to create a ‘frame’, within this frame use natural resources to create a picture on a
theme of your choice, ie. Woodland animals or a picture of their own choice. Groups visit each picture
and the artists describe them and what they used etc.
Non-woodland trail
Aim: encourage observation skills, develop understanding of differences between natural / man made
objects and ‘out of place’ natural objects ie seashell. Discuss pollution and effects on environment.
Before group arrives, lay an assortment of man made objects in a section of the woods. When group
arrives ask them to count the number of man made or out of place objects they can see and then
discuss.
Woolly Worms / Hungry birds
Aim: encourage observation skills, discussion of camouflage and a creatures natural defences ie. A
butterfly is brightly coloured so is easily spotted but has wings so is able to fly away. Also discuss clever
design in nature – berries are brightly coloured so birds can see them and eat them, thus spreading the
seeds. Develops fine motor skills. Excellent game for warming upt he group and encouraging
enthusiasm and healthy competition. Beforehand cut lengths of various different colours of wool for
‘worms’. Collect sticks to tie these onto (one for each team) also one stick with one of each colour
woolly worms tied to it. Hide in a length of hedgerow / trees the woolly worms (make sure you know
beforehand how many of each you have hidden). When group arrives plit them into teams – they are
chicks of hungry bird that has the stick for their team. The chicks must collect as many woolly worms as
possible before the time runs out. Because they are only small birds they may only collect one worm at
a time and must tie it on to the stick before finding another. When time is up discuss findings as above –
which colour was easiest to find etc. Can be played so that each team needs to make one full set – just
one woolly worm of each colour. If children are too young to tie the woolly worms or if it is too cold
then you can use a strip of card with double sided tape that they stick the worms to in the order that
they find them.
Shades of the woodland
Aim: teach about shades of colour, encourage careful examination of surrounds. Clear a space on the
woodland floor, at one end, put something natural that is very dark green and on the other end
something very light green. The group then collects natural items of all different shades of green and
arranges them between the two objects. This can also be done as a take hope to keep activity by giving
each child a small piece of card with double sided tape on it which they stick very small pieces of natural
items (bee sized bites!) to in the same orders. This can be done with lots of different colours.
Bug window
Aim: familiarisation with different insects, overcoming fears, identification and examination. Securely
balance a large piece of clear Perspex on tree stumps / logs with a large enough gap underneath for a
child to easily crawl under. If the ground is very muddy lie a ground sheet on the floor first. It is useful
beforehand to create an edge all around your Perspex using card and tape. The whole group goes on a
bug hunt. Put the discovered bugs on top of the Perspex. The children then take it in turns to lie
underneath it to examine the bugs if they want to, discuss what it looks like.
Also – smelly pots, colour match, bug hunt, mini den making, elder beads, skinning sticks,
orienteering, finding textures, painting with natural materials, scavenger hunts.