10 Outdoor Educational Games to Keep Your Kids Physically and Mentally Active

1. Spelling Races: 

Randomly spread out each letter of the alphabet around your yard, or if you are in a cul-de-sac you could draw them in chalk. The letters should be big to make them easy to find, but should be spread out and in no particular order. You will call out a word, and then the kids have to race to each letter to be the first to correctly spell the word by running to the letters in the right order. However, to make it more entertaining, rather than simply running, give the kids a way in which they have to move: crab walk, one-legged hops, tornado spin jumps, walking backwards, sideways shuffles, carioca, inchworm crawls, bunny hops, skipping, etc.  

2. Math Obstacle Course: 

Label the course obstacles with numbers 1-10. The course obstacles could be anything: running around a tree, doing a cartwheel, dizzy bat spinning, crawling through a tire swing, zig-zagging in-and-out of a line of rocks, walking across a plank of wood, balancing a book on their head as they touch their toes, doing jumping jacks, etc. Once each section of the course is established, give the children a piece of paper with 10 math problems. Each answer corresponds with how many times they must do that obstacle. For example, if the answer to question number two is 5, then they must do the second obstacle 5 times (i.e. do five cartwheels) before advancing to the next obstacle.  

3. Backyard Bananagrams: It’s the same concept of Backyard Scrabble, however, there’s a bit more running involved as kids race to collect letters from the middle when someone calls out “bananas.” You will need 144 pieces of paper (or paper plates, cardboard, pieces of posterboard, etc.), and write a letter on each one. For a breakdown of how many of each letter you’ll need, visit this blogspot; however, if you already have the game bananagrams, you can just use their tiles to save yourself the work of making bigger game pieces. The game is then played similar to regular bananagrams, except the players’ should be spaced a distance away from the pile of letters in the middle in order to make them run anytime someone calls out “Bananas!” 

4. Nature Scavenger Hunt Spelling:

Give the children a word to spell, they must find nature items whose first letter begins with a letter needed for the word. For example if the word is SOAP, they could bring a Stone, Oats (or an Orange-colored flower or water to represent the Ocean to make it simpler for younger kids), Acorn, and a Petal. 

5. War of Numbers: Two teams line up across from each other in a similar fashion to red rover, however, rather than holding hands, their feet should be spread apart and touching the feet of their teammates next to them. Players from each team take turns kicking a ball, trying to make it in between the spread legs of a player from the other team. If the ball goes through a player's legs, that player must then leave their team and join the other team, also like red rover. However, to give it a mathematical twist, before a player kicks the ball, the opposing team gives him a math problem, and each player from the team is assigned a number (or to make it simpler, they are numbered from left to right in ascending order, 1, 2, 3, etc.). The player must then kick it through the legs of the player that would be the right answer. Example: Team 2 gives a math problem like 63 divided by 9, then Team 1’s kicker for that round would try to kick the ball through the 7th player’s legs.

6. Bombs Away: True or False

Whether jumping into a pool, out of a swing, through a slip-n-slide or on a trampoline, this game is more fun with a good jump. A question is asked by the thrower, then the jumper gets ready to jump. When the thrower throws the ball, he says an answer to his own question. The jumper then must decide in air if the answer is true or false. If it is true they must catch the ball, if it is false they must try to avoid the ball.  

7. Exercise SpellingAssign an exercise to each letter of the alphabet. For example: A- Jumping Jacks, B - horizontal line jumps, C - Jump squats,  D - High Knee Running (in place), E- push ups, etc. These will likely need to be written out so kids can easily reference them. Then, choose the difficulty. When you give them a word to do an exercise to, will they do each exercise a certain amount of times (3 times? 5 times? 10 times?) or for a certain amount of time (10 seconds? 15 seconds? 30 seconds?). Once all the rules are in place, have kids take turns resting a round. The player who rests for that round is also the one who announces the word the others have to exercise to; they may try to choose long words in order to give themselves more time to rest (and to make it harder for the other participants). If the player who announced the word recognizes a player is spelling a word wrong (by doing the wrong exercise), they can call out that player and make them start spelling the word over again. 

8. Measurement Treasure Hunting

Clues are hidden across the playing field at certain markers, and then the treasure hunting team is told where their starting post is (a stick, rock, or other item which can be seen from a distance). The team is given a tape measure and a circle (paper or cardboard) which has marked 0°-360° in increments of 15° (or a protractor that is big enough to easily read). Each marker has the distance and angle of where to find the next marker, which will reveal the next set of directions. The 0/360° line on the circle should always point towards the starting post to serve as a reference for when finding the next destination. 

To add more math, you could make the kids solve math problems to find the distance and angle. Or to add more fun, each marker could also contain a letter, which after collecting all the letters from all the markers, they must unscramble to reveal the secret word to get the prize.

9. Memory Dance

All the players get in a circle and choose one who will start. That player does one dance move and then stops. The player to their right must then copy the previous person’s dance and then add one more dance move. It then moves to the next player who must do all the previous dance moves and add then add another. It continues to go around the circle until players get out by not being able to remember all the steps. 

10. (Simplified) King of Clubs: Math Version

In this game, players split into two teams and are both given a base at opposite ends of the playing field; the shape and obstacles of the field do not matter, so long as there is enough space for running. You will need cards with math problems on them, with the answers ranging from 1-12. The winner of the game is whoever has the most points (based on the answers to the math problems) at the end of the game. Each team starts with 3 more cards than there are players on their team, and the two teams should start with cards that equal the answers of the other team (so that both teams start with equal points). Each player than chooses a card from their teams deck. Every player must always carry only one card.  After each team has their cards, the other cards are spread out randomly throughout the playing field face down. Once the game starts, players try to win cards which they can do one of two ways: get a card from another player or pick up the random cards off the ground. This is how to do so: 

To get a card from another player, a player from one team can tag a player from another team, and the player with the higher card gets to keep the opposing players card (it does not matter who tagged who, only who has the higher card). The player who won the card puts it back on the team's deck at their base and then continues to play; the player who lost their card must go take a new card from their team’s deck and continue playing

In order to pick up the cards on the ground, the player's card must be lower than the card on the ground. If it is lower, then the player can pick it up and take it back to his team’s deck. Thus a team’s strategy may be to have a set of taggers who carry higher cards to try to tag the other team and a set of seekers who carry lower cards so that they can pick up the cards on the ground. The team who has more total points at the end of 5 minutes is the winner. 

If a team’s deck runs too low and the team has less cards than players, those players without cards must wait until other players on their team win cards. The out players can then rejoin the game. If a team loses all of its cards before the five minutes is up, then the other team wins.

Bonus 11.) Yarn MazeYarn is strung in a maze all throughout a yard, and at the end is a prize. However, in order for the players to get to the prize, they must follow the right yarn. Every 20 ft (or less depending on your environment) a question is attached to the yarn before the yarn splits off into two separate directions. Each direction has an answer to the question. If they choose the correct answer, the yarn will lead them to the next question, but if they follow the yarn that had the wrong answer attached, then it will lead them to a dead end. Can your players reach the prize?