A great way to find nature‘s treasures and encourage participants to use all their senses to accomplish tasks while bringing them into closer contact with nature.
Goal of the exercise
Learning by using several senses; raising awareness of the natural environment; facilitating inspiration and creativity; promoting language skills
Participants
Number of participants:
2 to 30 persons
Target group:
children, young people, adults
Age of participants:
Aged 3 or above
Duration of the method
15 to 60 minutes, depending on the number of participants and the number of cards handed out.
Materials / Location
Game cards (5 to 10 per participant)
Containers (one for each participant)
(Optional) mobile phones with a camera or paper for note-taking
A green space (garden, park, forest)
Preparation
Print and cut out the game cards. Use the templates available here or create your own cards.
Step by step
Explain the rules of the game. Within a designated area, each participant has to find something that has the characteristic mentioned on the game cards he will receive, collect it, take a photograph of it or memorise it to describe it later to the group. The first participant to finish the task will be the winner. Alternatively, the participant with the most findings will win.
Shuffle the cards and deal 5 to 10 of them to each participant, who will also be handed a container.
Set a time frame for the task and ask participants to collect their findings by exploring the game area.
Once the allocated time has passed, participants gather and show (or describe) their findings to the group.
Alternative use
Use the game cards for a storytelling game, where each participant is asked to invent a story inspired by the game cards received.
Feedback
Translate the labels of the cards into other languages.
Experiences
The game raises awareness of the natural environment by letting participants explore it and discuss their findings with each other.