Teaching games, activities, outdoor lessons and more!

Read this article by Leslie Heliwell about the new game pages - rise to the challenge and contribute your favorite games!

Here is the format we would like them in, to make them all consistent and easier to browse:

• Name of Game
• Origin of Game (individual or site)
• Purpose of Game (icebreaker, teambuilding, teaching game, "sponge" activity, etc.)
• Number of Participants Needed
• Number of Staff Needed
• Equipment Needed
• How to Play
• Possible Variations
• Commentary (the stuff that you might feel the need to add)
  

Here are a few from our archives (not reformatted yet):

Play (pdf - 168K)- article from the Winter 2004-05 Southern AEOE Newsletter by Paul Grafton with several games: "Skunk and Spray," "Acorn and Squirrel," "Survive the Predators," and "Tree Tag."

Juncos and Jays - great game, described here by the King of fun and games, Paul Grafton

Water Cycle Game, described by Tom Wright

Activities using snow, described by Maggie Wolfe

Metamorphosis Game, from Paul Grafton's 2006 Spring Conference Workshop on the Ecology of California Butterflies

See Spring Conference Proceedings pages for more games from conference workshops!

Resources for Games

Rationale for using games and other forms of play

Institute for Play - a great site with information on the importance of play, playing to learn, playing at work, links to a PBS series, "The Promise of Play" and more!

Play Links from The Association for the Study of Play

Teaching Games:

Sharing Nature with Children, Sharing the Joy of Nature - Joseph Cornell, Sharing Nature Foundation and Dawn Publications

Acclimatizing, Acclimatization - Steve van Matre, Institute for Earth Education

Project Learning Tree, Project WILD, Project WET

Initiative Games:

Cowtails and Cobras, Silver Bullets, and other books from Project Adventure. Many great initiatives online, and many useful publications as well. You must sign up to view the information, but it is free. Click on the Circle Up logo on the homepage and sign up for great ideas and games!

FUNdoing Activities

Index to Group Experiential Activities, Games, Exercises & Initiatives From Wilderdom's great website: Outdoor Education Research & Evaluation Center

Initiative Tasks and Leadership Training A new book of initiatives, with many activities online.

Learning Unlimited Game of the Week

They redesigned their site and I can no longer find this link: OutdoorEd.com's links to experiential games and intitiatives

When Bambi Meets Godzilla: Bringing Environmental Education and Outdoor Recreation Together abstract of article from the Proceedings of the 1995 International Conference on Outdoor Recreation and Education. ERIC Database - complete article may be ordered.

Just for Fun:

DeepFun.com has a great list of Pointless Games!