20 Ideas for 20 Minutes of Outdoor Play for Kids

I’m an advocate for getting kids outdoors to play. As such, I’m always on the lookout for tips and ideas to make this easier and fun. So I loved hearing about the new movement from Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) called Generation Wild! They’ve also come up with 20 ideas for 20 minutes of outdoor play for kids that are terrific, as part of their “Just 20 Minutes Outside” campaign.

After concluding a COVID-19 pandemic year of disrupted social activities with other kids, and extended periods of stay-at-home, infusing some daily outdoor play in your child’s routine is needed now more than ever. Does just 20 minutes really make a difference? Absolutely!

Benefits of Kids Being Outdoors

There are so many benefits for kids being outdoors.

• Decreases their stress, anxiety, and negative thinking
• Improves focus in children with attention deficits
• Boosts mood and self-esteem
• Reduces agreession
• Reduces depression and feelings of isolation
• Lessens the impact of negative events

With that in mind, here are some easy and fun ideas for 20 minutes of outdoor play each day!

20 Ideas for 20 Minutes of Outdoor Play

Research shows just 20 minutes of playing outside does reduce your kids’ stress levels and improves their overal feelings of well-being.

I can definitely see the affect on my son, when I force him to put down this screen and go in the backyard for awhile. We will be trying some of these fun ideas!

1. Host a mud party – Try mud painting, pies, and toe squishing.

2. Add water and chill – Fish for marbles in a kiddie pool with your toes, or have a frozen T-shirt challenge.

3. Camp in your backyard – We’ve set up backyard camping before, and it is alot of fun!

4. Go on a color scavenger hunt – This is one of my favorite things to do in nature with kids! I’ve talked about color scavenger / kids nature hunts before, and featured both a quick and easy version along with 30+ cool printable scavenger hunts you can use.

5. Make sun prints – arrange leaves, sticks, and rocks on colored construction paper and leave in the sun to fade into a printed design.

6. Make nature fossils – press interesting leaves and sticks into clay.

7. Set up a toy carwash – line up those dirty toy trucks and cars!

8. Play flashlight tag

9. Turn lunch into a picnic

10. Create a bike obstacle course – Use chalk to draw a curvy track.

11. Make a sundial

12. Grow veggies from scraps

13. Go on a safari – Hide toy animals outside in your yard to find.

14. Make leaf faces – Paint or marker on cool shaped leaves.

15. Paint with water on your sidewalk – I’ve seen cast members do this at Disney World, and it’s so cool!

16. “Collect” some bugs – Use a camera and capture a bug collection

17. Make a roly-poly habitat

18. Feed your bird curiousity – Bird feeders can bring in quite the airshow. Keep a list, draw what birds  you see.

19. Take a micro hike – Small yard? No worries! Rope off a 3′ x 3′ area in the grass with some string, and let your fingers go on a mini exploration hike with a maginifying glass.

20. Make tree rubbings – Hold a sheet of paper against some bark and rub with colored pencils or crayons.

For more details and a fun graphic, download this list from Generation Wild’s 20 Ideas for 20 Minutes Outside.

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These ideas were sent to me from Great Outdoors Colorado www.GOCO.org, and I enjoyed them so much I wanted to pass them along!