7 Outdoor Writing Activities Kids Will Love

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Going outdoors can encourage a child’s creativity with exploration and discovery. When my kids were younger, I would take my work outside to let them play, but as most children do, they wanted to know everything mom was doing. When I said I was writing stories, they wanted to do the same. So, I would stop and write a short story of their creation for them. Now they are old enough to write their own stories.

Benefits of Writing Outdoors

When one heads outdoors, you not only get fresh air but nature has a way of calming the soul, relaxing the mind and rejuvenating the spirit. Many use nature as inspiration for many interests and activities. Nature allows you to let your creativity flow, by allowing you to free your mind from the stress of the every day. You may not think children are stressed, but they do have concerns and worries just like anyone else.

Ways to Make Outdoor Writing Fun

Writing can be a fun activity, no matter what type of writing you are doing. Whether poems, novels, essays or more, there are ways to creatively have fun while writing. Check out some below!

Use a Different Medium

Writing is a creative outlet and to get even more creative, let’s drop the diary gray graphite pencils and black pens for a more creative and fun medium. This could be colored pencils or pens, highlighters for notes, or even fine tipped markers.

If you are writing for fun and want to experiment with other mediums like chalk or pastels, go for it. The choice of medium depends on you. Have fun and try something new!

Create Images

Use even more mediums to create images to go along with the stories. Crayons, pastels, watercolors, chalk, etc are great options to add that visual aspect to your writing. Who says you can add a little visual tidbits to your writing?

Ok, if it’s for school and you have specific guidelines, then yes they probably say you can’t add visuals. If you’re working on your own though, you have free reign to be as creative as you wish.

Use Nature

Nature can be very wondrous, motivating and a relaxing source of inspiration for writing activities as well as others. Use it to inspire or even create visuals with as you go. There are sights, sounds, textures, and more all around you. Use what you need.

Activities

Everyone loves being outdoors during warm summer days and sometimes writing is the last thing on your mind when you think of the outdoors. Though, to keep those skills fresh and ready to go the next time you need them, here are some writing activities that you can do anywhere including in a natural setting!

Group Stories

A cooperative activity with as many people as you want. This could get really interesting with so many personalities involved. Work together to come up with a silly story as each person writes one sentence before passing it to the next person. Do one or a few rounds to see where the story takes you. It’s a group journey that can be hilarious with funny antics and phrases. Think ad libs with sentences.

Nature Comic

We are in a natural setting in the outdoors, so why not use that to our advantage and create something cool. Once you’ve created the story or even before if you wish, gather some items you find around you. Things like leaves, sticks, pebbles, pine cones, etc. Then put them together to create images for your story in a comic like image stream. Let’s see what you come up with!

Journal

This may seem like a common one, but it’s easy to carry and use at any time so it seems appropriate. Use nature as inspiration for your writing and jot down ideas you find from nature. Textures, smells, sounds, plants, insects, birds, animals, etc. can all be used in your writing. Keep that journal around so you can keep notes from other places as well.

Use it for notes or your actual writing, it’s completely up to you. It’s yours, make it great and personalize it to fit you!

Story Stones

A great game for any age from Imagine Forest! They have all sorts of writing resources and more for kids! This game though, can be use at any age I believe. Collect stones, paint and decorate them with words or images. Once complete (and dry) hide them in a specified area. Then have kids find as many as they can. They write stories using only (or including) the words they’ve found. I would suggest having a list of freebie words, such as: and, the, and other basic words) to keep the writing flowing and not have a situation where one has few words to use.

Deep Description Guess

This one is great for a classroom activity, especially now that more and more families are going to homeschooling. Have the children choose one item within the area. They are then tasked to write down everything they can on the object. Every curve, scratch, color, texture, smell, etc. Once done, have them exchange with another. It is then their task to read and guess what the item is.

Free Writing

Free writing can be a way to get things out of your brain before working on a project that may be distracting. It can be a way to get the ideas for a new project down on paper so you don’t forget. Or it can just be a way to relax and let your imagination take flight. This is where they write about whatever they want for a specified time period. It can be done anywhere, as well as within a nature setting. It could subconsciously help children get their words down when surrounded by the calm of nature.

Word Games

Our family likes to play a game our son thought of when he was younger. It’s call I’m Thinking Of. One person starts and they think of an object. They give two clues and then we start to guess what the object is. You can absolutely write this on paper and show how well others did with your descriptions. It’s a great way to think strategically to keep others guessing. Also great for road trips, picnics, and more!

Final Thoughts

Writing is something we use daily and although some may find that it’s not interesting enough to take with them around. I can say, it’s a way to keep kids occupied, even in the car or to keep them interested in something you’re trying to point out. There are many ways to get your kids imaginations rolling with writing activities. Try one or two and see how your kids like them!