Keep the kids busy on your next walk with these fun counting games.

They’re from the authors of new book A Year of Nature Walks and Games, Becky Goddard-Hill and Catherine Hughes. The book is designed to make walks and outdoor play fun and exciting, with a nature-themed activity for every week of the year.

There are outdoor games, science experiments, scavenger hunts, nature challenges and walking games, all with lively pictures and clear instructions.

A Year of Nature Walks and Games is out now, and as part of the launch we’re joining in with a blogging book tour and sharing these brilliant walking games. They each have a counting theme, so they’re great for practising maths skills (and fun too!).

You can read more about their previous book A Year of Nature Craft and Play here.

Table of Contents

Count your steps

Challenge kids to count their steps during a walk. How long can they manage to keep track?

They don’t have to count on the whole walk; for example, they can count on your street, or between two specific landmarks.

You can use a step counter on a smartphone to see how accurate they are!

Measure your walk

Once kids have got the hang of counting their steps, you can challenge them to add in a bit more maths and measure the length of their walk. To do this, they need to work out the length of one of their steps.

Mark a spot on the floor.
Stand with your heels on that spot.
Take a normal step with one foot, and keep it there.
Mark another spot on the floor, where the heel of your front foot is.
Measure the distance between the two spots. You now have the length of one step.

To measure your walk, count your steps, then multiply the number of steps by the length of one step. This will give you the total distance you walked.

Again, you can use a smartphone to record the length of your walk, and compare the two measurements. You can also have a guess at the length of your walk before you start, then see how close you were.

Group counting

Agree the number you are going to count up to. For younger children, 10 is probably high enough, but you can make the number higher for older children.
The first player says ‘1’, then players take turns to say the next number, until the agreed number is reached. The turns must be random.
If two or more players say the same number at the same time, everyone has to start at ‘1’ again.