Outdoor Play Ideas

Cat and Mouse

  • Players stand in a circle. Have one child, the cat, stand inside the circle. Another child, the mouse, stands outside the circle.
  • When Mouse yells, “Go,” Cat tries to tag Mouse. Players in the circle try to keep Cat inside. Mouse can run all around the circle but must stay outside it.
  • When Cat has tagged Mouse (or if Cat is unable to tag Mouse after a predetermined length of time), Cat becomes the new Mouse. A new child becomes Cat.

Duck, Duck, Goose

  • All of the children except one sit in a circle facing each other. The remaining person goes around the circle, tapping each child gently on the head and saying “duck.”
  • When the tapper says “goose,” the child whose head was just touched jumps up and chases the tapper around the circle.
  • The tapper tries to get back to the goose's spot without getting tagged by the goose. If the tapper succeeds, the goose becomes the new tapper and the game continues. If the goose catches the tapper, the tapper starts the game again.

Fox and Rabbit

  • Create a Fox team and a Rabbit team. Have each team stand on one side of an obstacle, either natural or created, about 20 feet apart.
  • One Fox and one Rabbit move into the center. Rabbit starts the game by yelling, “Catch me!” and running around the obstacle.
  • Fox tries to tag Rabbit as both teams count to ten loudly, in unison. If Fox tags Rabbit before the teams reach ten, both Rabbit and Fox join the Fox team. If Rabbit is not tagged, both Rabbit and Fox return to their teams.
  • Repeat with two new players. The largest team at the end wins.

Variation: Play just for fun—without team competition.