• 30 games
  • Checked October 2026

Games to Play in the Woods

Games that need trees: trunks to hide behind, a grove to claim and a forest floor to search.

Games to Play in the Woods

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  1. Falling Sticks Circle1. A catching game with found walking sticks. Everyone finds a straight fallen stick about chest high and stands in a circle on flat ground, an arm's length apart, holding the stick upright with one finger on its top.2. The caller says "left" or "right".3. Everyone lets go, steps one place that way and catches the neighbor's stick before it falls.4. Count the calls the circle gets through with no stick on the ground. Then widen the circle by half a step and try to beat that count.Boundary: the circle stands on the path or in a clearing beside it. Ages: 13 and up. Players: 5 to 20. You need: nothing but a fallen stick each.
  2. Owl Call: Follow the Hoots to the Hiders1. Hide-and-seek by ear. Two seekers shut their eyes at the base tree and count to forty while the others hide in pairs.2. The seekers hoot like an owl, and every hiding pair has to hoot back once, right away.3. The seekers walk toward the answers. They may hoot again as often as they like, but they must stand still to do it.4. A pair that is found walks along with the seekers and hoots with them. The last pair found seeks next.Boundary: hiders stay inside the walked edge and never split from their partner. Ages: 7 and up. Players: 6 to 24. You need: nothing.
  3. Blaze a Trail, Swap and Follow1. A trail race for two teams. Each team gets ten strips of bright cloth and a small tin.2. In ten minutes, each team walks into its own half, ties a strip to a low twig every thirty steps or so, and hides the tin within sight of the last strip.3. Both teams come back to the start and swap halves.4. Each team follows the other's strips, finds the tin and brings back the tin and all ten strips. The first team home with everything wins.Boundary: a path splits the area into the two halves, and each team moves as one group. Ages: 8 and up. Players: 6 to 24. You need: twenty cloth strips in two colors and two tins.

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Hiding and stalking games 6

  • Ambush Alley: Walk Past and Count the Hiders 1. A hiding game along one stretch of path. Mark a start and an end about sixty paces apart. Half the group hides within five paces of the path while the other half looks away. 2. The walkers go down the path once, together, at a slow walk, without stopping or stepping off it. 3. Each walker counts the hiders they see and keeps the number to themselves. 4. At the end the walkers say their numbers, and then the hiders stand up where they are. The walker with the right count wins, and the halves swap. Boundary: hiders go in pairs and stay within five paces of the path. Ages: 6 and up. Players: 8 to 30. You need: nothing.
  • Owl Call: Follow the Hoots to the Hiders 1. Hide-and-seek by ear. Two seekers shut their eyes at the base tree and count to forty while the others hide in pairs. 2. The seekers hoot like an owl, and every hiding pair has to hoot back once, right away. 3. The seekers walk toward the answers. They may hoot again as often as they like, but they must stand still to do it. 4. A pair that is found walks along with the seekers and hoots with them. The last pair found seeks next. Boundary: hiders stay inside the walked edge and never split from their partner. Ages: 7 and up. Players: 6 to 24. You need: nothing.
  • Quietest Way Across: Leaves, Moss or Bare Earth 1. A stalking game about reading the ground. Mark a start and a finish ten paces apart across a patch that has dry leaves, twigs, moss and bare earth in it. 2. The listeners stand at the finish with their backs turned. Each walker in turn studies the ground and picks a route and a way of stepping. 3. The walker crosses. Every time a listener hears a footfall, that listener says "heard". 4. Count the calls. The walker with the fewest shows the others the route and the step that worked, and everyone tries it. Boundary: the whole game stays in one clearing, in sight of the leader. Ages: 6 and up. Players: 4 to 15. You need: nothing.
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Hiding and stalking games, continued

  • Slip Past the Sentry's Beat 1. A sneaking game. Pick two trees fifteen paces apart. The sentry walks from one to the other and back, touching each trunk before turning. 2. Everyone else starts behind cover on one side of that line and tries to cross it while the sentry's back is turned. 3. A crosser the sentry sees moving, and calls by name, goes back to the side they came from. Standing still behind a trunk is safe. 4. Each clean crossing scores a point. After five minutes the highest score is the next sentry. Boundary: play stays within twenty paces of the sentry's line on both sides. Ages: 7 and up. Players: 4 to 16. You need: nothing.
  • Trail of Stick Arrows: Hare and Hounds 1. A tracking game. The hares, a third of the group, set off together while the hounds wait at the base tree and count slowly to one hundred. 2. Every twenty steps the hares lay an arrow of three fallen sticks on the ground, pointing the way they went. 3. Twice, the hares may lay a false arrow that ends a few steps on in a cross of two sticks. 4. The hares stop inside the edge and hide together. The hounds follow the arrows as one pack and try to find them before the leader blows the whistle. Boundary: the hares stay together, the hounds stay together, and both packs pick up the arrows on the walk back. Ages: 8 and up. Players: 6 to 24. You need: nothing but fallen sticks.
  • Trunk to Trunk: Reach the Watcher's Tree 1. A stalking game through standing trees. The watcher faces a base tree, and everyone else starts at a line thirty paces behind it. 2. The watcher counts aloud to ten with eyes on the bark while the stalkers move up. On ten the watcher turns around. 3. Anyone the watcher can see and name, even by an elbow, walks back to the line. A stalker who is fully behind a trunk is safe. 4. The watcher turns back and counts again. The first stalker to touch the base tree is the next watcher. Boundary: the start line is the back edge, and the group marks one tree on each side that nobody goes wider than. Ages: 7 and up. Players: 4 to 20. You need: nothing.

Team games across a patch of woods 6

  • Blaze a Trail, Swap and Follow 1. A trail race for two teams. Each team gets ten strips of bright cloth and a small tin. 2. In ten minutes, each team walks into its own half, ties a strip to a low twig every thirty steps or so, and hides the tin within sight of the last strip. 3. Both teams come back to the start and swap halves. 4. Each team follows the other's strips, finds the tin and brings back the tin and all ten strips. The first team home with everything wins. Boundary: a path splits the area into the two halves, and each team moves as one group. Ages: 8 and up. Players: 6 to 24. You need: twenty cloth strips in two colors and two tins.
  • Build a Den the Whole Team Fits Under 1. A building contest. Each team picks a spot with a low branch, a fallen trunk or two close trees to lean sticks against. 2. Teams use only wood that is already on the ground. Nothing is broken off or pulled up. 3. In twenty minutes, each team builds a lean-to that every member can sit under at once. 4. The leader visits each den, counts the heads inside and looks for daylight through the roof. The den with everyone in and the fewest gaps wins. Take the dens down before leaving. Boundary: wood is gathered in pairs inside the edge, and each den is in sight of the next. Ages: 7 and up. Players: 6 to 30. You need: nothing but fallen wood.
  • Claim the Grove: A Bow Around Every Trunk 1. A capture game with trees in place of flags. Give each team twenty arm-length pieces of yarn in its own color. 2. On the whistle, pairs run to any tree inside the edge and tie one piece around the trunk in a bow, at chest height. A tree with a bow is claimed. 3. A pair that finds the other team's bow may pull it loose, pocket it and tie their own in its place. 4. On the second whistle, count the bows of each color. The team with more trees wins, and then both teams collect every piece of yarn. Boundary: only trees inside the walked edge count, and the two who tie a bow stay together. Ages: 8 and up. Players: 8 to 40. You need: yarn in two colors, cut into arm-length pieces.
  • Number Stalk: Read the Card on Their Hat 1. A stalking game for two teams. Every player wears a card with a three-digit number on the front of a hat or a headband. 2. The teams start at opposite ends of the area and move toward each other, using the trunks as cover. 3. A player who reads an opponent's number shouts it. If it is right, that opponent walks to the leader in the middle, swaps the card for a new number and starts again from their own end. 4. The leader keeps a tally of the numbers read. After fifteen minutes the team with more reads wins. Nobody may cover a card with a hand. Boundary: players stalk in pairs, and the leader stays at a marked tree in the middle where everyone can find them. Ages: 9 and up. Players: 8 to 40. You need: hats or headbands, number cards and a pencil.
  • Stick Line From Tree to Tree 1. A gathering race. Each team is given two trees about twenty paces apart. 2. On go, the team collects fallen sticks and lays them end to end on the ground, from the foot of one tree toward the other. 3. Every stick must touch the one before it, and none may be longer than an arm. 4. The first team whose line reaches the second tree with no gap wins. The leader walks each line to check it. Boundary: teams gather in pairs and stay inside the edge, and a stick from outside it does not count. Ages: 5 and up. Players: 6 to 30. You need: nothing but fallen sticks.
  • Sweep Line: Find the Ten Dropped Clothespins 1. A search game for two teams. While one team looks away, the other walks through a marked patch about thirty paces square and drops ten bright clothespins on the ground, none of them covered. 2. The searchers line up along one side, an arm's length apart. 3. They cross the patch in step, keeping the line straight, and pick up every clothespin they pass. They get one crossing. 4. Count the clothespins found, then swap. The team that finds more wins, and a tie goes to the straighter line. Boundary: the patch is marked at its four corners, and nobody searches outside the line. Ages: 6 and up. Players: 6 to 30. You need: ten bright clothespins and four corner markers.

Games with sticks, cones and leaves 6

  • Arms Around the Biggest Trunk 1. An estimating game. The group agrees on the thickest tree in sight. 2. Before anyone touches it, each player says how many people it will take to ring the trunk, fingertip to fingertip. 3. Players join the ring one at a time, arms stretched, until the fingertips meet. 4. The closest guess picks the next tree. For a second round, pick two trees and guess which one takes more arms. Boundary: the trees are picked from the path, and the whole group walks to each one together. Ages: 4 and up. Players: 3 to 20. You need: nothing.
  • Bring Me Something Older Than You 1. A bring-me hunt with riddles in place of a list. Teams stand at the base tree, and each chooses a runner. 2. The leader calls for something only the woods can give: something older than you, something that fell this year, something a bird could use, something rougher than bark. 3. Each runner brings back one fallen thing and says why it fits. 4. The leader gives a point for every answer with a good reason, and two for an answer no other team thought of. Change runners after every call. Boundary: a runner goes out with one teammate, and both stay within sight of the base tree. Ages: 5 and up. Players: 4 to 24. You need: nothing.
  • Ground Portraits in a Stick Frame 1. A making and guessing game. Each pair lays four sticks on the ground as a picture frame. 2. Inside it, the pair makes a face or an animal from fallen things: cones, bark, seed cases, leaves. 3. When the leader calls time, everyone walks the gallery, and each pair says what the other pictures show before the makers tell. 4. A picture scores a point for every pair that guessed it. Scatter the pictures before leaving. Boundary: all the frames lie along one stretch of path, and pairs gather within sight of their own frame. Ages: 4 and up. Players: 2 to 24. You need: nothing but what is on the ground.
  • Odd One Out on the Log 1. A guessing game with things from the ground. One player lays five finds in a row on a log: four that share something and one that does not. 2. The others study the row and say which is the odd one out, and why. 3. Any true reason scores a point, so a row can have more than one answer: the only one that is not brown, the only one that did not fall from a tree. 4. The player whose reason matches the maker's lays the next row. Boundary: finds come from within ten paces of the log, and only things that have already fallen. Ages: 5 and up. Players: 2 to 12. You need: nothing but what is on the ground.
  • Story Stick: Retell the Walk 1. A memory game for the way back. At the start of a walk, each player picks up a stick as long as a forearm and gets five rubber bands. 2. Along the way, each player slips five small fallen things under the bands in the order they were found: a feather, a strip of bark, a seed case. 3. At the turnaround, partners swap sticks. 4. On the way back, each player tells the partner's walk from the stick, top to bottom, guessing where each find came from. The owner says how close the story was. Boundary: finds come from beside the path, and partners walk together. Ages: 5 and up. Players: 2 to 20. You need: five rubber bands each.
  • Stump Rings: Guess, Then Count 1. A counting game at a sawn stump or the cut end of a log. Everyone looks at the cut for a few seconds from two steps back. 2. Each player says how many rings they think it shows. 3. One player counts from the middle out, pointing with a twig, and a second player counts again to check. 4. The closest guess picks the next stump. If the two counters disagree, both counts stand, and the guess nearest to either one wins. Boundary: stumps are chosen from the path, and the group goes to each one together. Ages: 6 and up. Players: 2 to 12. You need: nothing.

Environmental education games for the forest 6

  • Find Your Tree Again by Touch 1. A touch game for partners, played in many outdoor classes. One partner puts on a blindfold, and the other leads them by the arm, at a walk and by a winding route, to a tree twenty or thirty steps away. 2. The blindfolded partner gets to know the tree with their hands: how wide it is, the bark, a knot, a root, the lowest branch. 3. The guide leads them back by another route and takes off the blindfold. 4. Now the partner tries to find the tree with eyes open. Then swap. Boundary: guides say every root and low branch aloud and stay within sight of the leader. An adult walks beside every pair of children, and with children under eight an adult is the guide. Ages: 6 and up. Players: 2 to 30. You need: a blindfold for every pair.
  • Four Sticks, One Square: Count the Kinds 1. A counting game. Each team lays four sticks on the ground as a square about one step across, wherever it likes. 2. For five minutes the team counts how many different kinds of thing lie inside: each shape of leaf, each kind of seed, each small animal that walks through. Look closely, and lift nothing but dead leaves. 3. Teams report their counts and show their best find where it lies. 4. Then every team lays a second square somewhere that looks different, such as under a pine or beside a rotting log, and guesses first whether the count will go up or down. Boundary: squares are within sight of the leader, and the leaves go back as they were. Ages: 6 and up. Players: 2 to 30. You need: nothing but four sticks a team.
  • Layers Under Your Feet: Guess, Then Part the Leaves 1. A digging game with no digging tool. Each pair picks a spot of forest floor under trees and guesses how many layers lie between the top leaf and the soil. 2. With a stick, the pair parts the litter a layer at a time: whole leaves, broken leaves, crumbs, whatever comes next. 3. Lay a sample of each layer on a piece of bark, in order, and count them. 4. Pairs visit each other and compare the rows. The closest guess wins. Then put every layer back the way it was found. Boundary: all the spots are within ten paces of the leader, and nothing living is lifted out. Ages: 6 and up. Players: 2 to 30. You need: nothing but a stick and a piece of bark.
  • Micro-Hike Along a String 1. A looking game at ground level. Each pair lays an arm's length of string across an interesting bit of forest floor: over a root, through moss, past a fallen cone. 2. One partner travels the string with their nose a hand above the ground, a little at a time, as if they were the size of an ant. 3. The traveler picks five landmarks along the way and gives each one a name, such as Cone Mountain. 4. Then the traveler takes the partner along the same trail as a tour guide, landmark by landmark. Nothing on the trail is moved. Boundary: all the strings lie within ten paces of the leader. Ages: 5 and up. Players: 2 to 30. You need: a piece of string for every pair, and a magnifier if there is one.
  • Sit Spot: What Did Only You Notice? 1. A quiet game. Each player picks a place to sit a few steps off the path, facing any way they like. 2. For five minutes nobody talks or moves. Watch and listen. 3. On the call of the leader, everyone comes back to the path. 4. Going around the circle, each player names one thing they noticed. A thing someone else also noticed scores nothing, and a thing nobody else caught scores a point. Boundary: every seat is in sight of the leader, and buddies sit within sight of each other. Ages: 7 and up. Players: 2 to 30. You need: nothing.
  • Ten Things That Do Not Belong on the Trail 1. A spotting game that outdoor teachers know by several names. Before the group arrives, the leader sets ten things from home along forty paces of path, each within two steps of it: a wooden spoon, a green sock, a clothespin on a twig. Some stand out, and some blend in. 2. Players walk the stretch one at a time, a few steps apart, without talking or pointing. 3. At the end, each whispers a count to the leader, who says only how many there are. 4. Everyone may walk it once more. Then the group walks it together, points each one out and says why the hard ones were hard. Boundary: walkers stay on the path, in sight of the leader at the far end. Ages: 5 and up. Players: 4 to 30. You need: ten things from home.

For adults and teens, with nothing to bring 6

  • Falling Sticks Circle 1. A catching game with found walking sticks. Everyone finds a straight fallen stick about chest high and stands in a circle on flat ground, an arm's length apart, holding the stick upright with one finger on its top. 2. The caller says "left" or "right". 3. Everyone lets go, steps one place that way and catches the neighbor's stick before it falls. 4. Count the calls the circle gets through with no stick on the ground. Then widen the circle by half a step and try to beat that count. Boundary: the circle stands on the path or in a clearing beside it. Ages: 13 and up. Players: 5 to 20. You need: nothing but a fallen stick each.
  • Lead Us Back: One Junction Each 1. A way-finding game for the return leg of an out-and-back walk. On the way out, the group stops at every junction and looks back at how it will appear on the return. 2. On the way back, a different player leads the group to each junction and chooses the way with no help. 3. The others follow in silence for twenty steps and then vote, thumbs up or thumbs down. 4. The person who planned the walk and knows the route says who was right. A right call scores for the player who led, and a wrong call scores for everyone who voted against it. Boundary: the group stays together on marked paths, and the person who knows the route has the last word at every junction. Ages: 13 and up. Players: 3 to 12. You need: nothing.
  • One Trunk Hides Us All 1. A hiding game for a whole group and one wide tree. Everyone but the walker lines up behind the trunk, one behind the other. 2. The walker starts fifteen paces away and walks one full circle around the tree at a steady pace, never coming closer. 3. The line shuffles around the trunk to keep it between themselves and the walker, without a word. 4. The walker scores a point for each person they can name on the way around. Everyone takes a turn as the walker, and the lowest score is the round to beat. Boundary: the walker's circle is the edge, and nobody steps outside it. Ages: 13 and up. Players: 4 to 12. You need: nothing.
  • Sun Patches Only 1. A crossing game for a bright day under a broken canopy. Pick a start tree and a finish tree about twenty paces apart. 2. Each player crosses in turn, stepping only where sunlight falls on the ground. 3. A foot in the shade sends the player back to the last patch where they stood on both feet. The third such step ends the turn. 4. Mark the farthest point each player reached with a stick. If a cloud covers the sun, everybody freezes until the patches come back. The player who gets farthest across wins. Boundary: the crossing runs beside the path, in view of the whole group. Ages: 13 and up. Players: 2 to 12. You need: nothing.
  • Trade Trees 1. A swapping game with a tree for every player but one. Each player puts a hand on a trunk of their own, and the spare player stands in the middle. 2. The tree holders catch each other's eye and swap trees whenever they dare. 3. The player in the middle tries to reach a trunk while it is free, and whoever is left without a tree goes to the middle. 4. When the middle player calls "all change", everyone has to leave their tree for a new one. Boundary: the group picks its trees first, all within fifteen paces of the middle, and no other tree counts. Ages: 13 and up. Players: 5 to 15. You need: nothing.
  • Which Tree Am I Looking At? 1. Twenty questions with real trees. The group stops where at least a dozen trunks are in view, and one player silently picks one of them. 2. The others ask questions that can be answered yes or no: is it left of the path, is it forked, could I reach it in twenty steps. 3. Nobody may point. 4. A player who thinks they know walks over and puts a hand on a trunk. A right touch wins the next turn as picker, and a wrong one costs the group two of its ten questions. The picker wins if the questions run out. Boundary: only trees within thirty paces count, so nobody walks out of sight. Ages: 13 and up. Players: 3 to 12. You need: nothing.

How this list was compiled: Our own list for a group among trees: a family, a class, a scout or youth group, or adults on a walk. The wording, the ages and the player counts are ours, and each line that begins Boundary is our suggestion, not an official rule, so follow the rules of the wood you are in first. Several of the forest-school games are played in many outdoor classes and are told here one way. Nothing is picked from a living plant, and nobody climbs. The list states no fact that needs an outside source. Licence: own work

How it works

Every one of these games to play in the woods ends with a Boundary line: where its edge is and, in most hiding and team games, who stays together.

Read the full guide

Before the first game

Walk the edge of the play area with the whole group and name its sides: a path, a stream bank, a row of marked trees. Give everyone a buddy. Agree on one recall signal, such as three whistle blasts, and count heads each time it sounds. Take only what has already fallen.

Environmental education games to play in the forest

Environmental education games for the forest has six for a class or a scout group, among them Find Your Tree Again by Touch, Micro-Hike Along a String and Four Sticks, One Square. They teach by close looking, and the science lesson is yours to add.

Questions and answers

What are fun games to play in the woods?

Start with Ambush Alley: half the group hides beside a path, and the rest walk past and count them. Claim the Grove turns trees into flags, and Arms Around the Biggest Trunk suits the youngest.

What are games to play in the forest with a large group?

Number Stalk and Claim the Grove take up to forty players in two teams, and Sweep Line, Stick Line From Tree to Tree and the den contest take thirty. For capture the flag, the rules are on outdoor youth group games.

What are games to play in the woods for adults with nothing?

For adults and teens, with nothing to bring has six, such as Which Tree Am I Looking At?, One Trunk Hides Us All and Trade Trees. Across the list, 14 games need nothing at all and 8 use only fallen sticks or finds.

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