Forest Sensory Walk For All Ages

The forest. A wonderful sensory experience. Our environment is full of things to hear, see, smell, taste, and touch. Plan to take a walk in the forest and use your senses to explore.

As humans, we evolved to use our senses to survive and process information. Now we can use our senses to explore, disconnect from technology, and connect with the natural world.

This article explores a variety of sensory activities to do in the woods. It doesn’t matter how old you are! Each activity helps to bring you closer to your natural surroundings. Let me know what you tried in the comments below!

Sound

Ok - in the world of mammals our ears may seem a bit boring. I always loved to watch deers move their ears to focus on a sound just before they bolt away. Deer have rounded ears that seem to scoop up the sound.

Typically wild animals hear much better than humans. A fox can hear a mouse under several feet of snow!

Find a spot in the forest where you can sit and listen. Start by listening with your human ears. Then use some of the tricks below to magnify your hearing.

Listen!

To replicate a mammal’s ears and bring more sounds into your ears do one of these nifty tricks. Close your eyes when you do these and really focus on hearing.

1. Cup your hands behind your ears and push your outer ear slightly forward.

2. Roll a piece of construction paper into a cone shape. Tape it together so it doesn’t unravel. Place the small end in your ear (not too far)

3. Take two pieces of stiff paper, an old manilla folder works well, and cut them into deer-shaped ears. Place a hole at the top and bottom of the ears. Place a piece of wood or dowel in the holes. Bend the paper so it is concave and tape the wood to the paper to hold the shape.

EchoLocation

Some animals including bats and dolphins use echolocation to navigate their way in low light and help them find food. These animals emit high-pitched sounds and listen to see if the sound is bounced back.

If the sound comes back there is an object in front of them.

There are some fun ways to explore and think about echolocation.

• Clapping - Go into a forested space, stand in front of trees, large rocks, brush and clap loudly. Listen to the sound. Where does it go?

• Try the clapping exercise with your eyes closed.

Sound Explorations

• Follow the sounds - with a partner go out to a park with a smooth path or trail. One person will be blindfolded so find a safe walking place. The second person goes down the path about a hundred feet. They will then ring a bell or hold a metronome and the blindfolded person follows the sound.

• Partner Walk - holding hands, one person is blindfolded and the other person guides them. The blindfolded person describes the sounds they hear.

• Listen to the trees - Different types of trees sound different on a breezy day.

• How many birds can you identify through sound? Different woodpeckers can be identified by their tapping sounds on trees. Backyard Birdsongs from Cornell University is a fabulous resource to learn to identify birds by call.

• What about frogs and insects? My article on Wisconsin Frogs has audio of each frog.

Animal Communication

Animals use a variety of sounds to communicate. They may make sounds with their mouth and vocal cords. They may also make sounds with their bodies.

For instance, deer paw the ground, birds flap their wings, rabbits thump with their hind legs, and crickets rub their legs together.

Try to identify animals by their sounds and mimic them.

Cornell University has lesson plans for K-12 called Exploring Animal Communication across Ecosystems with BeastBox.

Check out my YouTube Channel for videos on organic gardening, wildlife, and nature education.

Sight

Visual information is the sense that we often use or rely on the most. Our worlds is made for visual learners. But do we really see things?

Go for a hike in the forest. At first glance, it may look like a blur of greens and browns depending on the season. Look at each plant or tree individually.

• Compare the green plants

• Compare the bark of various trees

• Look at the soil in different places

• Play a game of I - Spy

There is a variety of plants. This is a fun activity to do each season so you can examine how the colors change.

Pick a spot in a local part or forest. Go to that spot once a month and observe what’s happening. You can even make a journal to document your spot.

Any notebook will do however I recently purchased these Melissa and Doug mini sketchbooks for my niece. She likes them because they are easy to carry while hiking and the spiral binding makes it easier to have a flat page to draw/write on.

Camouflage and Countershading

Animals have evolved so that their colors become a defense mechanism.

Camouflage is the way the animal’s coloring that helps them to blend in with its environment.

Countershading is when the underside or belly of the animal is a lighter color. This breaks up the animal in a way that makes it harder for predators to see.

As well as the birds being camouflaged often their eggs are too.

Here’s a great activity from the Book of Nature Connection. (I highly recommend this book for families and homeschoolers)

Make a Camouflaged Egg

Materials:

• Hard Boiled Egg - one for each person

• Acrylic craft paints

• Paintbrush

Procedure:

1. Each person paints an egg with a pattern they think will camouflage the egg in nature

2. Let eggs dry

3. Take the eggs outside. Each person takes a turn “hiding” their egg in nature. The other people try to find it. (Remember by hiding you need to put it in a place the bird could put it such as among some grasses on the ground or in a bush)

4. It’s also fun to leave one egg unpainted and see if it’s easier or harder to locate.

Paper Tube Viewer

Artists and photographers know that when you isolate an object it becomes clearer.

Use a paper tube from toilet paper or paper towels to use as a viewer.

Sit in the park or along a path in the woods. Hold the viewer to one of your eyes. Close the other eye. What do you see?

Hanami

This is a Japanese word that means nature viewing. The Japanese will sit and intentionally watch nature unfolding. The word Hanami originates from watching cherry blossoms open in spring and has expanded to a popular form of nature observation.

This one takes a bit of patience! You may start out with a short observation and gradually lengthen the amount of time.

• Watch a blossom open up

• Watch a sunrise or sunset

• Watch birds build a nest

Night Hike

Take a family hike at night. It’s best when the sky is clear. Go to a large park or out in the country to avoid the light pollution of the city.

Take a flashlight for safety but try to leave it off.

Shapes In Nature

Great fun for all ages. Look for shapes in nature.

If you have young children you might look for basic shapes such as circles, squares, and triangles.

Older students can look for elliptical, heart, oval, star, or spiral.

What about leaf shapes? Identifying tree species by their leaves can help your nature study.

Leaf Identification

Learning to identify trees by their leaf shape is a fabulous skill and a way to become closer to nature. (for more advanced nature learners try identifying trees by their bark).

Check out my article Pinecones: 9 Fun Family Activities

Fibonacci Sequence

This is a great way to connect science and math! The Fibonacci Sequence (Fn) is a list of numbers where each number is the sum of the two preceding ones. This is what it looks like.

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 … it continues into infinity

The super cool thing is that you can see it in nature!! Flowers and pinecones are two easy ways to observe it.

Check out this cool article on Mathnasium to learn more.

Smell

We all have favorite memories associated with smell. Mine is my grandmother’s French perfume. Which is odd because I don’t wear perfume myself.

There are so many great smells in nature. Soil after a rain, leaves in fall, and even skunks!

Evergreen Trees have distinct scents according to their species. That’s because they produce terpenes to protect themselves from insects.

Make Scent Pouches

Sometimes we make fabric pouches of things like lavender or cedar to place in drawers or closets. You don’t have to limit yourself!

Making a scent pouch or sachet can be different during the seasons. You can forage for plants during the seasons.

Start by cutting up some pretty fabric in 5x5 inch pieces. You will place your items in the middle, draw up the sides and tie them together with a ribbon. Alternatively, you can purchase small organic muslin bags.

Some good smells to collect from your backyard or local park. Remember to take just a small amount and don’t disturb endangered plants.

• Backyards - Lilac, roses, honeysuckle, heliotrope

• Wildflowers - musk mallow, yarrow, burnet, wild mint, and onions

• Pine or cedar needles and bark (from fallen branches)

• Place some soil in your pouch

Pheromones

More advanced students may be ready to explore pheromones. Nature’s chemical smells are excreted from living animals in order to find a mate, find food, or be a warning.

Observe ants or honey bees going between their home and a food source. Insects “smell” with their antennae. Do you see them moving their antennae seeking smells?

As you walk through a field or woods think about what pheromones are at work.

Have you ever walked a pet dog? They like to pee on different objects. This is their way of saying I’m here or this is mine.

Wild animals such as coyotes and bears also pee on things to mark their territory. Their urine contains pheromones which send a message to other animals.

Seasonal Smells

Think about how the seasons smell differently. We cant see scents so we often use our sense of sight to identify smells or put them in context. Both temperature and humidity affect scents in the air.

Spring - spring rains have a distinct odor which is caused by some chemicals traveling down from the clouds including ozone. When the soil is wet a chemical called geosmin is excreted by soil bacteria.

Summer - We often associate summer with green grass and flowers. Plants are giving off lots of scents looking to draw in pollinators.

Fall - When leaves fall from trees they actually release chemicals called terpene and isoprenoids. These along with the decay of the plant’s fibers are what we associate with the smell of fall.

Winter - what we think of as the smell of snow may actually be an absence of other smells. Scientists say the decreased cold and increased humidity lowers other smells and triggers our brain to think snow is coming!

Check out my article Snow: 5 Fun Activities For Winter

Remember part of the experience is just having fun together!!

Touch

Blindfold Trail

In the hearing section, we talked about a partner walk where one person is blindfolded and the other person guides them. Do the same thing with touch!

Make sure you discuss what things are ok for your blindfolded person to touch.

Good things to touch blindfolded are:

• Tree bark and leaves

• Smooth or semi-rough rocks

• Different plant leaves - some are smooth, rough, fuzzy…

• Moss

• Soil

Earthing

Take off your shoes. Squish your feet in mud or walk in a creek.

Earthing or grounding is all about connecting with the energy from the earth. Our shoes run interference with us on a daily basis.

Mud pies

No, you’re not too old! Sit next to a creek, on a beach, or in your garden, and play away!

Mud pies help children have a close experience with the earth that involves all their senses. Refrain from making derogatory comments about them needing a bath! This is a fun experience with the earth.

Hug a tree

Hugging trees is not only a great sensory experience it is a spiritual one. Hugging a tree helps us to communicate on another level.

When you give a tree a hug you feel grounded, calm, and happy.

Read our article on Forest Bathing.

Touch Scavenger Hunt

You can do this with a checklist or a bingo board.

I have a PDF version you can download for free.

Taste

There are lots of good things to taste out in nature. However, you may need some guidance or training to forage successfully. In particular, learn more about mushrooms before you taste any.

Wild black raspberries and strawberries are common throughout the United States.

We have a great article on Foraging For Wild Tea

Sensory Walks Anywhere

This article tended to talk about local parks and forested areas. Please don’t feel limited! You can apply these concepts anywhere.

More great places for nature walks:

• Beach

• Desert

• Farm or Pick Your Own

• Arboretum

• Botanical garden

• Greenhouse
  
  
  

Author, Ame Vanorio, is the founder of Fox Run EEC, a teacher and a mom who raised her children in the woods!