Outdoor activity suggestions for Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week
30 January 2025

Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week,
3rd – 9th February 2025
To mark Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week, we share some simple outdoor activities to help boost mental wellbeing at any time of the year.
Using the Five Ways to Wellbeing as our guide, here are some suggestions to get children, families and educators outdoors. Though this post is aimed mainly at educators and primary school age children, there are ideas that can be used by families and young people of all ages and used in any setting.
Be Physically Active
Walk, scoot or cycle to school or out of school activities if you can. Better still, find a friend to walk, scoot or cycle with.
Play Tig – Three Ways
Shadow Tig – This works best playing one-to-one. To tig your partner step on their shadow. Once a shadow has been tigged, swap roles.
Tunnel Tig – This is one for a larger group of players. If you are tigged, stand still with your feet wide apart to create a tunnel. Once another player has crawled through the ‘tunnel’ you are free to re join the game.
Seedling Tig – This is a little more complicated, is good for larger groups and requires two steps to set someone free. When you are tigged, crouch into a ball shape (a seed). If another player is able to mime pouring a can of water over you, stand tall (grow). A second player has to stand in front of you, spreading their arms wide to spread the sunshine that will set you free to play again.
Build your learning community outdoors
Have fun! Meet children in the playground at the end of break. Instead of going straight indoors, spend 10 minutes outside playing a whole class game (like tig) that you can link to learning indoors. Tip – think about what has to happen to set the players free.
Connect and learn as you walk and talk. Set a question or theme for discussion (related to work ongoing or as a means to introduce a new piece of work) and ask children to discuss in pairs during a walk around the playground/grounds before heading indoors.
Learn New Skills
Learning something new boosts confidence and make us more likely to try new challenges. We have divided suggestions under two headings. Use these as a starting point and ask children to share their skills or to identify skills they want to practise outdoors.
Physical Skills
Learn or practise hopping, skipping, climbing a tree, ‘balancing’ along a line on the pavement or in the playground ….
Knowledge Based Skills
Spot and identify the living things in your space. Many organisations provide simple identification guides (trees, plants, wildlife, bugs). These can be printed out or opened on a tablet or similar device.
Wildlife Watch provides Spotter Guides suitable for all ages. Be prepared to model what learning looks like. You don’t have to be the expert all the time!
Pass on and give your new skills to others.
Give to Others
Think about all the living things that share the outdoor spaces you use. How can we make the space a better one for all living things using the space?
Organise a litter pick.
Feed the birds.
Plant flowers for the bees.
Pay Attention to the Present Moment
Put all electronic devices away.
Listening – Find a safe place to stop, close your eyes and listen. Count the number of different human made sounds you can hear. Count the number of sounds of nature you can hear.
Looking Up – If possible, lie on the ground and watch the sky. What shapes and colours do you see in the clouds. This may spark a desire to learn more or to create something in response but the real benefit is in just enjoying the moment. If looking up is difficult, hold a mirror parallel to the sky and look into the mirror.
Looking Down – Look at the space between your feet. On a piece of card and using a pencil, draw what you see in that space. Concentrate on that small space and don’t be distracted by your surroundings.
Connect with Other People
Many of the activities already suggested provide opportunities to connect with others. Here are some further ideas which explicitly use the outdoors as the setting to connect with other people.
Use the outdoors as an alternative space to have check ins and catch ups. Find a space to gather. You don’t need to sit down, gathering in a standing circle works also.
Set talking and listening tasks and ask small groups to gather in separate spaces (where they can still see the adults and each other). Being spread out in a larger space creates privacy and can allow adults to catch up with individuals who don’t normally volunteer to share in a large group or classroom setting.
The Five Ways to Wellbeing are a useful toolkit to remind us how to care for our mental and emotional wellbeing. Using outdoor spaces, with all the additional benefits that being outdoors provides, can easily be part of our routine. All of these suggestions require little planning, preparation and very little equipment.
Learn More …
Learn more about how we can all support the health and wellbeing of children and young people through outdoor play and learning by reading the National Position Statement – Outdoor Play & Learning where you will also find research references and suggestions for action.
If you would like to hear more about the relationship between outdoor play and learning and positive outcomes for mental health, follow the links to two Thrive Outdoors podcasts.
- Dr Adam Burley – Part 1: The significance of relationships in outdoor play for better our mental health – Thrive Outdoors
- Dr Adam Burley – Part 2: The challenges of using outdoor play as a tool for better mental health and how these can be overcome – Thrive Outdoors