Nature Trivia for kids is a great game for sharing what they already know and learning new fascinating facts about the amazing world around us!
Nature study can include a variety of topics. Some of them are pretty massive – the atmosphere, plate tectonics, and climate change. I made a trivia game on that theme once. It was called Earth Trivia, and it focused on all the major aspects of life on our amazing planet.
Our new Nature Trivia is different. It is about the small things that capture our attention and stop us in our tracks. It is about the sense of wonder that nature inspires in us, whether we are adults or children.
Have you ever paused and marvelled at the intricate shape of a snowflake, the pearlescent gleam of a seashell or the vibrant colours of fall foliage? I thought about them as I created the list of topics for this game – snow, seashells, leaves. They are all insignificant in a way, but together they create this wonderful world around us.
These smaller natural phenomena have as much of a story to tell as the big ones. If you have any doubts about that, check the card on micro-animals! They are tiny but mighty. There you will learn about some tiny but spectacular beasties who can survive in outer space!
I hope that the game can help children discover a few of these amazing stories and also inspire them to research more of them after they are done with the game. The world around us is wonderful, and if you look closely, you can see the wonder in the most mundane things, like rocks, mushrooms, or even rotting leaves. That is the main mission of the game.
Besides that, Nature Trivia for kids is also a fun game to bring along as you head off on nature outings. My children absolutely love playing trivia games while we drive! They help us pass the time, and everyone can participate, even the driver. It doesn’t hurt that the game packs into a nice stack of cards that you can easily bring along.
Nature Trivia for Kids Features
- 24 double-sided cards with photographs and six questions each (144 questions total) on a variety of nature-related topics
- a print-and-fold template for a special die (optional)
- printable templates for a game cover and rule booklet
Some of the topics you see in Nature Trivia for kids are fungi, shells, seeds, teeth and tusks, horns and antlers, rainbows, sky, natural disasters, colours, rocks, minerals, snow, leaves, flowers, decomposition, corals, extinct animals, micro-animals, nests, courtship, flight, and poop.
Here are twelve cards.
And here are twelve more.
How to Play Nature Trivia for Kids
Each Nature Trivia card comes with six questions – three easy and three hard. Players can choose whether they want to answer an easy or a hard question. The easy questions come with multiple-choice answers and are worth one point; the hard questions are open-ended and are worth two points. Rolling the die determines which of the three questions of that difficulty gets asked.
A die template is included. It is also possible to use a standard d6 die and substitute rolls of 4, 5, and 6 as 1, 2, and 3. Another alternative would be to use a random number generator.
The player is being read the question by the player on their right. When playing with beginning readers, a parent or a teacher can read all the questions. In case the reading adults also want to play and score, it is easy for them to cover the answers at the bottom of the card.
If the player answers the question correctly, they get the card for scorekeeping. If not, the card goes back to the bottom of the pile, so someone else will have to answer a question from it in the future.
The game ends when all the cards are gone, and the player with the most points wins.
You can easily adapt the game for the classroom. One possible variant would be eliminating taking turns. The teacher would have to read all the cards, and the students would have to venture guesses. Another variant would be playing in small groups.
Get Nature Trivia for Kids!
More Nature-Themed Activities
Want more trivia games? Try Animal Trivia with 24 cards dedicated to different animals!
Feel like trying a different type of game? Endangered Animals Guess Who game is like classic guess who games, but with the focus on their prominent attributes rather than their appearance.
Do you like to draw? Following these animal drawing prompts, discover fun animal facts and create fifteen science-inspired pictures!
