David Suzuki's Vacation Challenge
How to be unattractive…to mosquitoes!
Summer kid eco party
Some things you can do right now
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Summer kid eco-party
Got some bored kids hanging around your house? Throw them a David Suzuki’s Nature Challenge party! That’s what Lenore Dickson and Mike West did for the birthdays of their now nine-year old daughter Ruby and newly-turned eleven-year-old son Will. They made piñatas of things they really wanted to take a whack at – an incandescent light bulb and a Hummer – and played eco-themed games.
All the kids at Ruby’s party had a hand in playing a Nature Challenge Match Game |
The Dickson Wests chose old-fashioned activities that were cooperative, had a low environmental impact and repurposed stuff they already had – three-legged and sack races, bucket brigade, capture the flag, limbo, ball tosses and a dress-up relay.
Here’s some of the eco-fun they thought up:
• Tie-dying organic T-shirts
A great opening activity for all age groups, so the shirts have time to dry (on a clothesline, of course!) before the kids go home.
Ruby demonstrates one method of ridding the world of incandescent light bulbs. Celeste Alex (in purple) had such a good time, her mother Robin Lane reported, she came home “all excited about how we can participate as a family in David Suzuki’s Nature Challenge”. The other friend in the photo is Louise Monk. |
• Nature Challenge Match Game
Cut out the four action icons from our website and glue them onto recipe cards. Hide them around the house or yard and, when they’re found, have the kids figure out what they mean (way to test our graphic designers!). Once they are identified, stick them on a poster board divided into four cells. Individuals who complete activities (see above) are rewarded with small pieces of paper with green tips (eg ‘insulate your house’, ‘grow your own vegetables’, etc) and the group works together to figure out which category they fit under.
• Nature Challenge Scavenger Hunt
In this game, the kids collect ‘treasure’ letters they put together at the end to form a sentence. (At Will’s party, the sentence was ‘Polar bears walk on thin ice’.) Party planners need to hide the letters in advance and create maps or sets of clues for the kids to find them.
• Piñatas
Deciding what in the world could use a good bashing is a great green conversation
For their party piñatas, Ruby and Will each picked something they wanted to give a good bash. Will chose a Hummer. Here they are putting on the final touches. |
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“The children begged for them,” said Lenore
“and pointed out that David Suzuki would be happy with reusing newspapers and a bit of cardboard, flour and water.” Fill ‘em up with homemade treats or organic, free trade chocolate or minimally-wrapped candies and let the kids go to town. (Note the safety border in Ruby’s picture.)
The Dickson Wests, who live in the country just outside of Dundas, Ontario, have a vegetable garden and chickens who give them organic, free-range eggs. They even make their own maple syrup and vegetable-based soap! Both Ruby and Will asked their friends to bring donations for The David Suzuki Foundation in lieu of gifts – thanks kids!
Got more ideas for green kid party games? Share them here:
Canada voted!
The winner of the David Suzuki Digs My Garden prize package for best gnome photo caption goes to Janice Miller-Young of Calgary, Alberta. Janice’s stunning pun collected a whopping 76 per cent of the vote! (Continue gnome punning here and here.)
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