Prickly Tickly - A festive party game with a difference.

Here’s a great little game that can be played with friends and family of all ages during the coming season’s festivities and what’s more it will cost you nothing and will draw everyone out of doors into the fresh air for some healthy winter fun.

Find an outdoor space such as a garden, a corner of the park or a secluded clearing on a woodland walk. Take with you a few empty cardboard egg boxes, a scarf, or two, for blindfolds and a bunch of willing participants.

In pairs or groups explore your area and search out some unusual natural objects with differing textures. Place six distinctly different textured objects into the six compartments of your group’s box. Decide what they feel like. Perfect Prickly Tickly objects could be a small and delicate feather, a smooth and spiky holly leaf, a gnarly and curved piece of tree bark, a weighty and smooth pebble, some wet and feathery moss, a squashy and wrinkled berry.

Once you have your six Prickly Tickly ‘treasures’ close your lid to keep them hidden from view.  When everyone is ready, take turns with other groups to try to describe the feel of items in their boxes. Do your texture descriptions match what they were thinking? Will anyone guess the words you chose for the objects in your collection?   Expert players might like to try being seated and blind folded whilst the objects are placed carefully into their hands to feel and describe. Remember the idea of the game is to use words to describe textures. You don’t have to name the natural object, although very young players might find that fun too. 

Happy playing!

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This article has been written by our lovely friend Helen, a Sustainability Consultant and Forest School Practitioner with over 30 years experience working with learners from preschooler to adult.

Helen is in her element making woodland cocktails and mud pies with both young and old, is an inspirational Forest School Leader and Outdoor Educator, and has received much positive feedback for the quality of the learning she initiates.

She will be sharing more of her favourite outdoor activities in this month-by-month blog titled “From the Forest”.