Build an Outdoor Fort

You can encourage fort building by putting aside blankets, tarps and string for them to use.

Ideas for outdoor forts include:

• Make a tepee with long sticks tied together with twine.
• Drape blankets on low tree limbs and use as a covering for a fort.
• Use bushes as fortifications for your fort. Sometimes there's a kid-sized space inside of a bush.
• Recycle a large box, cut out windows, and call it home!
• Build a snow fort, if you have some of the fluffy stuff! If the snow is right, squish snow into square-shaped plastic food containers to make bricks.

Find three long sticks and tie them at one end to form a tripod.

Look for a spot where four trees form a square. Place the tripod in the middle.

Tie a rope about three feet from the ground around the four trees so it forms a square.

Then bring the corners out to the place where the string connects the trees.

Clothespin the blanket to the string.

This will make your fort more comfortable.

Put down a plastic sheet on the ground if you want to avoid getting a damp bottom.

But if you want to use this opportunity as part of a wildlife discussion, consider printing our "Show Me Shelter" Nature Notebook activity, which gives fort building ideas and encourages your child to draw a picture of their fort.

Fort building can also be the inspiration for your family to provide cover for wildlife, which is one of the four qualifications for a Certified Wildlife Habitat.