Tip Of The Day – Nature Scavenger Hunts

Posted by Cindy on May 1, 2007

It’s Spring!! Are you itching to get outside, but still have school days to chalk up? Take school outside! At least some of it.

Today’s Tip of the Day is: Take A Nature Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger hunts are so much fun for children and very educational, yet so easy for us to prepare. We can make them as simple or complex as we feel suits our children. We can customize them to meet specific instruction needs. (For instance, looking for various types of rocks if we’re studying geology or looking for signs of animal life if we’re studying animals.) And, we can even keep the same hunt exciting by changing the location.

Think about the nature around you and make a list of things that you’d like your children to find. I always choose things that they might not see on an everyday walk. Type them up on a piece of paper and let the hunt begin!

As the items are found, have your children check them off on the paper, collect them to be brought home, take digital pictures of them or draw the items. Personally, I like to bring home what we can in order to look more closely at things under the magnifying glass or to research them in an informational book. When this isn’t possible, we’ll often just bring the magnifying glass with us!

We happen to live on a farm, which is a wonderful source of nature for scavenger hunts. Walks around neighborhoods would work just as well. As would a trip to the cemetery or local park. Here’s a sample of the items I included on our last nature hunt:

Wildflower

Bone

Thorn

Evidence of an animal

Animal footprint

Evidence of erosion

Exposed tree root

Unusual plant

Rock with a fossil in it

Snail shell

Layered rock

Berry

Colored rock

Nut from last winter

Evidence of people

Litter

Fungi

Seed

My children beg for scavenger hunts and I’m happy to oblige them when I can check off learning and spend time outdoors at the same time.  I hope you have some scavenging science fun this week!

Related Tags: science, nature, scavenger hunt, outdoors, learning