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Need nature scavenger hunt ideas please :)
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Today my children asked us to put together a scavenger hunt list for outdoors playing…which we did…and they loved it so much that I know I’m going to run out of ideas. So here is what we have done so far:
a leaf partly eaten by an insect
a leaf with insect eggs on it
a worm (dead or alive!)
specific insects like a caterpillar, beetle, spider, etc
and then we did non-nature things too (we live in apartments), like a nail or screw, finding trash and putting it in the trash can, piece of string laying outside, and anything under the playground’s rubber-bark-stuff that doesn’t belong. My brain would be appreciate some help with ideas for future lists. 🙂
We’ve been using the book, “Genesis for Kids: Science Experiments That Show God’s Power in Creation!” by Doug Lambier for my 10yo dd and 11yo ds (mostly because I had not yet found a great deal on Apologia’s Zoology I, II, or III, lol!), and they loved the scavenger hunt we did from the chapter entitled “Day 3.” I actually adapted this list from the one in the book, but it’s rather similar.
Here’s the list: a square in nature, a seed, a candy wrapper, a broken egg shell, a circle in nature, evidence of animal life, a red C, a feather, an insect, evidence of man, a smooth rock, a hairy leaf, a tool, a piece of string, a piece of glass, something bumpy, something cool, something sculpted, something absorbent, something beautiful.
As you can see, some of the items are subject to interpretation or require a lot of imagination, and some could be good conversation-starters about the impact of humans on nature, etc. We used it this past fall on a trail adjacent to our local nature center. All of the kids (including 12yo dd) had a lot of fun with this.
We also did a nature walk in late Sept./early Oct. with a shorter list that focused on finding signs of autumn. This list I found on http://www.handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com, which utilizes Anna Comstock’s book of the same name. I haven’t looked in about a week, but I’m hoping they have a similar list for signs of spring. We live in northeastern Ohio (in the MIDWEST, right?? LOL!), and we are so eager to spend more time outdoors in nice weather!
Oh, wait–I just checked the Handbook of Nature Study blog, and it’s there! It’s there!!! (Can you tell I’m excited?)
The 2011 Spring Series – Signs of Spring is on the website. Once there, you can also find a printable notebooking page to record Signs of Spring and a Spring Nature Walk Worksheet (which is like the one we used in the fall). Here is the link: http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/2011/03/2011-spring-series-signs-of-spring.html.
Sue
I found something else that might be of interest to you. If you know anyone who is using Apologia’s “Zoology I: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day” science book, they can access the accompanying notebooking pages on Apologia’s website. (They are password protected, but you get the password with the book.) Among the first few notebooking pages is a scavenger hunt list for birds. It’s looks pretty interesting.
Get some paint-sample cards from a hardware store… and have them try to find things from nature that match the colour… Of course greens, yellows, and browns are the easiest usually… but do some other colours too…
What a fun idea, suzukimom. I did one during the winter when we were tired of the cold and yuckies – I got pictures of different bugs and put them on a brown paper lunch sack. Then I typed the clues and numbered them, then cut them apart and put them inside the bags. I gave the kids the numbers on a list and they had to read the clues and figure out where they went in the order. It wasn’t hard, but it broke up the monotony. I got the idea from the school teacher who did it with the Magic Tree House book about the Amazon. She got a list of animals from the book, printed pictures, made up clues and sent the kids off. There must have been about 20-25 animals, and they were new ones to us. I know this wasn’t the exact idea, but you might keep it for the yucky days!
What if you did a scavenger hunt outside with the alphabet? Everyone looks for and finds something that starts with each letter of the alphabet? Maybe they can take and make a couple of lists of things they’ve seen that you can keep and use for future hunts? I’ll bet they see stuff you’d never dream of… =)
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