Nature Scavenger Hunt

A nature scavenger hunt helps young students learn to follow directions, focus on and complete tasks and work together to accomplish goals. The illustrated collection sheet allows them to identify their collection goals without reading skills. Doing this activity outside on the schoolyard allows students to experience some outdoor learning.

Applying teaching pedagogy, this simple activity addresses following directions and aural reasoning (they visualize a situation, integrate appropriate details, and synthesize what has been described) in preschool to kindergarten aged children.

Materials:
• printed scavenger hunt page for each child (or pair, if they are working in pairs)
• paper cup for each child to collect items
• glue for back in the classroom to secure items to collection guide

Directions:
1) Copy scavenger hunt page (laminate if you have the resources).
2) Talk to your students about the living (plants, animals, fungi) and nonliving (air, water, rocks) things they see outside every day.
3) Then, using a paper cup and their nature scavenger hunt collection guide, ask them to collect one of each of these things.
4) Back in the classroom, direct them to glue their samples into the matching circle. Talk about which are living and which are not.