Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger Hunt

This activity is designed for all age-levels. You may want to pair a very young, non-reading child with an older one.

The objectives are: recognize specific items, realize that many items can have the same characteristics.

Background:	Children enjoy finding things but can get very frustrated if they cannot find the exact item listed. This scavenger hunt is designed to be discovery learning. Today, something soft might be a feather; next week it’s dandelion seeds.
Skills:	The children should have an understanding of hard, soft, short, and the other items listed. Very young children can be read the items.
Age:	Grades 1 - 8
Activity:	Explain that they will be trying to find items on the list. There can be many right answers. The only wrong answers are the ones that are obviously wrong – a rock is not soft, a dog has 4 not 6 legs. Some of the items listed may not appear in their location or at this time of year. The object is to find many different items that fit one description. It could be very difficult to find everything listed. They should write down what they saw and where they saw it. Nothing should be removed from the environment. Set a time limit (30 minutes) to complete the activity.
Discussion:	After they have completed the hunt, discuss each item individually. Who found it, what they found, and any other comments that they may have about it. This is an opportunity to use field guides, either during the hunt or afterwards, to discover what was found.
Adaptations:	The children may be placed on teams to encourage discussion. Very young children may be paired with older children. This helps for children who cannot read or write yet. Instead of looking for everything on the list, assign aone or two descriptions to each child. Have them find as many items as they can that match the description.
Brownie Try It! Junior Badge:	Outdoor Fun (Ecology Hunt) Outdoor Fun in the City #7

Resources:

Trees: A Guide to Familiar American Trees
This book fits into your backpack. It shows the part of the country that the tree should be found in as well as large pictures of the leaves. We carry one with us whenever we work at the camps. The kids enjoy looking through the book to match the leaves. The text is informative without being overly wordy.

Flowers: A Guide to Familiar American Wildflowers
A pocket book that contains information on about 200 of the most common American wildflowers. I like to use this book because it groups the flowers by colors and the pictures make it easy to match to the treasure that the children find.

Birds (Golden Guides) has pictures of the most popular birds along with maps that indicate the location in which the bird is found. Children find that birds do come in an assortment of colors including orange, blue, and violet. It's a great book for beginning birders and children.

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