As the weather starts to warm up, parents everywhere are looking for more ways to get their kids outside and off of electronics. In fact, it’s good for all of us to get outside. Nature study could be a hike, or a park day, or any number of things but one of the best ways to get your kids out into the fresh air is to have an outdoor scavenger hunt in Spring.
How to have a fantastic outdoor scavenger hunt
First, you need to decide on a good day to have a scavenger hunt. Check the forecast and pick a nice Spring day. Depending on where you live, it may be hard to avoid rain, but that’s okay. Also, you can have an outdoor scavenger hunt in the rain in the Spring. In fact, it’s only fitting. Just be prepared with towels and a place for muddy gear. Once you’ve picked a day, invite your kids’ friends to join you.
Second, you need to get everything ready before the day of the outdoor scavenger hunt. Be sure to print one copy of the scavenger hunt for each team and mount them on card-stock to give it a little durability. Provide colored pencils, crayons, or writing utensils so that teams can keep track of their progress. You might also want to have a clipboard for each team.
Plan to have snacks and water available for participants since running around looking for all of Spring’s treasures will make them thirsty and starving. You can even have some Spring-themed snacks if you want! Keep it simple or get creative, your choice. Decide if you will have prizes, and what your budget will be for prizes. If you want prizes, make sure to order or purchase those ahead of time.
The day of your scavenger hunt
On the day of the event, gather everyone in one place either in your backyard, a local park, or via a Zoom call, and provide instructions and rules as needed. You might need to have boundaries, a time limit, an adult with each group, etc. Decide on a method for winners to announce if they’ve completed the entire scavenger hunt (text a group, shouting, Marco Polo, returning to the winner mat, etc.), or meet back at a specific time if no one completes the whole list. Make this work for you; you get to decide how this goes down. You can even choose to do an outdoor scavenger hunt just with your family, take the printable with you on a hike and look together, or just send the kids outside to figure it out on their own.
Let us know how your adventure went!
Above is the download for the scavenger hunt already made for your next adventure!
Comments