March 31, 2011

A Spring Scavenger Hunt

I've been wanting to plan more activities for my kids recently.  The weather isn't great here yet, but I still like to get them outside when I can.  So, I planned a spring scavenger hunt for Rex.

I gathered 12 random things from our yard and took pictures of them on white posterboard.  Then I put them into a collage on picnik.  This is what it looked like.  (You are welcome to use it, but depending on where you live, you might not have all the same things in your yard.)


I printed it off and taped it to the top of an empty egg carton.  That way he had a way and place to store each item as he collected them. 


We headed out into the yard to start hunting.


He was pretty into it.  I had to help with a couple of things, but he found most of it.  He was pretty proud of his new found treasures.



Have you done any fun scavenger hunts with your kids?

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73 comments:

  1. What a COOOL idea. This is getting bookmarked for the future for sure!

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  2. so clever and fun--Rex is lucky to have such a creative mama!

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  3. Simple things like this is what kids really do enjoy!! Thanks for an idea.. off to make the list around our outdoor!

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  4. What an awesome idea! I can totally do this with my toddler! THANK YOU! You rock!

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  5. Such a great idea! Going to do this with my 3 year old!

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  6. My favorite part is the egg carton that you put them in! Genius!

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  7. What a great idea Cheri - LOVE this! Thanks you!!

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  8. I was actually just thinking about doing a scavenger hunt as an FHE activity. Thanks for the great idea!

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  9. I love the egg carton as storage tool. Neat idea!

    We just did a scavenger hunt at our local gardens. They have a butterfly exhibit now, so we looked for different colors, stages of egg to butterfly, and plants.

    My sons are 6 & 4 and they LOVE scavenger hunts!

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  10. I think my 3 year old would love this. I'm thinking we could do it with toys too.

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  11. awesome, what a fun activity! I was thinking of doing a photo scavenger hunt with Nicole, she LOVES to take pictures and I don't mind letting her use my old point-and-shoot, it's practically hers at this point. We went on a walk two days ago where I asked her to take pictures of things she liked and it worked out pretty well, so I think I'm going to move on to the scavenger hunt. And I can incorporate things like letters! Like safeway has an A... ;)

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  12. How creative! Finding fun outdoor activities during the cold months can be quite challenging. Thanks for sharing your idea!

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  13. My daughter would love to do that! She's constantly wanting to pick up all the rocks and leaves she sees. Once the mountains of snow are gone, we'll have to go hunting.

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  14. What a fun idea! I am totally doing this with my daughter!! Thanks for such an awesome idea!

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  15. last year when we went camping...I took an egg carton and painted each spot a different color...then they had to find something to match...I thought it would take them a pretty long time...but they cruised through it...then they did it again..and again! so fun!

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  16. What a great idea! I look forward to bundling the kiddos up and heading out for an adventure. Lucky for me my littlest happens to enjoy picking up these type things for his "collection" anyway. :)

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  17. We live in the woods. I can't wait to do this! Older kids can identify genus, species, etc.!
    May I ask where you got that cardigan/sweatshirt for him? I love it!

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  18. Great idea with the egg carton!

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  19. Such a fun idea. Good work Momma!

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  21. What an awesome idea! I love how you put it on the egg carton so it was task list and collection carrier. :) You're brilliant.

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  22. I love that they actually get to collect specimens instead of just mark it off on a list - brilliant and definitely worth copying! Thanks for sharing.

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  23. I love this! Can't wait to try it out when the wee one is old enough. Thank you for sharing :)

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  24. Great idea to use the egg carton to hold the scavenger hunt items! I have done nature scavenger hunts for my kids before but just gave them a lunch bag to put the items in.

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  25. Neat idea with the egg carton! I tried something similar with my 2-year old in our living room with toys. He lost interest after he found the car.

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  26. That's such a great idea! I have quite a few friends with kids the same age I'm going to suggest this too!

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  27. What a great idea, Cheri! My kids would love this!

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  28. What a fantastic idea, I'm so impressed.

    We take our kids to Centerparcs each October during the half term and enjoy the tranquility of the forest and clean air, this would be an excellent activity for them.

    Thank you so much for putting this up. Inspired!

    LB

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  29. My kids would totally love this.

    Last year, early fall, my oldest was getting a little stir crazy on a Saturday. I knew most of our neighbors were home, working in their yards. So I wrote down a list of small, basic household items-nail, paperclip, tissues, toothpick, etc, et all. Then I sent him and my middle son off on a scavenger hunt to our neighbors. They were only allowed to stick to our street, and we know all our neighbors, with maybe three exceptions, well. They had so much fun and it ended up bringing a few of our neighbors out to play and chat, too.

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  30. I love this idea and I'm sure Lil' Joe will too! Thanks for the inspiration!

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  31. Love it! and a great way to reuse all the egg cartons that accumulate around here! Brava and thanks. :)

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  32. This is fantastic! I'll have to remember this for when my little guy is older!

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  33. Cheri!!!! this is so amazingly cool. I seriously can't wait to try this with my girls. :) As a matter of fact, I think I just have an empty egg carton from last night. yay!

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  34. What a cute idea! I will have to try something similar for my 4 year old. She goes crazy while my oldest is at school!

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  35. Your little Rex is sooooooo cute!

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  37. I so wanted to do something like this with my little girl. This gives me even more ideas! Thanks for the inspiration! I LOVE this!
    April

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  38. You are just good! Great activity for his age.

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  39. Genious! My parents live on a farm. I'm sure we could have an awesome scavenger hunt with our 4 year old! Thanks for another great idea! :)

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  40. so i've saved egg cartons bc well I hate throwing anything away... finally found their use!

    I adore your blog and tutes, You're truly and inspiration.

    Thanks for the nifty idea feel free to stop by and link up to my Make & Share 1st edition Fridays if you like.

    ~ Christy

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  41. What a fabulous idea. This is definately getting added to my To Do with the kids list!

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  42. FABULOUS idea... I will SO be stealing this one. You rock it Momma! :)

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  43. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  44. Thank you for this idea! I love it and shared it with my family and came up with a new and exciting way to do the Easter Egg Scavenger hunt this year. Instructions and downloads are available here if anyone is interested.

    Thank you again!

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  45. SO how do you do that in Picnik? I thought you could only work on 1 photo at a time, so how would one go about making a collage with Picnik?

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  46. great idea, thanks so much. I have a two and a four year old that will love you for this post!!

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  47. Brilliant! I am definitely going to do this with my boys. Thanks!

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  48. What a great idea! I never would have thought to use an egg carton, that's awesome!

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  49. Lisa - On the opening page theres an option that says "Collage." Pick one of the collages. You can adjust the # of rows and columns so don't worry about finding one with the exact number of squares you need.

    Cheri

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  50. Megan - The cardigan sweatshirt was from Gap Kids a couple of years ago. Sorry! That probably doesn't help. I was so excited when I found it on clearance.

    Cheri

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  51. What a cool idea! that wasclever to put the picture on top of the egg carton so he'd have a place to keep what he found. I've linked up to your post on my weekly favorites here: http://play2grow.blogspot.com/2011/04/weekly-favorites-for-april-3-2011.html

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  53. Cute idea! We are planning on doing a rainbow version. If it works out and I post about it I will link to you. THanks for the great ideas Cheri!

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  54. What a great idea !!! Can u mention what each item in the list is ? Thanks

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  55. What a fun idea! Thanks so much for the printable, I'll be linking.

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  56. I love this idea - saving this to do with my grandkids next week and adding a link back from Earth Day Crafts.

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  57. AWESOME!!! I made a similar scavenger hunt, but I LOVE that you are using an egg carton! Love to have you stop by and check out mine! I have lots of other fun ideas for the kids there too.

    http://sunscholars.blogspot.com

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  58. I just shared this with my facebook friends! Can't wait to check out more of your site.

    Love to have you visit mine!
    http://sunscholars.blogspot.com

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  59. how cute! my son just recently told me that he wanted to go on a scavenger hunt :)

    did you make that super cute hat?

    Melissa

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  60. Melissa- I did make the hat. It was a tutorial I did on UCreate. Here's the link:

    http://iammommahearmeroar.blogspot.com/2010/09/guest-posting-on-ucreate.html

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  61. FANTASTIC idea!!! Thanks so much for sharing!
    Deanna @ www.shadytreediary.blogspot.com

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  62. I LOVE this idea and am thinking about connecting with our local nature center to see if they can help me pull this activity together for a morning out with my kindergartener. If I post this activity on my blog, do you mind if I link to your site? Thanks for the great ideas!

    Mrs. Practical at http://deceptivelyeducational.blogspot.com/

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  63. I am SO STEALING this idea for a birthday party in the future! Or a hike, if my little G is getting bored with the scenery! Love it! Thanks for sharing

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  64. i love this idea! what a great way to learn about nature, recycle, and have fun. i am heading up a green committee at my son's school next year and i love this idea!

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  65. Such a clever idea! I added it to my summer bucket list and posted a link back to your post. http://mymontessorimoments.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/summer-bucket-list-2011/
    Thanks for sharing your wonderful idea!

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  66. I love this idea! Thank you for sharing! I hope you don't mind that I linked your idea and post to my post today.

    http://www.twelvemonthsoffun.com/blog/2011/7/6/nature-walk-activity.html

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  67. I love this and my boys will love it!

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  68. what a lovely activity! I've shared it here: http://dollarstoremom.com/2011/11/make-a-fall-scavenger-hunt-game/

    Thanks!!

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  69. Great idea! I was jut going to use your pics but we dont have acorns or moss here where we live so I was thinking of taking my own pics........just curious how u made this in picnik? I cant quite figure out what u used in picnik to form the collage?

    Erinn

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  70. sorry i just saw u explained how to do it above, lol!

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  72. Love it! Thanks for the inspiration.

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  73. So cute!

    I’d love it if you shared this with the Fun Family Crafts audience.
    FFC is similar to Craftgawker but it only features kid friendly tutorials.

    Looking forward to seeing what fun crafts you submit!
    http://funfamilycrafts.com

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