Outdoor Scavenger Hunt

Setting: Curricular

Season: Fall

Activity Goal

Participants perform various locomotor movements and physical activities while exploring and engaging with various objects found outdoors during the fall.

For participant safety, please review the contents of the Beyond the Walls: Safety Considerations page for information on Safety Standards, Fall Safety Considerations, and Outdoor Playing Areas and Surfaces.

Equipment

• Checklist of tasks or activities to be accomplished (reference Before Play section)
• Dry erase boards with checklist or clipboards to hold the checklist
• Pencils or dry erase markers

Before Play

• Review the safety rules and activity instructions with participants prior to the activity.
• Establish the boundaries for the designated playing area and share them with participants.
• Create a checklist of activities to be performed by participants. Suggestions include:
  • Find something to:
    • Walk across
    • Crawl under
    • Climb over
    • Balance on
    • Roll across
    • Jump over
    • Jump off of (no higher than your waist)
    • Pass through
    • Skip around
• Explain to participants that we need to protect and care for the natural environment. We, as humans, have a special responsibility for maintaining a healthy environment, so that all living things can continue to have their needs met by that environment. For this reason, we will not collect objects during this scavenger hunt, but rather, draw pictures or take notes and will leave all living things in their natural environment.
• Divide participants into partners or small groups.
• Provide each group with a copy of the checklist, a clipboard and pencil (or dry erase board and dry erase marker).
• Explain to participants that they must find the objects on the checklist, perform the activities, and take note of the objects used by drawing them or writing them on their checklist (rather than collecting them). At the end of the activity period, they will reunite with the larger group and share the objects they discovered.

During Play

• On a predetermined signal, participants move around the playing area with their partners or group, attempting to complete the activities and tasks on the checklist in the order of their choice.
• After completing an activity, participants take note of the object by drawing it or writing it on their checklist.
• At the end of the activity period, participants reunite with the larger group and share their account of the assigned objects they engaged with during the movement exploration.

After Play

Use the following prompts for participants to reflect on ways to be active in fall and invite others to participate in outdoor activities throughout the year.

Question prompts:

• How does physical activity outside make you feel?
• What did you enjoy most about this activity? How can you encourage others to join you in this activity to help them stay active outdoors in fall?
• What are two ways you followed the safety rules we discussed at the beginning of the activity? How did you help others stay safe?

Adaptations

Consider these tips to maximize the challenge and the fun for participants.

• Have participants move using different pathways or locomotor skills in between tasks.
• Create a checklist inviting participants to search for various living and nonliving things in nature and draw or write them on their checklist (e.g., find a flying bug, a crawling bug, a spiderweb, something smooth, something rough, something alive, something hairy, something yellow).
• Create a checklist using objects found in your school yard (e.g., skip around each basketball goal post, touch every exterior door in the playing area, play 3 rock-paper-scissors matches against a partner in the sandbox, balance on each foot for 10 seconds on a log seat in the outdoor classroom).

Modifications

Consider these tips to maximize inclusion and fun for all participants.

• For participants with mobility challenges, consider finding other options to explore different ways of locomotion (e.g., outdoor wheelchair) to complete the tasks.
• For participants with a cognitive disability, invite all participants to adapt the game or rules to be inclusive of all skill levels.