The warm spring and summer months call for plenty of time outdoors with your children. Toddlers and preschoolers will develop a love for the outdoors as soon as they’re exposed to all the beautiful things that nature has to offer.
If you’re trying to come up with ways to keep your toddlers busy while at home, taking them outside for some fresh air and a scavenger hunt is a great idea! This outdoor scavenger hunt will help them to build new vocabulary and language and learn about things outdoors.
Take this scavenger hunt with you on your daily stroller walks or just while out walking on a trail. There are items on the scavenger hunt that can be found outside around your home, in a neighborhood, or close to the woods.
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What You’ll Need:
- FREE Printable Scavenger Hunt
- Marker or Crayon
What To Do:
First, you’ll want to go over all the images on the page with your toddler or preschooler so they understand what they are. There may be some new items on there that they can learn through this activity.
As you walk by an object, point it out to them if they don’t point it out first. As your walk continues, make sure they keep looking at their scavenger hunt and cross off the items they see as they go.
This scavenger hunt can be used merely to find the objects and name them for the younger ones. However, for the older ones, you can use it as a game where they need to find a row of all five items (like Bingo) to win a prize.
Come up with a simple prize if you’d like to motivate them to complete the activity.
Related Post: The Benefits of Outdoor Play for Young Kids
How to Incorporate Language:
Developing new language and vocabulary is crucial in these early years of life. All activities, including this outdoor scavenger hunt, can incorporate various learning components. You can improve your child’s language and vocabulary by talking to them constantly throughout this activity and providing them with new words and concepts that they may not have learned before.
Since starting this scavenger hunt, my 19 month old son points and says stop sign, flag, and mailbox everytime he sees one. He didn’t know about these objects before this activity and he has picked up so many new words on our outdoor walks.
Enjoy the outdoors with your little one as you keep them busy and learning!
