Early spring flowers on a red bud tree.
Red bud tree leaves in fall.
Give your students practice making observations by doing a seasonal scavenger hunt that will require closer looks at the familiar landscape to see what has changed. (Thanks to the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research for the idea.)
Does the tree (with branches low enough to see) have tightly furled flower or leaf buds, leaves the size of a squirrel’s ear, or leaves that are fully grown and changing color? Checklists can use both words and pictures to list items.
Use a new checklist for each season and include some of the following items to look for if they apply to your school yard:
Plants
- Leaf size on deciduous plants (choose any or a particular plant)
- Flower buds forming, blooming, forming seeds(choose any or a particular plant)
- Flower bulb leaves growing above ground, dying back
Animals
- Baby animals in the fields
- Tracks in mud, sand, or snow
Birds
- In groups or alone
- What are they eating?
- Birds building nests
Insects and other small animals
- Bees or other pollinators on flowers
- Small animals (roly-polies, caterpillars) visible in the garden
Weather
- Temperature
- Precipitation
- Windy or calm
- Snow on the ground
- Ice on water bodies
- People dressed in boots, coats, sandals, shorts, carrying umbrellas.
"Honesty" plant in bloom in spring.
"Honesty" plant seed pods in fall.
The scavenger hunt observations can be posted each month to make it easier to see how the observations have changed over the year. Some months no student will see a bee and other months every student will see some.
What other items should be added to an outdoor scavenger hunt list for your schoolyard?
Peggy
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2 Comments
Children will love the “hunt” aspect of this activity. Here in California where I teach, the change in seasons is often subtle but this task will help children see the signs. I would add ants, spiders, spider webs, earthworms, and butterflies to the insects and small animals list.
I am a preschool teacher working with 3 year olds at Head Start. I am in South Carolina, where the seasonal changes are generally very obvious. I am looking for new ways to introduce 3 year olds to nature, science, etc, that will hold their interest for more than 1 minute, and I think this activity may do it, and you can always add extensions to it if the children aren’t ready to transition to another activity.