Summer Scavenger Hunt

While trying to think of ways to keep your preschooler engaged during the summer, consider planning a summer scavenger hunt that could be done in your neighborhood! This could be accomplished all in one weekend walk or spread throughout many walks over the month. As a family, work together to create a one of a kind list. Get materials to create your list, such as poster board or paper, markers, and stickers to decorate. Depending on the age of your kiddo, allow them to help as much as possible. The more they are involved with creating the scavenger hunt list, the more they will want to do it!

Some of the items on the list could be things youd like your kiddo to work on that you would see in your neighborhood such as numbers, colors, shapes, and animals. For an extra touch, ours also is going to include random acts of kindness! I think it is a great way to have fun with the kiddos and spread some joy within our neighborhood. To start, I explained what a scavenger hunt was to my preschooler. We then talked about the different things he thought he would like to add to try and find within our neighborhood. You may even need to explain what a neighborhood is to your kiddo if they do not know or need a refresher. As we began to explore colors, numbers, shapes, and animals to find on our hunt, the list grew pretty quickly! He was able to come up with some neat things to try and find all on his own! One of the items he came up with is trying to find a big dinosaur! Maybe he will! 😊

I then told him I wanted to also include kind acts which we could add to our list to spread kindness in our neighborhood. Some of the acts of kindness we came up with include: Draw 3 chalk pictures or kind words in front of a house, Leave a happy picture/note on someone’s door, pick up 5 or more pieces of trash (gloves and sack needed that day), find a neighbor walking and give them a compliment, share some chalk with neighbor kiddos, and say hello to 3 people on the walk. He was thrilled to add these to the hunt and I was excited he was so involved with coming up with the ideas to create the entire list.

By having the conversation of kind things we could do in our neighborhood, it led to a bigger conversation of how to be kind in daily life to others! The activity of forming this scavenger hunt really kept my preschooler engaged and eager to start! So we started right away!

He was so excited to go on his hunt, we picked a few things off the list to search for on our first walk. While we were out we got to talk to new neighbors, met a few new kiddos, and overall had a great time! I am excited to see how much fun he will have with this throughout the rest of the summer and how proud he will be when it is all finished!

Ms. Whitney

Lead Pre-Kindergarten Teacher
Curriculum Coordinator