Printable Egg Carton Nature Scavenger Hunt

Simple Nature Scavenger Hunt Ideas for Children

This free printable Egg Carton Nature Scavenger Hunt takes advantage of the tendency that kids have to collect things. Not only are nature scavenger hunts fun for kids, they also encourage them to keep their eyes open and notice things they otherwise might not notice.

The concept is pretty simple. We attached a paper to an egg carton that had objects that could be found in our yard and would fit in an egg carton. I used some of the artwork that I had made for my nature calendars.

My daughter had a lot of fun looking for the objects and she found some other treasures along the way, too. Some of the items were easily found and some were a bit harder.

As you can see, we didn’t end up finding all the items, but that was okay. (We found the missing acorn later on a walk.) We had a lot of fun exploring nature. You can download the free printable egg carton scavenger hunt here. I’ve included two different versions- the one you see in the photos and a version I consider a bit easier. If you can’t find all the objects, that’s okay. It can lead to some good discussion about the differences in areas and seasons.

EGG CARTON HUNT

Other Nature Scavenger Hunt Ideas

Play a nature memory game.

Gather 5-10 objects from around your yard when your child isn’t looking. Make sure these are relatively easy to find. Show the child the objects for thirty seconds, and then see how many he can find without looking back at the original objects. This is a great game to improve concentration and memory skills. (I came across this idea in the book Sharing Nature with Children.)

Go on a nature walk and see how many different colors you can find.

Here are some of the “whites” we found on a recent walk.

And here are the “greens.” We don’t have a lot of color right now, so we had to look a little harder for different colors. This would be a fun activity to repeat in summer and see the difference.