classroom · scavenger hunt · free printable
Free Printable Nature Walk Scavenger Hunt
Something specific for every child to look for, and a rule to point at it rather than pick it.
Made by the PaperCarnival team · Updated
24 things to find · a fresh sheet for every child · US Letter & A4
- A leaf bigger than your hand
- A seed that travels on the wind
- A feather
- A flower with five petals
- Something growing out of a crack
- An insect on a leaf
- Animal tracks
- Something soft
- Two leaves of different shapes
- A cloud shaped like something
- Moss
- Tree bark with a rough pattern
A nature walk goes better when every child is looking for something specific. This hunt gives them twelve things to find, drawn from a list of twenty four, so the child beside them is holding a different sheet and copying gets nobody anywhere. Everything on it can be found on an ordinary walk: an acorn, moss, a feather, a leaf with holes chewed in it, a shadow taller than they are.
Print a stack and you are ready before you leave the room. The evergreen theme prints cleanly on plain paper, and each sheet ends with a “Found by” line so the completed hunts come back to the right child.
The rule worth setting before you go is to look rather than collect: find it, point at it, tick the box, leave it where it grew. If your grounds have their own landmarks, a particular tree or a pond or a bird that always turns up, open the hunt in the generator and write them in.
The things to find
Every item on the list, or edit the list in the generator
- An acorn
- A leaf bigger than your hand
- Tree bark with a rough pattern
- Moss
- A feather
- A smooth stone
- Something that makes a sound
- A seed that travels on the wind
- An insect on a leaf
- A spider web
- A Y-shaped twig
- A flower with five petals
- Something older than you
- A pinecone
- Animal tracks
- A bird high in a tree
- Something growing out of a crack
- Running or standing water
- A cloud shaped like something
- A leaf with holes chewed in it
- Two leaves of different shapes
- Something soft
- Something prickly
- A shadow longer than you are tall
Ways to run it
Every child a different list
Each sheet draws twelve items from the full list of twenty four, so children hunt rather than copy the person next to them.
Look, do not pick
Set the rule before you go: find it, point at it, tick the box. Nothing gets picked, pulled, or carried home.
Buddy pairs
Pair a confident reader with a younger child and give each pair one sheet. The hunt turns into a conversation about what they are looking at.
Back in the classroom
Collect the sheets and compare. Nobody found the same twelve things, which makes a natural start to a lesson on habitats or seasons.
Questions
Does every child really get a different sheet?
Yes. Each sheet is a different twelve-item selection from the full list, drawn by the page's own seed, so the same set prints the same way every time.
How many sheets should I print?
One per child. The buttons print ten or twenty at a time, and the generator will do any number you ask for.
What age is it for?
It works from about age four upward. Younger children do well in buddy pairs, and every item can be found by pointing rather than reading.
Can I change the items?
Yes. Open it in the generator and rewrite the list for your own park, playground, or school grounds.
Is there a place to write a name?
Yes, every sheet ends with a "Found by" line, so completed sheets come back to the right child.