Little Man and I have been having some fun learning and cementing a few preschool basics. Along with plenty of free and imaginary play when we’re home, as these are the things he happily gravitates towards, we’ve been working on a few of the basics that will help to ease him into school life this September. As with most learning, he takes it in much better when he can move and run about and turn it into a game, in this case, a scavenger hunt.
As you can see from the picture, we have a handily coloured rug that means playing this as a colours version is easy to do – I don’t need to shout any colours out, they just work their way down the rug!
Depending on the children’s abilities, this can be played as a game where you shout out what they need to collect, or you give them a sheet with the details. For non-readers, using images can make this possible, though the shout out method will probably work better for you.
Ideas for scavenger hunts:
Find items beginning with certain letters
Find items that are a certain colour
Find items that are a certain shape
Find a particular number of items
Find items that rhyme with…
Find items that are soft
Find items that are made from plastic
Find items that are shiny
Find items with pointy edges
Then more specifically, you could try lists such as:
Find items that make a noise
Find items that make you smile
Find items that smell nice
Find items that are useful
The list is endless, and can be adapted to whatever you’re learning or the ages of the children playing.
Little Man really enjoys this and we play it in some form or another most days now. He is good with his numbers and colours, so I tend to start there to warm him up then we move onto letters as he’s just started learning those. Boo loves to play this too, at 7 years old, as it’s all about the scrambling around to find things for her. The fun is in the game and though she’s not learning when she plays Little Man’s versions, I do pop in a few extra finds for her to challenge her more.
This is one that can be played alone or with others either competing against one another or working together, whatever suits!
Would your children enjoy this?
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I believe learning through play is key with all children. If you make it fun and exciting, they will want to learn. I love your scavenger hunt with all your fab variations!
Exactly, they love playing this!