Our senses are how we take in information from our world. Some kids are more sensitive to their senses and may become overwhelmed easily, and others seek out a lot of sensory input. I love scavenger hunts in general because they’re a very low-prep way to make learning interactive and fun. The other thing I love about scavenger hunts is that they are different every time you do them, all you have to do is change the environment you’re doing it in. Taking a different route on your walk in your neighborhood, going to a park, doing it at school. Or you can change the type of scavenger hunt you’re doing on the same route you take every day and you’ll be able to notice new things.
Scavenger hunts are generally going to be great for kids that are more in stages 5-6 in play because it requires some communication, following directions, working together, and sustaining attention and engagement.
Most scavenger hunts rely on sight. You can look for different colors, shapes, or specific items. It’s a great way to pause to notice different things and talk about it. Kids can work on expressive language, and two-way communication as they share what they notice. You can also compare and contrast the things you see. You may both see something that’s a shape of a square, but you can talk about how even though they’re both squares, they’re also very different. I’ve had times where kids found all the items very quickly, so they started counting and tallying how many of each item they found. So by the end we could also work on some math skills and talk about what shape we found the most of, and which shape was the biggest, and which shape was hardest to fine, etc.
How many times do we go on walks and actually spend time focusing on what we hear? We become so good at filtering out sounds sometimes. It’s fun to occasionally seek out sounds and see if we can find them.
Another thing I like to do with the kids I work with when we’re working on more executive skills like planning and organizing is to predict what kinds of sounds (or colors, or shapes, or objects) we might see on our walk and then we create our own scavenger hunt. Then we go out and try to find all of those things. It’s a fun way to work on a lot of different skills at once.
Go on a touch scavenger hunt. Find different textures and compare and contrast. Find something soft or rough or wet. Get dirty by jumping in puddles or playing in mud. Explore and discover all the different things that might be slimy, sticky, or smooth. Have conversations while you do it, and build vocabulary. We live in a world with a lot of different textures to feel. As you do this, you may discover what textures the child is really drawn to and which ones they tend to avoid.
Proprioception is how we take in information through our muscles and our joints. Vestibular is how we take in information through our inner ear and includes things like movement and balance. Some kids love a lot of movement and it helps them with emotional regulation. We can help them by finding ways to fill their cup, and doing a movement scavenger hunt is a great way to do it.
On your scavenger hunt you can find different things to jump off of, or to crawl under, or to balance on. Sometimes we’re too quick to stop kids from exploring by jumping off of something or climbing up something. With this activity you’ll be encouraging those types of activities.
Interoception is the sense that helps us notice and interpret what’s happening inside our body. Our feelings are part of that. Helping a child understand their emotions and what helps them to feel calm and regulated is a great way to find out what coping tools will be most effective for them. So go on a feelings scavenger hunt. Have the child find things that make them feel happy, or things that make them feel calm or loved. I’m sure you’ll learn a lot about the child through this one activity, and they might learn a lot about you too! This can be a great conversation starter for sure.
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