Newton Hills Nature Scavenger Hunt



Kendall and Disney

Yesterday we loaded the van for a short trip to Newton Hills State Park, which is about 30 minutes south of Sioux Falls to go on a hike and nature scavenger hunt.  Barby's kids- Kendall and Logan, AND their dog, Disney, their summer babysitter, Michelle, and Josiah's play date buddy, Owen, joined us. The weather was PERFECT--75 degrees, clear sunny skies and no wind...absolutely perfect conditions for a hike and picnic!

This activity was one of our Summer Bucket List activities.  I was inspired by Sun Scholars to make the hike a more meaningful, intriguing and fun by making it a NATURE SCAVENGER HUNT!  I cut out their pre-made cards and used tape runner to tape them back to back (to conserve laminating and make them less bulky), laminated them, single hole punched and attached them together with an O ring hook.  Now, we can use them again and again--while camping, in the back yard, on a field trip, at a park, etc... :)

Upon our arrival, I gave each child a set of cards and a brown paper sack and explained they could only pick up things that were on the ground and would fit into their bag.  That's it....it was that simple!  I decided not to complicate the fun by giving prizes, etc...and the kids never asked.  :)

Logan, Owen, and Josiah

Since I was headed to FedEx/Kinko's to laminate, I also took the opportunity to laminate several different versions of Road Trip Bingo cards I found at Mom's Minivan, Oppsey Daisy, and Homemaking Expert.  Again, I taped the games together (front and back) to conserve laminating.  Part of the van played these games on the way back from Newton Hills, but I am going to permanently keep them with some dry erase markers in a van seat pocket to use whenever road trip boredom strikes!