Treasure hunt Encourage children to look carefully by asking them to find some unusual things in your garden or the park. It will improve their language development, basic maths skills and social skills. But best of all, it will teach them to enjoy being outdoors.

In this article

How long will it take? What you will need

Step-by-step guide Tips and advice

About an hour

• some friends to help them with their hunting
• a list of things to hunt for
• print out our Treasure Hunt worksheet
• a drink and snack to revive them after all their hard hunting

1 Give them a list of things to look for.

2 Here are a few ideas:

• Numbers - find leaves with 1/2/3/4/5/6/7 points
• Colours - find an example of all the colours in the rainbow, or try to match the colours on their clothing
• Shapes - find an example of a: circle, square, triangle, rectangle, oval, diamond, star, spiral...
• Vocabulary - find something: hard, soft, wet, dry, cold, hot, big, small, tall, short, beautiful, ugly, thick, thin, fragrant, smelly, prickly, smooth...
• Alphabet - find something beginning with each letter of the alphabet

3 Your children could have fun with all their friends finding all the things, or split them into two teams and see which team can find everything first.

• Ensure the children understand the basics of safety and security when outdoors, particularly if you do this in a public space. Use an area where you can see the children all the time, or at least where they can hear you if you call.
• Remind them not to:
  • speak to strangers
  • eat berries, leaves etc which they find
  • pick flowers or leaves but to find them on the ground
  • go off without being able to see you
  • break plants