Plant Scavenger Hunt Freebie

It is time for another freebie! Who likes free stuff? Me…me….me…

In a few days, my family will be visiting a botanical garden. When I say botanical garden, you are probably picturing beautiful flowers, trickling fountains, blossoming trees, trailing vines crawling up arbors, and manicured landscaping beds. Now, add in three loud, rambunctious, tree-climbing, flower-picking, vine-swinging little boys to your serene picture. Now your view is complete. Wonder why my hubby is a little concerned about the trip?

But, never fear…..mama is here!

A Plant Scavenger Hunt

The mission? Keep theirs hands busy in an effort to decrease the squashed flowers, broken tree branches, and ruffled mulch. While we are at it, I will teach them a little bit about plants!

The method? Give them a list of several generic things that would be found in nearly any botanical garden. As we stroll the grounds, I will have them check off as many items on their list as possible. It’s like a treasure hunt…..but with less “Arrrr…..matey”…..hopefully!

The reward? If they find the majority of the items on the list, then I will give them a treat.

How to Use Your Scavenger Hunt

1. Download and save your free copy. If you don’t know how to do that, see the instructions below.
2. Print it off. (You can print one copy for the whole family or print a copy for each child.)
3. Educate your kids. Before embarking on your hunt, you might want to give your kids some background info on plants. See the ideas for background info below.
4. Decide on a reward or treat.
5. Hunt!
6. In order to see the full value of the scavenger hunt, you might consider doing the same hunt 2-3 times at different locations on different days. Repetition breeds familiarity! Maybe the first time you could do a family hunt. During this time, you are educating your kids and showing them the answers. The second time you do it, they could work alone, but are able to ask questions and clarifications from Mom. The third time you do it, they could be asked to do it mostly alone.

Botany Resources

In an effort to maximize the learning experience, I have been reading some plant books to my kids. Some of the terminology on the scavenger hunt will be a bit hard if they haven’t studied it. First of all, we studied the backs of our Ecology Science Cards from Classical Conversations. Next, we read some books. Here are the books I used:

Here are some online resources:

A to Z Home’s Cool- Botany

The Kid’s Garden- Flower Anatomy

Magic School Bus Gets Planted

Magic School Bus Goes to Seed

Would you like a free copy of my Plant Scavenger Hunt?

To thank you for your support, I would like to offer a free copy of my scavenger hunt to my subscribers. In addition to my Plant Scavenger Hunt, you can still download the free copy of my ebook, “Teaching Boys to Practice Spelling.” How do you get your freebies?

• Already a friend? If you have already made yourself a friend and subscribed to updates from Teaching Boys, then just look in the bottom of this post in your email or reader. The links to the freebies are located in the footer. Enjoy! Thanks for being my friend!
• Want to become friends? Subscribe to updates from Teachingboys.net. You can subscribe in the right sidebar on my homepage. Once you are signed up, you will receive updates through your email or reader. (You will have to wait until I publish another post. Waiting is so hard, isn’t it?) At the bottom of the update there will be a footer. Inside the footer there will be a link for you to download the freebies….for free! Welcome, friend!

Enjoy!