Junior Ranger: A Scavenger Hunt That Uses All Your Senses

A Junior Ranger activity from Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, for kids at home or outdoors.

How your senses label the world

Whether you are walking to the kitchen or following a trail in a park, your senses help you name everything around you. Try it: sit on your bed and notice what is near you. Your brain labels it without being asked — floor, ceiling, closet, door, clothes, blanket. Those labels live in your memory and help you get around.

Now move somewhere else. Your brain labels new things automatically, using sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. Some people lean on some senses more than others. If you could not see, how would you name what is nearby? Which senses could you use if you could not hear? How would you tell foods apart without taste, or smell? And some people cannot feel textures or temperature — how would their labels differ?

The hunt

This scavenger hunt is a little tricky: for each item, think of every way you could answer it with more than one sense.

For example, take the word hard. Hard as a rock? Hard to push? Hard like a tough maths problem? Something heavy, or sticky, or something you dislike? One word can mean many things. Give each item a different answer — or as many answers as you can think of.

Show your answers any way you like: record a story about your adventure, build a map from clay, take photos and make a collage, put on a play with everything you found, make a poster announcing your discoveries, or write a song about it.

Find…

1. something round with lots of colours;
2. something so soft you nearly missed it;
3. a bridge between two places;
4. something with too many parts to count;
5. exactly 14 of something;
6. something louder than loud;
7. a cloudy day, rainy or not;
8. a puzzle or a mystery;
9. something that makes you very, very sleepy;
10. a way to find your way back to where you started.

Wrapping up

• Which item was hardest to find? Which was easiest?
• Which one made you think the most?
• Which one had the most answers?

Then find a way to share what you made with someone. Well done!

Sources

• National Park Service, Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, "Junior Ranger: Stretch Your Senses Scavenger Hunt," part of the series Junior Ranger – Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/junior-ranger-stretch-your-senses-scavenger-hunt.htm
• More activities: Lake Roosevelt Junior Ranger.
• The article's photo of children with a magnifying glass carries no credit and looks like a stock photograph; it is left out.
• Rewritten in hubnx's own words.