Literacy & ABCs
Math & 123s
Move & LearnPreschoolers37 Comments
This learning scavenger hunt for preschoolers is one of our 32 scavenger hunt ideas for kids, and one of my absolute favorites.
Scavenger hunts are always great for days when we need to get moving. I often start them while I’m making supper, asking the kids to go find something. Whether it be something that’s a certain color, starts with a certain letter, a number of items, and so on. It usually will keep them busy while I’m trying to get something done.
This one I set up during naptime to have Henry do when he woke up.
Preschoolers can practice upper and lowercase alphabet recognition, along with counting while going on a scavenger hunt around the house!
MORE ACTIVITIES YOU MIGHT LIKE
I posted briefly about this activity back during the 30 Days to Hands on Play Challenge. But since it was a challenge day, I didn’t want to get into the details of what the activity all involved.
The challenge day was to “Go on a Hunt”. And that’s what we did.
A letter and number scavenger hunt for preschoolers to match!
But, I added more to it than that.
Once the letters and numbers were found, Henry had the job of matching them to their corresponding counterpart.
For letters, it was their lowercase match.
For numbers, it was a dice looking square with the corresponding dots for that number.
My setup simply consisted of some white butcher paper
I placed one of each number and letter on the paper to show Henry how to match them.
I hid the foam letters and numbers (affiliate link) around the house during nap. When Henry awoke, he was ready for his hunt to begin.
This was so fun watching him, first of all, go look for the letters, but to then come back to the paper and find where to put it.
Some he knew quickly, and others he really had to concentrate and really figure it out.
The numbers proved to be the most difficult, making him work on one-to-one correspondence and his counting.
At that time, Henry could easily count to five consistently, but 5-10 were sometimes mixed up. Though he could do it. (Six months later, he’s counting to 12 consistently! Amazing how fast the child’s mind grows, isn’t it?)
We love to do scavenger hunts around here, but I often struggle with finding fun new fresh ideas on what to ‘hunt’ for. And I love this learning version of the hunt. I hope to come up with some more learning scavenger hunts for different areas of learning.
32 Scavenger Hunt Ideas for Kids To Do
1, 2, 3 Counting Maze for Preschoolers
10 Active Activity Ideas to Learn the Alphabet
Learning Upper and Lowercase Letters on the Sidewalk
16 Counting Activities for Preschoolers
As a preschool teacher in training, I could not come up with any craft ideas with meaning. I am a crafter but, I was stumped for this age group. Until I saw your site. Thank you for the great ideas.
My 4-year old daughter loved this one. Thank you so much for sharing! God bless you.
Genius! My kids are sick with hand, foot and mouth disease (ick), so they don’t really feel bad anymore, but they’re still contagious so I need something fun for them to do tomorrow. I’m definitely doing this!! Thank you so much for sharing all of your fabulous ideas.
Where did you get those big letters? Great for this! We only have little magnet ones right now.
Erin – they’re foam bath letters – here they are on Amazon (affiliate link): http://amzn.to/19fsHO9
Love these scavenger hunt ideas. Never done it with numbers and letters. Great learning opportunity!
What a great lesson to incorporate matching capitals with lowercase letters as well!
~Andrea
He knew most of them at this time, just a few he struggled with – such as q and p. So it was great practice for him.