Literacy & ABCs
Math & 123s
Move & LearnPreschoolers13 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.
They could be hunting for 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.
Fun Scavenger Hunt for Preschoolers to Learn Letters & Numbers
This learning scavenger hunt I set up during naptime for Henry to 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!
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, Henry matched his uppercase letters to my written lowercase letters.
For numbers, it was a dice-type square with the corresponding dots for that number.
My setup simply consisted of some white butcher paper
(affiliate link) in which I wrote the lowercase letters and drew the numbered dice.
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 woke up, 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 to 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.
Update: 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.
30+ Scavenger Hunt Ideas for Kids To Do at Any Age
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
Paige says
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.
jen says
My 4-year old daughter loved this one. Thank you so much for sharing! God bless you.
Mama Durso says
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.
Erin says
Where did you get those big letters? Great for this! We only have little magnet ones right now.
Jamie Reimer says
Erin – they’re foam bath letters – here they are on Amazon (affiliate link): http://amzn.to/19fsHO9
Renee Lindo says
Love these scavenger hunt ideas. Never done it with numbers and letters. Great learning opportunity!
Andrea @ No Doubt Learning says
What a great lesson to incorporate matching capitals with lowercase letters as well!
~Andrea
Jamie says
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.