This outdoor scavenger hunt for kids is a great way to enjoy a little outdoor education in the most fun way possible! Kids will love finding the items on the list and covering them with the cute print and cut stickers!
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I’ve always been a big fan of scavenger hunts – I mean I’ve shared over 50 scavenger hunt ideas so you could say I like them a bit.
But I can’t believe that up until now I haven’t done an actual outdoor scavenger hunt. I’ve done an indoor scavenger hunt, a nature scavenger hunt, and even a neighborhood scavenger hunt – but an outdoor one, not so much!
So today’s post is all about a super simple outdoor scavenger hunt that you can make at home and do with your kids to enjoy this beautiful fall weather.
It’s a fun way to not only get outside but also a fun way to work on finding things, reading, and even hand coordination with taking off and placing stickers.
Speaking of stickers, I decided to make stickers to put on the items as you find them because I did it with a Disneyland Halloween scavenger hunt this year, and it was so much fun I knew my kids would love it!
And they did! The stickers were a huge hit, and I’ll be doing them for as many of my scavenger hunts in the future as possible. Way more fun than just crossing things off or checking something on a checklist.
Supplies
Supply Notes
- Cricut Machine – I personally used my Cricut Maker for this project but only because it was the closest one to me. This could easily be a Cricut Explore Air 2 project or a Cricut Joy project (if you resize a bit) as well. So just use what you have!
- Cricut Mat – You can either use a StandardGrip (pictured) Mat or a LightGrip Mat, either one will hold the card stock and sticker paper just fine!
- Printable Sticker Paper – one of my absolute favorite things to do with my Cricut machines is to make stickers. This printable sticker paper lets you print out designs and then turn them into stickers. I’ve done everything from images available as part of Cricut Access to pictures that my son has drawn that I scanned in and turned into stickers!
- Fine Point Blade – you’ll need a fine point blade to cut both the card stock and the stickers in this project. A fine point blade works on all three of the machines!
- White Card Stock – you can use Cricut card stock, but it only comes in 12×12 so if you do, you’ll need to cut it down to fit into your printer. Otherwise, just use regular size white card stock paper.
- Scissors – your Cricut machine will do the majority of the cutting but I typically like to have scissors on hand for things like cutting the sticker sheets in half.
How Do You Make an outdoor scavenger hunt?
I made this project in just a few minutes by using fonts and images available with Cricut Access in Cricut Design Space! It was so much easier than buying or designing my own clipart and Cricut Access has so many images available, it was a no-brainer for this project!
That being said, I already made this outdoor scavenger hunt for you so you don’t have to design anything – just print and cut your scavenger hunt. Then do the hunt of course!
1 – Open the Design Space File
You can get the design space file here. It includes one outdoor scavenger hunt printable as well as two copies of the stickers that go along with the scavenger hunt. I did two sets of stickers to save on the printable sticker paper – I figured other people might have more than one kid who wanted to do the scavenger hunt at home too!
You can either choose to go ahead and make it exactly like I did or customize the size if you want. If you make it a bit smaller, you could likely get two scavenger hunts on a page and save a little paper if you’re printing multiples!
Tip!
If you do resize, your final flattened image needs to be smaller than 9.25 x 6.75 inches to be able to work with the print and cut feature. Whether you’re doing one larger copy or two smaller copies on one page, the size of them combined will need to be within those parameters to print and cut.
2 – Print and Cut the Outdoor Scavenger Hunt
Once you’ve finished customizing (or not) the file, click the Make It button. Use the print function to print out as many copies of the scavenger hunt as you want.
Once it’s printed, place the scavenger hunt on your mat with the design face up. Load it into your Cricut Machine, choose card stock as your material, and follow the prompts to cut the scavenger hunts.
You could technically skip this step and just cut using scissors, but I’ll tell you right now – the edges are way cleaner with the Cricut than any scissor cutting. My ability to cut a straight line ever since owning a Cricut is embarrassing.
And just look at how perfectly that cut!
3 – Print and Cut the Stickers
The last step of this is why I really chose to use my Cricut for this scavenger hunt – the stickers!
I mentioned it before, but my kids have loved all of the fun scavenger hunts we’ve done at Disney that come with a set of sticker, and that gave me the idea to do this.
It’s a little more complicated than just printing out a printable scavenger hunt, but it makes it feel like more of an outing, more of an adventure, than just crossing things off a list.
And I’m all about fun family adventures these days, even if it’s really just a walk around the block!
Anyway, back to making the stickers.
Once you’ve printed out the scavenger hunts, Cricut Design Space should prompt you to print out the stickers. Print them out on the Cricut Sticker Paper, making sure to load the paper correctly according to your printer so that the design prints on the sticker part (not the back).
Then choose the printable sticker paper option as your material, load design up onto the mat, and let the Cricut machine do its thing!
The reason I LOVE using my Cricut to make stickers like this is because it cuts them perfectly every time so you can easily pull the stickers off without the backing and without ripping the stickers.
Even my youngest son can do it! Speaking of my youngest son, I specifically kept these as simple circle stickers rather than cutting around the designs (totally possible) so that younger kids can peel the place the stickers themselves.
And that’s it – you’re done! Your outdoor scavenger hunt is ready to go!
So let’s talk about how to actually use this scavenger hunt!
How to Do an Outdoor Scavenger Hunt
Give each person who is playing their very own outdoor scavenger hunt sheet PLUS a sheet of stickers. I like to take it to the back of the scavenger hunt, but you could also just hand it to them to hold.
Once everyone has their hunt and stickers, it’s time to head outside!
Walk around and find the items on the list! I kept the list pretty short, but if you want more ideas to look for – this alphabet scavenger hunt has tons of other items to find too!
When you find an item on the list, peel the matching sticker off the sticker sheet and place it on top of the scavenger hunt to show that you’ve found it!
Keep finding items and placing stickers on top of the scavenger hunt as you find them. Keep going until you’ve found all of the items and your scavenger hunt list is all topped with stickers instead of the original list you started with!
And that’s it! You can make it a little more competitive by seeing who can find all of the items first or just stick with keeping it easy and fun for everyone!
Scavenger Hunt FAQs
What should I look for in an outdoor scavenger hunt?
Each of the items on this outdoor scavenger hunt have labels that go along with the picture (so both older and younger kids can enjoy). You can interpret the labels as loosely as you want (e.g., trash could be a trash can, a trash bin, or even just a piece of trash). Some of the other items on the list include a bug of any kind, a ball of any kind, and a fence.
How does the scavenger hunt end?
Once you’ve found all of the items on the list, the outdoor scavenger hunt is over. You can either have a fun surprise waiting for anyone who completes it or just enjoy doing the activity and learning together!
More Scavenger Hunts
If you liked this outdoor scavenger hunt, you’ll love these other fun scavenger hunt ideas!
- Virtual scavenger hunt – this is a fun one you can play with friends and family across the world through Zoom or another video chat app!
- Christmas scavenger hunt – tons of clues and riddles to setup a Christmas scavenger hunt that’s great for kids!
- Birthday scavenger hunt – a super fun way to celebrate someone’s birthday and give them a birthday surprise!
- Fall scavenger hunt – a great way to enjoy the fall weather and another fun way to get outdoors!
- Halloween scavenger hunt – a spooktacular way to give kids a Halloween trick or treat!
