Rainbow Nature Scavenger Hunt

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A couple of years ago, my daughter and I went on a super simple Rainbow Nature Scavenger Hunt. This makes a great Forest School Activities, as it is all about exploring the local environment. Only taking pictures! Though it would also compliment any Colorful Nature Crafts projects!

How to have a photography nature scavenger hunt
All photos taken by my then 9yrs old on an iphone 8

What are Nature Scavenger Hunts?

Scavenger hunts are a quick way to engage children outdoors, as well as help burn off some energy. It can be as simple as “find me something green” or specific as “fine me a birch tree leaf”.

Depending on how old and knowledgeable they are you can make the hunt easier or harder.

Hunting leaves would make a great project – once home you can categories it and look up the leaves and see what trees they belong to. But I digress!

Photo Scavenger Hunts

Photo Scavenger Hunts, takes the idea of a nature scavenger hunt one step further. Instead of collecting items, you go out to find them and PHOTOGRAPH them. A great project for practicing your photography skills – and later also doing some basic photo edits on your smart phone!

You can also make these into photo challenges – as we did with our Rainbow Nature Hunt at the end.

Our Rainbow Hunt

All these flower photos where taken by my 9yrs old! Needless to say, we took MANY more, they are just a sample selection!

orange flowers

As mentioned, one year, my daughter and I went on a mission to photograph all the colours of the rainbow.  It was a fun way at looking all the nature around us and trying to find all the colours of the rainbow. Of course we ended up with lots of the “same colour”, but we went through them at the end and picked out our favourite to make a rainbow collage.

yellow flowers

Luckily, it was mid-summer (May), so it was nice and easy as so many plants were in full blossom. We included everything on our walk – from flowers in front gardens to leaves in the park.

pink flowers

Part of the fun once home, was was to sort through the photos, find our favourite ones, crop them and put them together in a rainbow collage (We used the “Layout” app to collage them)!

purple flower

It was a super simple project, it damaged no nature and yet, it made us look closely at everything around us.

Spring and summer are of course a perfect time for a colour hunt. Everything is coming to life at this time of year. Flowers are blossoming, leaves are growing – and you will find many shades of green.

Extension Idea

Create our own rainbow nature scavenger hunt!

Isn’t it pretty? The resolution (on my phone) is actually very good. I think we could do an art print of this, or make some greeting cards to send to friends and family!

See if you can identify the plants you found!

You can create a little flower and fauna booklet of your local environment.

Other Photo Nature Scavenger Hunt Ideas

Or if you are out early, have the children spotted due droplets caught on a spider’s web? Forst makes stunning patterns on both nature and or car windscreens. Beautiful to find and photograph.

There is always something magical to discover and photograph all year round.

You can also make it a project about exploring shades of green or browns.

Again, a photo scavenger hunt has endless possibilities. You can do it all on one walk, or create a collection of photos over a period or holiday.

Photo Butterfly Hunt or Bug Hunt

Last summer, we collected bug photos and butterfly photos –a great way to understand and explore your local environment.

Some bugs, such as stag beetles, are on the endangered species lists. So if you spot one, you can then record it online in national data bases. The wonderful thing about a photo scavenger hunt is that it can engage all age groups – from the youngest to teens.

Many teens love experimenting with photography and it is a simple project that isn’t difficult to take part in and no teen can claim to be “rubbish at”.

Once you have your collection of photos, you can also combine them with some inspirational nature quotes?! How lovely!

I hope you are inspired to go on your own Photo Nature Hunt! We really did have a lovely day!

Check out more Nature Based Ideas here:

Colourful Nature Craft Ideas for kids

Check out more Forest School Ideas here:

Forest School Ideas

Listen to my Nature Activities Podcast here.