Hi y'all! I'm Ayn and I am a Ga. Pre-K teacher, serving 4 and 5 year olds in an inclusive setting. I share my classroom adventures on my blog, little illuminations.
Now that summer is here, many families are hitting the road taking trips and vacations. There are many ways to keep the kids entertained while travelling without having to rely on dvd players or video games the entire trip. Today I'm sharing a few suggestions to help kids enjoy their travel time in the car or at the hotel.
ABC/Sight Word Scavenger Hunt
Find each letter of the alphabet on billboards or signage as you pass. We like to skip some of the more elusive letters, like "Q", and keep them for bonus letters. If your child is reading, he can search for sight words on passing billboards.
Car Color Bingo
Each child picks a car color, the less common the better. Count the number of cars of that color in a given time period. This year I taught several boys who were obsessed with a particular truck or car type. Every field trip we took, one little fella would point out every Ford F150 truck we passed. He'd pick a color, silver, for instance, and count the number of silver F150's we'd pass. My own kids used to narrow it down by car type, as well, usually favoring an unusual color VW Bug.
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| photo from: http://www.longislandpress.com |
Count Animal Types
Have the kids see how many different kinds of animals they pass. Especially when travelling through rural areas, you might be surprised at some of the animals you might see!
Vacation Item Scavenger Hunt
Select a few items that you might see on your trip. If you are visiting the beach, some items may include shells, driftwood, crabs, fishing boats, etc. A scavenger hunt for camping might include items such as rocks, pine cones, sticks, tents campers, etc. It's fun to add an open ended item or two. At the beach, I might suggest finding an additional ocean animal, in the woods, maybe finding a stick shaped like a letter of the alphabet. For older children, make a list and for the younger ones, find a small clip art picture of each item. I'm including 3 examples of some of the scavenger hunts we've done on our annual family beach trips.
Beach Scavenger Hunt with pictures
Beach Scavenger Hunt Lite
Beach Scavenger Hunt For Older Kids
Have the kids take along a little notebook or journal and record something about their activities each day. They can draw a picture or write a story. Another great way to record ideas is to allow them to collect brochures and maps of the places they visit, cut out pictures from the brochures and paste on to their journal pages. If your child is not writing yet, be sure to have them dictate a little about their journal entries. These are so much fun to look at later!
this is definitely a fun idea bud! Id try this out with my kiddos :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jenny! We love the scavenger hunts and do them at the beach every year. We have 14 kids, of all ages, and they all really enjoy this! :)
DeleteGreat ideas for traveling with kids, Ayn! Your beach scavenger hunts look awesome, too, although I couldn't get the links to work. They said permission was needed to access the items. I pinned your post to my Traveling with Kids Pinterest board at http://pinterest.com/debchitwood/traveling-with-kids/
ReplyDeleteThanks for checking this out, Deb! I changed the security settings (I didn't even realize there were locks on it) so folks should be able to view the links now. And Thanks for pinning, too!!! :)
DeleteGREAT ideas! I'm so glad I came across this. For my son's birthday we ordered some beach toys from toysplash.com, which will keep the kids busy for at least 3-4 hours. But after they get enough sun, a scavenger hunt sounds great later that night! :)
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