Forest Animal Rhyming Treasure Hunt

How would you like to discover a hidden treasure?  Maybe stumble across a chest full of emeralds, sapphires and diamonds? Or, uncover a case of gold.  Think of all the children’s books you could buy!

Kids get that same level of excitement when we say, “Let’s have a treasure hunt.”  The cool thing is that they don’t care if the treasure is a pot of gold or a piece of chocolate.  It’s really all about the adventure.

Get ready for a lively hunt incorporating our forest animal theme from the Teach Early Childhood Education team this week. We are going to rhyme our way to lots of learning fun.

Rhyming Treasure Hunt

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Learning to rhyme helps kids listen for similarities in sounds.  These pre-reading skills build a foundation for learning to read.

Setting Up

Print out the forest animals and cut apart.  I’ve included a free printable of the animals for you.  There are two sets to choose from. Each set includes a moose, hedgehog, deer, bear, owl and fox. One set is in color and the other is in black and white. We chose to print ours in black and white so the kids could color them.  It’s a clever way to work on fine motor skills.

DOWNLOAD FOREST ANIMALS HERE

We also placed our animals in sandwich bags because it was a pretty windy day to give them a little more weight.  You might also glue them to piece of cardboard.

On the sidewalk or driveway, draw two columns and divide each column into six boxes with sidewalk chalk.  In one column, draw a picture of each of these things: goose, box, towel, ear, log and chair.  Put one object in each box.

The print out I’ve included also has the a copy of the treasure hunt clues to read to the kids.

Right before it is time to play, hide each animal in the following spots: mailbox, grass, tree, bush, garage and the door.

Treasure Hunt Clues

Read each rhyme and have the kids find a forest animal in each rhyming location.  Just a reminder that these clues are in the printable download.

To find this animal go open the thing that rhymes box.   box and _______ (mailbox)

Get your eyes ready to spot the next animal hiding in the word that rhymes with brass.  brass and _____(grass)

Look under the word that rhymes free.  free and ____(tree)

You might just find the next animal near the word that rhymes with store.  store and _____(door)

Could there be an animal hiding in the word that rhymes with mush.  mush and ____(bush)

Run to the word that rhymes with collage and you will find another animal.  collage and ____(garage)

Rhyme Sort

Once the animals have been collected, have the kids bring them to the chalk grid.  Match each animal with the a picture that rhymes.  Place the animals in the correct boxes.

Treasure Treat

The treasure hunt is complete.  Time to enjoy the treasure treat.  We enjoyed a handful of pretzel “sticks” to complete our forest adventure.

Now, try one of these forest animal ideas from our Early Childhood Education Team members.