Measuring Scavenger Hunt

nothing nicer than doing a measuring scavenger hunt in comfy pajamas

Part of the joy of homeschooling is that you can create learning opportunities tailor made for your children, utilizing the things that they love and that appeal to their minds, without having to resort to worksheets or table work all the time.  First off, that can be ridiculously difficult and comes with a lot of pressure.  But, moving on.  Without trying to get too deep into learning styles and best practices for retention and meaningful application (blah blah blah blaaaaah), the trick can sometimes be as easy as thinking about what the kids like to do, then applying a visual morph of that activity and the material to learn.  Today, I will be morphing the amazingly awesome scavenger hunt with measuring and graphing. Voila.  Brilliant. Not as cool as morphing a hot air balloon and a zebra, but it'll do for today.

Checking to make sure they got everything

The secret is that, as is true with many of my brilliant ideas, it was more an accident than an intention.  Instead of measuring a bunch of lines on a paper, or even a bunch of drawn circus animals (which I did last week, and was more fun than boring lines), I decided to add a little movement and draw a bunch of objects in our house which they were to locate, measure and record.  After a brief discussion on how we measure things (this wasn't our first encounter with measuring), I gave them a ruler, a tape measure, and the clipboard with the drawings, and sent them off to measure the items.  Honestly, I didn't even think they would see it as a fun scavenger hunt.  I just wanted them to get out of their seats a bit.  But it didn't take long to realize how awesome this was for them.  They were quite sad when they found all nine items and had to stop.

And then, as they were going to graph their data, still basking in the glow of my brilliance, I realized how terrible terrible terrible my format was. Granted, when I started it, I did not realize (or plan) exactly what I was doing, so it ended up looking a bit messy and confusing.  It was rather horrid.  But, has potential.  Perhaps you can learn from my mistakes:

1. I did not provide proper space for recording the lengths.  (and then had to number the entry spaces in addition to the drawings which confused the kiddos)
2. I did not line up and organize my drawings/data entry spaces nicely.  This would have made it so much easier to use.  It was confusing for them to figure which data entry belonged with which picture.
3. Too many numbers all over the place!   
1. I numbered the images and data spaces, which were then filled in with numbers, which combined with the mistake below, made it quite confusing as well.
2. I didn't measure the things myself.  I just looked for small items and assumed they would work, which they did, except when the #4 drawing was 3" and the #3 drawing was 4" and then they were trying to transfer the data to a graph.  If I'd taken the time to look at approximate lengths, and perhaps label, instead of number, the drawings, the poor boys wouldn't have had such a hard time keeping track of where they were on the page.
3. The columns on the bar graph were numbered, to correspond with the numbered drawings, which also had numbered data spaces, with numbers written in the spaces.  Again, I should have labeled the drawings as "globe", "stapler", etc.  and written those labels on the graph instead of numbering. 
4. The graph I provided for them to fill out had labels at the top, which made them want to graph down; which would have been fine, except I had numbered up from the bottom on the left side.  Bad planning.  Actually, no planning. Just bad.  

This stuff is so obvious to everyone else in the world that it is embarrassing.  Its been a while since I prepared graphs.  I'm sure there were lots of other mistakes, but those are the major ones I will take to heart when doing this sort of activity again.  

Trying their best to transfer their data to a bar graph, despite my terrible and confusing format

Baz doesn't really like coloring.  Crazy, I know.

I know.  Its just awful.

Other ways to use the scavenger hunt activity:

• Long walks in the stroller or drives in the car - I've done special drawings for highway driving, inner city driving, 5 mile neighborhood walks through the neighborhood, walking route to the store.  I make them double-sided and stick them in clear paper sleeves.  With dry erase markers, they can do theirs on either side, wipe them clean and trade. 
• Phonics/Reading - finding things with particular phonetic sounds or endings, out of finding different letters or words on items in the pantry
• Math - looking for things in sets 2 - 10.  Draw pictures of certain items, which the kids have to count and record, or make equations with the drawings (for example, # of shoes + # of coffee cups = ), finding certain objects and guessing what is heavier, family data (height, weight, age, etc.)
• Science - measuring specific objects outside in nature; looking for the smallest stick/leaf/tree/rock you can;   Collect 10 rocks/sticks/leafs and guess longest, shortest, etc, then measure; Look for shadows and measure, recording source and time of day, etc.

Any great ideas you'd like to share?  I'd LOVE to hear them.  And you might include any helpful tips for people like me:)