When we go on nature walks, I tend to draw Veronika’s attention to things we can see… a natural tendency, and of course a great way to help her hone skills of observation. But it can be easy to neglect other senses. So today we specifically focused on things we could hear on our walk instead!

Armed with a cute template, we set out on a sound “scavenger hunt”.

I loved this template because the pictures were cartoon-ish and easy for even a young toddler to understand. “Bird!” she said, looking at the drawings. “Plane!”

The template is also just right for this age because it only includes a few items, instead of an overwhelming list. Pretty soon, we could start to check items off.

We met a dog on our walk, who barked happily. “Dog!” she said. I showed Veronika the dog on her paper and helped her check it off. (Older toddlers will no doubt proudly make the check marks themselves).

Then she eagerly pointed when we heard a plane! And that earned a check.

A bird near the water caught her attention and she chased after it yelling out “tweet tweet!” So that one got a check, too.

There is ample space to add other sounds that you hear, so we drew in a little cartoon of the wind after listening to it rustle through the leaves.

Perhaps we’ll do a scavenger hunt for our sense of smell or touch on our next walk!