Kid woodsmanship fun...help needed

[Mike Vines]

My wife had a great idea to get kid's minds tuned into the great outdoors by doing a Scavenger Hunt at our Spring Shoot for kids age 15 and under and they MUST work in teams (promotes working together to achieve a common goal).  Now to ask you all for a little help...

What do you think would be good items out in the Michigan Woods (don't want kids looking for Arizona cactus)that would be enjoyable for a kid to look for and discover?  

She has thought about pine cones, 3 leaf clover(don't have all summer to find a 4 leaf), perfect marshmallow roasting stick and most importantly 1 piece of trash per team member (teaches them to clean up the woods).

Any other ideas?  She would really like to give the kids in attendance something else to look forward to.

Thanks in advance,

Mike

[BDann]

I had my kids do a treasure hunt using a compass.  We went over the basics on how to use it and follow a heading.  On the "treasure map" I had them follow a certain heading for so many steps, then another heading, etc.  They had a blast and wanted to keep doing more.

[Soonerlongbow]

Turkey feathers if a lot in the area.

[TRAP]

perfect branches for a slingshot.  Give each team the tools minus the Y-shaped branch to make them and them have a small team competition with them.

Morel mushrooms, other edibles. Acorns,Blackberries etc.

How about medicinal roots such as bloodroot, ginseng?

Turtle shells, shed antlers, feathers etc. (hollow bones can become game calls)

Trap

[Shaun]

What time of year?

More than ONE piece of trash - make it 5

A good walking stick

Fire making supplies, kindling, twigs, firewood

Bird nest (old one from last year)

Poison Ivy (take a cell ph pic)

[Mike Vines]

It will be in early May.  As neat as slingshots are, I will leave that responsibility to THEIR parents.  Very good ideas guys.  Please keep them coming.

[Stump73]

What about give each team a certain tree species and collect a leaf from it.
If each team has at least on cell phone have them find several different animal tracks and take pictures of them and have them tell you what each track is.

[nineworlds9]

owl pellets? shed snakeskins?

[lpcjon2]

How about a different colored arrow for each team that they can trade in for a pocket knives for each member. You can buy a lot of 50-100 small pocket knives from Smokey Mountain knife works for real cheep, less than a $100.00 bucks.

[Sean B]

Owl pellets were a great idea, deer/turkey scat,(not to bring it back though) newts in a pond, white and red oak leaves,  sassafras leaves,   Maybe IDing selected birds??

[Sean B]

NY DEC has a really cool magazine called The Conservationist.  It's geared toward kids.  You can check it out on their website. You may be able to get ideas there.  I'll see if I have some issues laying around.

[lpcjon2]

Mike I sent you a PM

[Hawken1911]

Hi Mike,

Sandi ran a scavenger hunt for the kids at our autumn Archery-Q.  Here's her list:

___Wild Flower
___Fossil
___Berry
___Blade of grass
___Clover leaf
___Moss
___Y-shaped twig
___Pebble
___Thorn   
___Pine needle
___Acorn
___Hickory Nut
___Yellow Leaf
___Red Leaf
___Orange Leaf
___Wild Grape
___Feather
___Long Marshmallow Stick

[Hawken1911]

BTW- I think she broke it down into a few age groups.  The youngest kids had to find 5 items, the next group 10, and the oldest kids 15.  After they collected enough items they received a prize.

[Roger Norris]

Blue Jay Feathers.
Turkey Feathers.
Any feather.
A piece of fur....I see rabbit fur all the time, or hairs from a whitetail.
Trash is a great suggestion.
A snail shell.
Cattail fuzz.
Tinder (gets them thinking about what could become tinder in an emergency)
Have them make an arrow from materials they find.

[Bill Carlsen]

Why stop with the kids. Why not have a blood trail for the hunters in the group to figure out. We did that for a hunter ed course and it was quite interesting.

[lpcjon2]

What did you come up with

[Mike Vines]

There is whole list of stuff, and there are more than a few parents (and kids) that wiew this website that will be at the shoot so I'm unable to say so nobody gets an advantage over the rest. Your gonna have to wait, or better yet, come to the shoot to find out.  I do like and thank you all for the suggestions.

[lpcjon2]

Good thinking.

[So-Mo Archer]

The blood trail idea is a good one. You could put up one for the adults that is more realistic, but could do one for the kids that is a little less intense. (Know what I mean?) The trash requirement needs to be upped, I think, and how about putting animal tracks on the list. The kids could do a phone pic or a drawing of the tracks.

I'm interested in this thread a lot, as I help out with my   son's Cub Scout pack, and this would be a great activity for them as well.