Scavenger hunts and nature walks are a fun way to reinforce so many different early learning skills and get kids up and moving. We loved using our sense of hearing on a listening walk. It’s great for a five senses science activity!

Exploring the Outdoors with a Listening Walk

We read both My Five Senses by Aliki and The Listening Walk written by Paul Showers and illustrated by Aliki for this month’s Virtual Book Club for Kids. We discussed how our senses work together to help us learn about the world around us. Then we made a list of the different things the child heard in The Listening Walk, and we decided to take a listening walk of our own.

I wanted the girls to have something easy to carry along, so we made a simple paper plate recording sheet. I originally thought of making a printable to use, but I really wanted to incorporate some writing and drawing practice into the activity. Instead the girls created their own recording sheets.

We started by drawing lines down the back of the paper plate to make triangular sections. We drew four lines to create eight sections.

Then each child chose one thing from our list of items from The Listening Walk and added a picture and label to one of the sections on the plate. We continued until all the spaces were full. Lovey (age 5) did her plate on her own. I helped Tinker (age 3) as needed with labeling.

To help us keep track of the items we found we cut each line on the plate just to the inner circle. This left little tabs that could be folded back as we heard an item on our checklists.

This is Lovey’s finished recording plate. If you look closely you can see where the cuts were made.

Then it was time to head out for our listening walk. Tinker was excited to hear some of the items on her plate even before we left the driveway.

She had almost half of the tabs folded back before we even started walking. I had to grin when she proudly announced, “That’s because I’m a good listener!”

We found almost all of the items the girls predicted that they would find. The only one we were missing was sprinklers, but Lovey reminded us that we have to get up earlier if we want to hear the sprinklers…smart girl!

Extending the Activity

Since we prepared this activity just before moving I thought it would be fun to save the recording plates and do the activity again in our new neighborhood. This gave us the chance to explore things that are the same and different about both places. Even if you aren’t moving, you could try this activity in two different locations and discuss the differences.

You might also try and come up with a list of different items you might hear in your neighborhood that weren’t mentioned in The Listening Walk. Then create a new recording plate and test it out.

A Full Week of 5 Senses Lesson Plans

Continue learning about the five senses with our printable lesson plan set. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provide different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.