Science Sunday: Photo Scavenger Hunt Hike

Today, our field trip left us...

...smiling.

We hiked the rather tame...

...Sugarlands Valley Trail
of the Great Smokey Mountains.

I have grown up in the shadow of the
Great Smokey Mountains,
and yet I believe I have only hiked a handful
of its trails.

I do NOT want my kiddos to ignore this beautiful creation
(as I have been guilty of),
so I am going to make more of an effort
to get us hiking.

Now, my kiddos are still in the "young" category,
so the hike we did today was perfect.

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To increase the educational value of this field trip,
I created a photo scavenger hunt for the kiddos.

I put together a checklist for each kiddo
of natural items for them to look for.

When they found one of the items,

I would take a picture of it for them.
Here's a pine cone...

...an insect...

...a "worm"...

(or some kind of caterpillar-
not sure -
but it "passed" for the checklist)

...and a "mushroom."

(NOT a mushroom, but this was
closest thing we could find!)

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We also discovered many other
"treasures"
not on the checklist...

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Since we scared off all the mammals and birds
that we needed to find on the checklist...

...we went to the Sugarlands Visitors Center
to take a gander at the exhibits in the small museum.

We saw several mountain mammals...

...and birds, too!

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Again,
this field trip just left us
smiling!

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For more Science smiles,
head on over to
Science Sunday...