Trolley Trail Day - Scavenger Hunt

TROLLEY TRAIL SCAVENGER HUNT

THINGS TO CARRY WITH YOU: a camera (or cell phone); a small litter bag; snack/lunch/picnic; reusable water bottle; *notebook and writing implement [Make your own notebook by folding several sheets of typing paper into quarters.  Five sheets makes 20 pages!  Bring a few colored pencils, crayons, etc.]

1.How many birds can you count as you walk along the trail? Keep a running total of every individual bird, and also see how many species you can name.  We will have bird identification guides at the Old parish House to help you identify any species you don’t know.  Try to take pictures!

2. College Park is TREEmendous! Pay attention to the trees you pass.  Which tree is the largest? Which is the smallest? Are any in bloom or bearing fruit? (Mulberries are ripe around this time of year.) How many types of tree can you identify? 

3.  What animals do you see along the trail? You might see pets as well as wild animals. Keep a count!

4.  How many people greet you as you walk? Try greeting people by saying “Good morning!” or “Good afternoon!” 

5.  How many people do you count on your walk who are wearing head phones? 

6.  Try sitting down for one minute on every bench you pass.  Use your five sense.  What do you see, hear, smell, touch, or taste? (You might be eating a mulberry!) 

7.  A Haiku is a Japanese poetic form with  three line, with syllabic pattern of five, seven, five.  Haiku are meant to reflect the beauty of nature as it changes through the seasons.  Pay attention to your surroundings as you walk the trail and see if you are inspired to write a haiku!

8.  If the Trolley Trail had its own mascot, what might you imagine it to be?   It could be a real animal, like a bison, or an imaginary one, like a squirrunk.

9.  Write a little song to sing as you walk along the Trail.  If you’ve never written a song before, adapt the words of an existing tune, like “walk walk walk the trail, gently down the way…. Merrily etc.  Have a lovely day!”

10.  Pickup any dropped trash or litter you find along the trail and dispose or recycle properly.  Hopefully you will not find any!  but if you do, write a five sentence story from the litter’s point of view about how it got there.  

11. Pay attention to textures of the objects you pass.  Use a piece of paper and crayon to take a rubbing of an interesting texture.  You could also take a very close up picture of the texture.  

12.  Photograph a tiny still life.

13.  If you pass a playground, play on the equipment.  Write an acrostic about the fun!

14.  Try to see a face in things that don’t have a face.  Make a drawing of the thing and the face you see in it. 

15. If you cross a bridge, loiter and look over the railings into the water.  How many fish do you see? Play a game of Pooh Sticks.  

16.  Lose a penny on the trail.  Find someone else’s penny (just one!).  What years do you find?  You could also lose other tiny things like a marble, a foreign coin, a tiny origami animal, a bead, etc.  

17.  If you pass a public notice board, leave a notice that is less than 2 inches square, with your favorite saying or your best advice on it. Read what other people have posted and copy down your favorites!

18.  Talk about the weather. What is specific about this very day? How does it feel to breathe the air? Make an eight count dance that expresses today’s weather.  

19.  Let your freak flag fly!  How do you show the world that you are unique?

20.  If you speak to someone who lives along the Trail, find out how long they have lived there and what their favorite memory of the Trail is.  

21.  Pick up a stick.  Imagine it becomes something else.  Play “animal, vegetable, mineral” and try to get your friends to guess what your stick has become.  

22.  Play eye spy with something you see far away.  Guessers must guess before you walk past the thing!

23.  Find a small stone and toss it ahead of you on the trail.  See how many ways you can approach the stone (hopping, gliding, super slo mo, etc).  

24. Have a picnic.  Offer to share with someone who comes along.  

25. Stop and smell the roses!  What is the very best smell you encounter along the trail?