Nature Sensory Scavenger Hunt

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I can't take credit for this one. Credit goes to a friend of mine who is an amazing outdoor educator. She created this activity for Camp Buckeye where we both do a little side teaching.
But it's just too good not to share.
You really only need an egg carton ('cause it makes it cool), some woods, a good idea of how to avoid poison ivy, a camera, and some simple art supplies.
Tailor this activity to match your child's age group be changing the number of 'holes' in the egg carton you use or the descriptive words you are searching for.
For the activity we did at camp, we used all 12 holes and listed the following adjectives along the top inside of the carton:
Smooth
Rough
Fragile
Dead
Alive
Red
Blue (*This one is really tough-- be creative!)
Spikey
Dry
Old
Beautiful
Soft
Once you've got all of your items collected, arrange your collection in a collage of some sort. You can spell out the first letter of your name or the letter of the week. You can lay them out, set them up, dump them out. Then simply take a photo and return your collection to nature, where it belongs.
When you've got your photo printed, either by home printer or commercial printing, mount it on some cardstock and decorate the outer part of the frame with the words that you used to describe the items in the collage.
This is an absolutely unique and creative project for children of all ages. Simple and can be the jumping point for so many discussions. Below is the sample I made to show the students at camp, but I am pretty sure my 6 and 8 year old kids can do much, much better.

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