Your whole family is invited to have a blast exploring your local park or playground searching for different shapes while getting some exercise and fresh air. To pick-up your self-guided scavenger hunt worksheet look for the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts staff member or volunteer near the playground, and don't forget to bring something to write with!

Then search for natural objects for 15 minutes. When you find one, look for shapes in it. Draw the natural object you see next to the shape on the Shapes Tally Chart. Make a tally mark in the box next to the drawing. Can you find at least one natural object for each shape on the chart? Remember that a natural object can have more than one shape!

When you’re finished, add the tally marks for each shape. Count the tally marks in each box. Write the number next to the tally marks. Then add up the numbers in the boxes or count all the tally marks. That will be the total number of all the shapes you saw.

Look at your final chart: which shapes did you find? Which shape did you find the most of? Which shape did you find the least of? Did you find any natural objects with more than one shape?

For more fun: What other shapes can you find in nature? Maybe a star? Or a crescent like the moon?

This activity completes step 1 towards earning the Daisy Shapes in Nature badge.

Nature is full of beautiful things. You can find rainbows. You can search for flowers. You can look for leaves. Natural objects are things from nature. These include plants, animals, mountains, lakes, sand, planets, and rocks.

Shapes are important in math. They’re everywhere. You can find them in all kinds of things. When you search for shapes, you can take field notes. Field notes are when people go out in nature and write about or draw what they see. You can draw and make tally marks for shapes, too. Tally marks are lines to track what you see. You can count your tally marks to find out how many natural objects you saw in total.

The Girl Scouts Math in Nature (grades K–5) badge series gets girls outdoors to explore and conserve the natural world as they learn math concepts.

Activities include discovering shapes and patterns in natural objects, learning about symmetry and tessellation, and mastering time and measurement theories. Girl Scouts then use this background to design nectar feeders, trail maps, and other outdoor tools and essentials. Girls often receive the message that STEM isn't for them, but they're especially interested in STEM concepts when they're linked to things that girls enjoy, such as outdoor time. Learn More.