Suburban Safari – Lockdown Scavenger Hunt inspired by Shark in the Park by Nick Sharratt

When my kids were little, we used to jump on a train every Tuesday afternoon, go 2 stops, jump off and head over to Story Time at our local library. After browsing for some books to take home, we’d scoot across to a retro cake shop, where we’d have milkshakes, cakes and sausage rolls.

Of all the story times we attended, by far the best ones included a reading of Shark in the Park. If you haven’t read it (and if not, why not?), it’s the story of Timothy Pope who takes his brand new telescope to the park. With the zoom firmly zoomed, he’s the boy who calls shark, mistaking a cat, a crow and even his Dad’s Elvis inspired haircut for a shark. There’s a SHARK in the PARK!

For this week’s scavenger hunt, I figured we should take our telescopes out for a suburban safari. With the benefit of tunnel vision, what animals can you spot? With my telescope, a skinny tree became a giraffe neck, and the foot of a tree became an elephant foot. I was wondering whether a QR code looked like a zebra’s bum… and a knot in a tree was a scary crocodile’s eye. Oh, and a kangaroo paw plant looked like an ostrich foot. You can check out my photos below.

How does it work?

1. Make yourself a telescope! I used a toilet paper roll. We’re not looking for magnification, just tunnel vision.
   You can go as fancy or as basic as you like!
2. Sign up and I’ll send you a PDF file with the animals to look for on your safari.
3. Print it or look at it on your phone.
4. Step outside for some fresh air and tick off the animals as you zoom in on them.
   Oh! And it’s super fun to take photos down the telescope. Tip: You get a bit less toilet paper roll if you zoom in.
5. When you get home, pull Shark in the Park off the shelf and read. What a great book! If you don’t have a copy, you really must fix this ASAP. See below.

Don’t have Shark in the Park? Go get it – it will become a favourite for sure!

Find your local bookstore.

OR

Buy at Booktopia (Aussie online bookstore).

Well, what are you waiting for?

Or are you looking for more scavenger hunts? Check them out here!

Here’s some of the animals I found on my safari.