how to do a scavenger hunt?

[nicurn]

for halloween, my dd (age 8) wants to have a scavenger hunt. Anyone ever done one? How do I go about planning this? Any help would be much appreciated. thanks, maggie

 

[RRBB]

OMG, it's been years since I've participated/planned a scavenger hunt. And there are different kinds, so what does your daughter have in mind?

There's the kind where you hide items around your house/yard/neighborhood and give the clues to find them. It starts by giving each person/group a single clue to find an item. When they find that item there's a clue for the next item, etc. until the last item which tells them to go back to the "judges".

Then there's the type where you give a list of items and the groups have to knock on neighbors doors to get them. Each group is given the same list of 10-20 items to get and they are assigned to a side of the street (if it's fairly long) or each their own street. They then go down the street knocking on neighbors' doors and askig if they have any of the items on the list that they can have. (You can decide if they're allowed to get more than one item per house.) Then the first team back to the "judges" with all the items on the list wins.

And then there's a photo scavenger hunt. Similar to the above descriptions, but instead of collecting the items they have to take a poloroid photo of it or of someone holding it. And again, the person/team that collects photos of all the items on the list first wins.

I'm sure there are other ways of playing, too. But these are the ways I can remember off the top of my head. I hope you can understand my explanations and I hope they help.

 

[jlp651]

If you're planning to do this for halloween. You can see who has poloroid cameras...have a list of costumes that need to be found and have the kids do it that way.
I think you can get the little poloroid cameras that put out little pictures....I think those are disposable...

 

[mommie2angels]

We love to have these with our church youth group. We have done the ones with the polaroid cameras or the video cameras. The neighborhood, town and mall ones. They are great!

How many people/kids would there be?

Are you thinking of just around your house?

If there are enough kids and adults to have a couple of teams you could possibly take the kids to different places. Depending on the whether and if there are enough houses around where you live do the neighborhood one. If you have a mall near you do that one.

Mall Scavenger hunt: We usually like to make a rule that they must get everything for free, but you could give them $5 or so and let them purchase a few things.
Some examples: A shopping bag from Penneys, an autograph form a Jean Juarez stylist, a make-up demo, a deposit slip from the bank, Matches form a favorite restaurant, the telephone number of a phone booth near a certain store, a flyer from the information booth.

For a Neighborhood Hunt:A ping pong ball, a colored shoe lace, a restaurant menu, an advertising magnet, dryer lint, a clean diaper, a dead fly, front page of a paper, a tie, a birthday candle, a postcard, a fake nail, a colored paper towel, a button, a specific state quarter, a specific year penny, a D cell battery, a graham cracker, a bobby pin, a red M&M.

The list could really go on and on. Let me know if you want me to send you a list of other ones.

 

[mommie2angels]

Here is one I found on the Internet. It may not work for you depending on the time and if they are spending the night. I had forgotten we had done one in Walmart once too.

For my daughter's 14th birthday in November, she wanted to have a slumber party. We really needed to keep the cost down, so one of our ideas was to have a scavenger hunt. However, since the hunt would take place after dark (not a great idea), we decided to hold it at our 24hr Wal-Mart Superstore. I recruited a couple of agile, young moms to help with each team. They had a chance to see the list in advance to help with strategy. Before we left the house, we went over a few ground rules: no bothering other customers or employees, try not to run into anybody, and the losing team had to sing the Barney song at the front of the store!! Her party plates, etc. were a tie-dyed pattern, so I used some tie-dyed computer paper to print out the lists. Then I bought two plastic play purses at the dollar store and put $5.00 in change in each. I gave them 2 colorful pencils, and off we went! (They got the lists in the parking lot) Here is a copy of my list. I tried to add colorful things to keep the theme. I only wish I had made it longer, because it only took them 30 minutes to finish!! Also, after talking to the manager, I "planted" two pennies at cashier #23 - then the girls had to find the right cashier. The manager asked that we take pictures of the girls only, not the store, because that was not allowed. We were lucky because he was very nice - I also pointed out that they were actually purchasing the items they were supposed to! (but some of the items were free!)Shop 'til U Drop Scavenger Hunt 1. One person ride a kiddie ride 2. 1985 penny (year Sarah was born) 3. Somebody's (not yours) autograph X____________________ 4. One yellow onion 5. Bottle of blue nail polish 6. Sample of material with flowers on it 7. White gumball 8. Free sample card of orange paint 9. A "Christmassy" thing 10. A purple hair accessory 11. One can of chicken & stars soup 12. Sour candy 13. One pair of pink knee-hi hose 14. Deposit slip from the bank 15. One piece of toy jewelry I had fun making up the list, and they all had a great time trying to find everything...I'm sure she will remember this party for a long time!!

 

[nicurn]

these are are great ideas. I think we will have 10 kids total. They are all 8-9 yrs old so I think we won't go to the mall... (but I am saving that for future reference). I would love anyone's lists! Thanks, maggie

 

[RRBB]

Maggie, I just ran across this article about scavenger hunts on epinions. I've highlighted suggested items in blue.

Scavenger Hunt
Feb 17 '00 (Updated Feb 28 '00)

My son and his buddies always enjoyed when we had little scavenger hunts. When he got to be about 8-10 years old, he went for about three years where he insisted that we HAD to have a neighborhood scavenger hunt as part of his birthday party!

We would divide the boys into 2-3 teams, depending on how many hardy adults were on hand! (ya gotta have at least two teams, though! Racing each other is half the fun!) For a week or two before the party, I would jot down items that popped into my head to include on the 'scavenging' lists. A few of the items would be on both lists, but each would also have many items unique to their list only. It's good to have at least 20 items on each list.

Don't forget to give the kids a sack to carry all their scavenged items back to your house in. A time limit is also good but I think you'll find the kids are traveling at top speed around the neighborhood racing to be the first team back with all their goodies. Plus, if they don't get everything on their list, they have to give up and come back some time! A boundary limit may be necessary in some neighborhoods so the kids don't get too far afield. Also, start one team going in one direction, other teams in opposite directions. (Yes, pity your poor neighbors just a bit!)

You don't want to make it TOO easy for them, but you DO want to include some items that your neighbors will probably have on hand SOMEWHERE in their homes, they might just have to search for them for a bit! One thing about a scavenger hunt, we've NEVER had anyone in the neighborhood NOT try to help the kids get every item on their lists... that's always so amazing! And nobody has ever told the kids that they're too busy to help them, either. I mean, here you are minding your own business at home some evening and a herd of thundering boys shows up on your doorstep begging for goofy items!

Some of the items we've had them ask for (we usually try to make it inexpensive or disposable so the person asked will be more willing to give it up to the kids) are things like a colored paper clip, a blue or some other specified color of rubber band, hairpins/clips/ribbons, an odd size envelope, colored pencil (the lead color, not the pencil color!), certain crayon colors, a particular battery size, a decorated paper plate, some cosmetic, a toothbrush, a paper cup, and plenty of other things that I can't even remember any more!

If you want to make it trickier, the adult monitor for each team can limit the kids to only getting 1-2 items from any one house. (which keeps kids from going straight to the house of one team member where that kid knows where all the items are kept in his home & his parents are trying like mad to help him out!!)

This activity is great for boys or girls or a mixed crowd. (we used to do it when we were kids, too!)

Another variation, especially when the kids are older, is to have a photo scavenger hunt. Have a designated adult driver and a Polaroid camera (with 1-2 film packets, depending on the list) for each team. The teams can be asked to do things like take photos of all the group members in the same tree (adult driver can take that one), a team member pretending to cook french fries or something at a local (and very cooperative!) fast food place, all the team members in a bathtub someplace, a photo of the team in front of a particular sign or statue. (any statue of a person somewhere in your area or a sign with the letter Q in it, etc) You can get very creative with this one and the kids have to do some things out in public, etc. Just be careful about some of the ideas as they're definitely not focusing on safety when trying to win a scavenger hunt contest! This is a great one for reminiscing about the silliness of it, getting to describe their adventures to the other team(s) after the hunt, and much showing off of the teams' Polaroid photos. (A digital camera could probably work for this one, too)

And here are a few more ideas for items to collect that I thought of.
diaper pin
Comic section from last Sunday's newspaper
3x5 index card
blue pencil
sugar packet with restaurant name on it
post mark from an envelope
yellow feather
grocery store receipt