How To Create a Scavenger Hunt That Kids Will Enjoy To Play
Thinking about how to create a scavenger hunt for kids to have fun on the outside? Yes, you just came to the right place! We have a lot of information for you here. Read on and let us show you all the cool scavenger hunt ideas we have prepared for you.
Modern technology can be seen almost everywhere these days as new inventions seem to sprout like weeds as a replacement for absolutely everything. Children today have never lived in a world without computers and I, in fact, find it only natural to incorporate them into their daily lives.
But hey... summer is finally here and as parents, what more could you want then get your child outside, running under the sun and rolling around in the dirt and have fun?
Toggle For Table Of Content
Let's Play Scavenger Hunt
It can often get very challenging to pry a child away from his tablet, PlayStation, or Xbox 360 and they will often need coaxing or a good reason to come out and play.
Well, what better way to get them outside then a good old fashioned scavenger hunt? Scavenger hunts encourage teamwork, patience, problem-solving, and best of all; they are an excellent way for all children and family to spend time and enjoy the great summer
But how exactly does one organize a scavenger hunt for kids? We have compiled a list of websites that you can use as sources or inspiration for your child’s summer scavenger hunt adventure. Check out our list below of how to create a scavenger hunt for kids and adults too.
Before we continue, here is a quick video how to plan a scavenger hunt for kids with Chris Pegula that we find it interesting to watch.
Scavenger Hunt Resources
Scavenger Hunt Fun
Scavenger Hunt Fun is a great website that features loads of scavenger hunt ideas for all sorts of different occasions. Through this website, scavenger hunts can be done outside but also inside for when you might be stuck at home on a rainy day.
It features themed scavenger hunts for different holidays and even scavenger hunts that have been made purely for the enjoyment of adults.
Scavenger Hunt Fun comes with files to help you create your own tools in creating your scavenger hunt as well as a list of what you will need to make sure kids have the best time.
My Kids' Adventures
My Kids' Adventures gives you ideas on how to how to create a scavenger hunt that is especially for kids.
The website offers printables scavenger materials that can be printed out anytime and that could get you going on a scavenger hunt right this minute!
The great thing about this site is that not only does it offer tips for scavenger hunts but for treasure hunting too.
What is the difference between scavenger hunts and treasure hunts?
With a scavenger hunt, kids are given a list of items to find and whoever completes that list first is the winner.
With a treasure hunt, kids are enticed by a prize at the very end. They are given one clue (often a riddle) to figure out and follow to the next clue and so on.
Quick Hunts
Quick Hunts offers great themed printable that look like pirates treasure maps with readymade lists of scavenger hunts for kids. Quick Hunts does all the work for you, all you need to do is print and kids will be on their way.
One unique feature that Quick Hunts has is its puzzle scavenger hunt where, much like a treasure hunt, children need to follow clues to look for puzzle pieces and the first team to complete the puzzle wins.
Hands On As We Grow
Hands On is a great website for parents with younger kids and toddlers.
Besides the fun of a scavenger hunt, they also focus on making them as educational as possible by allowing children to find and learn numbers, letters, colors, or the names of simple objects.
This website also includes tips on creating a scavenger hunt that can develop a young child’s motor skills. So if you are wondering about how to create a scavenger hunt that can include in learning elements, do check out this site for more ideas.
The Taylor House
The Taylor House ensures that all scavenger hunts stay outside where kids are supposed to be. This is an ideal website for any parent that loves nature and wants their child to love nature too through exploration.
The Taylor House creates scavenger hunts focused on the nature-related topic and let kids hunt for all natural things. This is great if you live near a park or any grassy area.
Scavenger Hunt
ScavengerHunt.org is a great website with lots of options for scavenger hunts activities such as the following:
- Location scavenger hunts – scavenger hunts for specific locations such as at the beach, mall or nature scavenger hunts.
- Subject scavenger hunts – this scavenger hunts focus on specific subjects such as chemistry, engineering, etc.
- Themed scavenger hunts – themed scavenger hunts are usually for parties such as pirate themed hunts.
- Photo hunts – a photo scavenger hunt allows children to use cameras and take pictures of what they find.
Besides these, there are also scavenger hunts that have been made especially for teenagers or for adults at an office with the 'office scavenger hunt'.
With the ScavengerHunt.org website the list just goes on and on and because of the variety and wide range of choices, this website is a good site to refer to if you ever wants to know how to create a scavenger hunt for kids, teenagers, or even adults.
Home Science Tools
Home Science Tools don't just give you ideas on the scavenger hunt itself but also provides you with a detailed list of instructions to follow in order to make your scavenger hunt a complete success.
This website works right from the beginning and is perfect for parents who are doing a scavenger hunt for their kids for the first time.
After all, you wouldn’t want your child to start on a scavenger hunt only to find out later on that you lack the materials, would you?
Buggy and Buddy
Some of the scavenger hunt printables, parents would have to pay for the PDF before they can print. However, at Buggy and Buddy, all printables are not only free but comes with different themes as well. Yeah!
Buggy and Buddy offer parents printables on nature scavenger hunts, wildlife, zoo and etc. They even have educational scavenger hunts to teach younger children shapes, colors, and letters as well as the five senses and emotions.
Sharing Is Caring
Like what you read so far? How about help us to spread this AWESOME post to your friend and family? Your shout-out will help to motivate us to create more great posts for you and everyone else. Thanks for your support!
Check out this post for 'How To Create a Scavenger Hunt That Kids Will Enjoy To Play.'
iMOM
iMOM features great scavenger hunts for kids of all ages. What makes this website unique is that they are showing you how to create a scavenger hunt the budget friendly way.
One of the examples of the scavenger hunt ideas is to go to a dollar store and search for these items. Once completed the game, kids can place back all the items back on the shelf.
This allows parents an outlet to create a scavenger hunt for their children that is just as fun without having to break the bank.
Brisbane Kids
Brisbane Kids focused on toddlers and created educational yet fun scavenger hunts for them. If you want to know how to make a scavenger hunt for kids and at the same time encourage their reading practice, then this is the website for you.
Keeper Of The Home
Keeper Of The Home is a great site if you want a little bit of everything as it features instructions on how to create a scavenger hunt for kids from all different website.
Keeper Of The Home is a third party site and gets the best scavenger hunts and puts them all in one place for you. Do check them out for more ideas whenever you need to organize a scavenger hunt activity.
Quick Guide To Creating an Awesome Scavenger Hunt
Planning a scavenger hunt can be a huge chore by itself. Here are a quick guide and the more important points you should consider whenever trying to setup a scavenger hunt. For more information, you can refer to Wikihow where they have written a detailed guide on how to create a scavenger hunt.
- Decide on a location and a time limit.
- Based on location, choose what kind of hunt you want to do. Note that location has to coincide with your theme. For example, you cannot have a beach scavenger hunt in the forest.
- Decide on an enticing prize for the winner.
- Look around your location and find interesting things to put on your scavenger hunt list. Be creative.
- Create teams – make sure it is fair with an equal number of people and proper age distribution.
- Give each team a scavenger list and a bag to put items that they found.
- Allocate a spot where a team must go when they complete their list. This is to ensure that people do not get scattered around. The first team to reach the spot and fully checked all items in the scavenger list, wins.
- Before the start of the game, brief everyone the rules and regulations and coverage area. This is to ensure safety and not letting participants run too far from your supervision and to avoid any accident.
Tips, Rules and Regulations For Scavenger Hunt
The most important thing about scavenger hunt is teamwork and making everything fair for everyone. This can be achieved by equal distribution of members with equitable representation of each age in both teams (if children are of varying ages).
Give team’s clear instructions and their lists or their first clues. Establish rules such as specifications of what is on the list and make sure no loopholes are allowed. And specify a “finish line” so everyone knows where to gather when time is up.
Quick Tips For Planning a Scavenger Hunt
- If children are young or if there are multiple teams with multiple members, establish rules to keep things fair and safe.
- When you give teams a scavenger list there are two ways you can go: first, you could give a team one list forcing them to work together all throughout. Or, second, you could give a list to each member even if they are on the same team, this allows them to delegate.
- Be wary of your area scope, you want a scavenger hunt sufficiently broad, so kids have fun searching, but not too big that your eyes are kept off of them.
- Make sure players have bags or containers for the items they find.
Get Ready For Scavenger Hunt
If you are organizing a scavenger hunt for kids or are planning one, do make sure to take all things into consideration so that everyone is safe to play and have fun too. Remember to consider age, location, and ensure that the list you are creating isn’t too hard for kids or they might get frustrated and also not too easy as they might get bored.
Lastly, know that scavenger hunts are for all ages, and the entire family is welcome to join in. Once you figure out how to create a scavenger hunt for kids, you are well on your way to hours of fun at outdoors.
