Author Archives: support@textclues.com

American Football Quiz

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Football is America’s most popular sport and therefore it’s fun to test football fans’ knowledge of the game as well as football statistics using TextClues. All you need is some football loving friends who have a cell phone who have a strong desire to demonstrate their extensive knowledge of football. To provide an incentive for your friends to participate you should have an appropriate prize to the winner who first answers all the questions correctly.
Below is an example of an American Football Quiz. Using TextClues you would set up a series of questions and answers in advance to be received and answered by your football friends at a party at say your house on their cell phones. Below are some illustrative questions and answers you could consider. Obviously you’re free to use whatever questions you want, for example you could use only questions related to your home team. Many variations are clearly possible depending on the knowledge level of the participants, time you want to devote to the football quiz and the creativity of the football quiz organizer.

Question: What Pittsburgh Steeler Quarterback has won 4 Superbowls?
Answer: Terry Bradshaw

Question: In what year did the American Football League begin play?
Answer: 1960

Question: Who was the first person in the NFL to rush for over 1,000 yards?
Answer: Beattie Feathers

Question: Who is the All-Time leading receiver in the NFL?
Answer: Jerry Rice

Question: Who is the only Head Coach to win the Super Bowl and the Rose Bowl?
Answer: Dick Vermeil

Question: Who is the leading rusher in AFL history?
Answer: Clem Daniels

After answering all the questions correctly the following text message would be sent: Congratulations, you’ve won a prize if you’re the first to answer all the question correctly, look in the kitchen refrigerator to claim your prize ! ! (You could have a large pack of beer in the fridge marked “Football Prize ! ! “) To set up your own quiz, try our Textclues demo.

Scavenger hunts for 8 to 12 year olds

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Kids, of all ages, love scavenger hunts but 8 to 12 year oldsreally get into the fun of accomplishing a particular task, searching for an object or solving a mystery. Scavenger hunts are good for parties because they are a great way to entertain a group of children for an hour or so and are a lot of fun. To set one up all you need to do is jot down some ideas ahead of time and plan out your scavenger hunt. Here’s a suggestion for making one for a birthday party.

To start:

  • Make a list of children to invite to the party
  • Decide on a theme for the scavenger hunt
  • Make a list of clues for the hunt
  • Send out invitations that include time of party, date and location and giving information about the scavenger hunt

For example, the theme could be movie trivia and the party could be held in your home. One suggestion would be to plan to watch a movie, either at the movie theatre or at home and have the scavenger hunt be based on the movie everyone has just seen. The scavenger hunt could start when all the children return to your home after the movie.

Make it fun by hiding clues around the house asking questions about the movie you’ve just seen. Make sure to have some prizes on hand for the winners.

If you want to make it a bit more interesting and use cell phones try out the Textclues demo here. Check out our previous posts for some suggestions for clues you could use.

Father’s Day Scavenger Hunt

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Continuing the theme of Father’s Day, here are some more ideas for scavenger hunts for dad on his special day.  With Textclues set up your clues ahead of time, make sure he’s got his cell phone and sit back and watch the fun.

 

Give him clues that lead him all over the house and plant a few outside too. Each clue should lead him to the answer, and at the end of the hunt you could have a gift bag with his cards & gifts inside.   Here are some ideas using clues and riddles.  With some of the clues the answers are written on paper and dad would text back the answer, then he would receive a text with a riddle to solve, after solving it then the new clue would be sent by text to him and so on until the scavenger hunt is done.  Just explain to him he has to reply to the text with the answer each time to get the next clue.

Here’s a sample

Clue:  For your first clue go check the garage and look under the car, text the word that you see written on paper there

Answer:  (written on a note under the car):  Shoe

 

Clue:  Solve this riddle for the next clue:  A farmer had seventeen sheep, all but nine died, how many did he have left?

Answer:  nine, 9

 

Clue:  Well done!  Now go find the white shoe which has the next clue and reply with it too.  (Hint) check the laundry room

Answer (written on paper hidden in shoe):  Deck

 

Clue:  Another riddle for you:  Take off my skin – I won’t cry, but you will, what am I?

Answer:  An onion

 

Clue:   Outside on the deck under the BBQ I want you to check, whatever you find text me back

Answer:  cup

 

Clue:  Can you answer this riddle:  What can you catch but not throw?

Answer:  A cold

 

Clue:   Check the cupboard where the cup belongs and look up, text me the word you find there

Answer: ” Teapot”  (write this word on a piece of paper you can stick to above the shelf holding the cups in the cupboard)

 

Clue:  You’re good at riddles so I’ll test you on this one:  What travels around the world yet stays in one corner?

Answer:  A Stamp

 

 

Clue:  The teapot contains a nice clue which tells you the next thing to do, look for it & once you find it text the answer which is inside.

Answer:  Basement

 

Clue:  The basement has your next clue, check beside the light and we’ll see if you get it right, text the word you see there

Answer:  Mirror

 

Clue:  Beside one of the mirrors in our house is the last clue you’ll need to do, when you see what is says text your answer and receive your last riddle to answer for a prize.

Answer:  Prize

 

Clue:  Here is your last riddle to solve:  What has to be broken before it’s consumed?

Answer:  An egg

 

When he answer this last riddle, a text is sent leading him to his card and gift.

Final Text:  Congratulations dad!  Check inside the trunk of the car for your gift!!

Try a free demo now.

Kids Treasure Hunt

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Kids love Treasure Hunts and a fun way to do one is by text messaging, assuming each participating child has a mobile phone and knows how to text message. TextClues is a unique tool to organize a mobile phone Treasure Hunt. The possibilities are limitless; the Treasure Hunt could be indoors or outdoors, educational or related to a particular holiday.

For example you could have a Kids Treasure Hunt party for your son or daughter with his or her friends one sunny afternoon in the garden. Using TextClues you would set up a series of questions and answers in advance to be received and answered by the children on their mobile phones. The text clue for the prize would be provided to the winners after they had answered all the questions correctly. This would be set up so each child would receive a prize. The questions and answers below illustrate a very simple Treasure Hunt for young children, obviously many variations are possible depending on the age of the children, time available and creativity of the organizer of the Treasure Hunt. Explore the endless possibilities at the TextClues website.

Question: How many trees are in the garden?
Answer: 6, six

Question: What colour is the birdfeeder?
Answer: Green

Question: What flowers are along the back garden wall?
Answer: Roses

Question: What is sticking out of the roof on the house?
Answer: Chimney

Question: How many goldfish are in the pond?
Answer: 10, ten

Question: What kind of fruit grow on the tree in the middle of the garden?
Answer: Apples

After answering all the questions correctly the following text message would be sent: Congratulations, you’ve won a prize, go and look behind the sofa in the living room (a prize for each child could be hidden here) ! !

Movie Theme Trivia Game for a Family Reunion

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If you’re trying to plan some fun activities for a family reunion, how about organizing a fun  trivia game based on movies we’ve all seen. With an easy-to-use and ready made tool like TextClues you can easily involve everyone in the fun as long as they have a mobile phone. Great for small or large groups and all ages. Everything can be set up beforehand and on the day you can relax and enjoy the fun.

A movie theme trivia game is a great way to involve the whole family in a fun activity. To get your trivia game started, think about whether you want everyone to play as individuals or you could also divide them up into teams, depending on the age groups.

 

First, decide on how many questions you’d like your trivia game  to include and start jotting down some ideas. You can include movie categories based on the people attending your reunion. Lots of kids means more questions geared towards that age group, older family members would more likely remember some of the old classics, you choose your own questions. If you decide on teams, mix up the age groups so everyone has a chance to answer the questions.
Next, think of some prizes for the winners, either an individual prize or enough for the members of a team.  Movie tickets would be a good choice, maybe packaged in gift bags.

Here are a few suggestions for clues to get your trivia game started:
Clue: Which of the witches was killed when Dorothy’s house landed in Oz?
Answer: Wicked Witch of the East, Witch of the East

Clue: What is the name of the character played by Drew Barrymore in E.T.?
Answer: Gertie

Clue: What’s the name of Sid’s dog in Toy Story?
Answer: Scud

It’s easy to personalize your movie questions for your own family.  I hope you have got some good ideas for your next family reunion.

Organizing a large or small group trivia game with a movie theme can be easily made with the TextClues service. With TextClues :

  • you can monitor the trivia game from any device that is connected to the internet
  • You can enter as many mobile phone numbers as you want
  • You can track how many wrong answers a team had and base scoring on these numbers
  • The participants can enjoy an entirely unique activity where all clues and answers are completed via text messages

To see the TextClues service work on your phone try out the demo for free!

American Sports Quiz

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TextClues is a great way to conduct an American Sports quiz for your friends or family using text messaging. The sports questions can be easy or hard. As each question is answered correctly each participant is texted another question until all the text questions have all been answered correctly. At the end you can text them where to find their prize. The prize provides some buzz and excitement to the quiz as well as motivation to get the right answer ! !


For example I recently used TextClues with my 2 youngest sons to create some excitement for the 2 Yankees tickets I had just bought for them. By asking a few simple text questions I was able to generate some excitement for the tickets, see below. This way rather Structure Gonflable than simply giving them the tickets they felt they had earned them, a win-win and they also hopefully learned some interesting facts about the Yankees in the process which they may not have known – maybe they cheated by getting some of the answers from Google – but still it was a lot of fun. Check it out ! !
Question: What was the full name of the team that won the World Series last year?
Answer: St Louis Cardinals
Question: What year did the Yankees last win the World Series?
Answer: 2009
Question: How many World Series have the Yankees won?
Answer: 27
Question: Who was the MVP the last time the New York Yankees won the World Series?
Answer: Hideki Matsui
Question: Who is the Manager of the New York Yankees?
Answer: Joe Girardi
Question: Where do the Yankees currently stand in the Eastern Division of the American League, answer using a number
Answer: 3
Question: What team is currently in top spot in the Eastern Division, answer using the name of the city
Answer: Baltimore
After answering all the questions correctly the following text message was sent: Congratulations, you’ve won a ticket to Saturday’s Yankee game, collect from Dad ! !

With TextClues, you can be creating a great sports quiz with text messaging like the above within minutes! Try it out today.

Book Club Quiz Night

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Are you looking for a fun activity for your Book Club?  How about an end-of-the-year quiz based on the books you’ve read this year.  If your Book Club chooses ten books per year from September through to June and you have  a break over the summer, a book quiz night would make a fun evening for your final meeting, especially if you usually finish with a pot luck supper.

Setting up the questions ahead of time using TextClues will make the whole evening fun for everyone.  The participants can enjoy an entirely unique activity where all clues and answers are completed via text messages.

So, now let’s go over the steps on how to set up your Book Club quiz –

First, make a list of books you want to include –  this could be the ten books you’ve read this season, or you could include some questions based on books you’ve read over the past few years, or even famous first lines of novels.  Then, decide how many clues you want to include in the quiz and set up the clues and answers online. This part is simple; just enter the information on our online form.

To add to the fun, decide on a prize for the winner – a good prize for a Book Club would be a gift card to a book store, everyone could put in $5 towards it.

Some sample questions might be –

    Question:  Who wrote the book Case Histories?

    Answer: Kate Atkinson

    Question:  Which City was Bury your Dead set in?

    Answer:  Quebec City

    Question:  In which book was a valise stolen from the train?

    Answer:  The Paris Wife

Or, use first lines of famous novels as the questions –

    Question:  Call me Ishmael

    Answer:  Moby Dick

    Question: It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

    Answer:  1984

    Question:  It was love at first sight

    Answer:  Catch 22

The questions can be specific to your own Book Club reading list or be a more general knowledge book quiz.

Now you can schedule your quiz for the evening and sit back and watch the fun.