Category Archives: Children

Easter Scavenger Hunt Game

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RabbitEaster is coming up this weekend, so it’s a perfect time to organize a unique Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt for someone special.  Using a text message to send out the scavenger hunt clues to any cell phone makes for an egg-citing interactive Easter egg hunt that you can set up ahead of time.

With this interactive text message tool, you can even set up several different scavenger hunts that will start at the time you decide, so if you have two or three other children they can each follow the same or different clues and have a great time doing their individual hunts.

 

It’s really simple to set up your scavenger hunt with Textclues with a little preparation ahead of time.

 

First, pick up some colourful plastic Easter Eggs to hide some treats in (you can even hide small prizes at each location so that your hunter can full up their Easter baskets with goodies along the way) and then at the last location of the hunt you can hide your BIG EASTER SURPRISE (e.g. a big chocolate egg, a cuddly stuffed animal or a basket full of goodies).

 

Next, think up some riddles and clues to hide at each location to lead them on to the next clue.  You should be able to come up with 10 – 20 clues without too much trouble, but here is an example to get you going –

 

Clue:  Are you ready to hunt for your Easter eggs?  Reply with Answer, “Yes” or “No”

Answer:  “Yes”

 

Clue:   Can you answer some riddles to find your treats?  Reply with Answer “Yes” or “No”

Answer:  “Yes”

 

Clue:  The answer to this riddle is where you’ll find your first surprise.  “After searching for eggs all over the lands, be sure to go here and wash your hands”   (Text me the answers when you find your treats to get the next clue)

(you hide a plastic egg filled with little chocolate eggs in the sink)

Answer:  Sink

 

Clue:  Well done!  You’ve got your first treat.  “At the end of the day, the lamb rests her head on a thing soft and fluffy found on a bed”

(you hide the next treat under the pillow on one of the beds)

Answer:  pillow

 

Clue:  That’s great, you’re a star.  “Bunnies have fur and ducks have feathers, you wear these to stay warm in bad weather”

(you hide a treat in the pocket of one of the coats in the closet)

Answer:  coat, coats

 

Clue:  Fantastic!  Now this one is harder.  “Do you think the Easter Bunny has one of these?  It would be on his back helping him carry all those goodies with ease”

Answer:  backpack

 

Clue:   For homework, the Easter bunny sits here to make all the eggs, it has drawers, a few shelves and four legs.

Answer:  desk

 

Winning message:  Excellent!  You’re almost there, go to the basement and search for the blue bag – hidden under the sofa

(you can hide your final big Easter surprise there ready to the found)

 

Have fun with your hunt, you can make it as easy or complicated as you like.  If you want to add some educational touches to it, go for it.  If your kids are older make the clues a bit more complex and more of a challenge to find.  Have fun personalizing it for your family.

Happy Easter everyone. Go try our free demo right now!

Outdoor Bible Scavenger Hunt

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If you’re looking for a fun outdoor activity with the kids this summer then a bible scavenger hunt is perfect for you. It won’t take long to set up and will have the kids playing for hours if you make it long enough.

The premise of the hunt is to have the kids look up the items they need to collect using bible versus. Then they collect all the items and turn them in to collect the prize. You can go through the bible and fin your favorite versus but here are a few examples to help give you an idea.

  • Leaf – Proverbs 11:28
  • Five Smooth Stones – 1 Samuel 17:40
  • Grass and a Seed – Genesis 1:11

This is a great way to teach kids how to look up passages in the bible. You can also use it as a way for them to read some of your favorite parts of the bible. Once you have all the items listed that the kids will collect you can start working on the clues. You can either write the clues out on paper or use the TextClues service to send the messages using text messages. The clues can look something like this:

Clue: Read Proverbs 11:28 and find a green L___ . Respond with what you need to find.

Answer: Leaf

Clue: Great go find one! Then read 1 Samuel 17:40 and find F___ S_____ S_____ . Respond with what you need to find.

Answer: Five Smooth Stones

Clue: Great go and find them! Then read Genesis 1:11 and find some G____ and a S___

Answer: Grass Seed, Grass and a seed

Clue: Congratulations, hand in everything you found and collect your prize!

We hope you are able to enjoy this scavenger hunt with your family and come up with some fun clues of your own. Remember to try out the TextClues Demo and you might find it is a great way to keep your kids interested!

Text Message Math Quiz

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You can use TextClues to send your son or daughter a text message math quiz to test the skills they’ve learned in the classroom. Here’s an example with some geometry questions:

Question: Welcome to the cell phone math quiz! No calculators are allowed. First question, how many sides does a pentagon have? Reply with the answer.

Answer: 5

Question: What’s the sum of angles inside a triangle?

Answer: 180, 180 degrees

Question: What’s the square root of 36?

Answer: 6

Question: What’s the remainder when dividing 22 by 10

Answer: 2

Question: What’s 3 x 4 + 7 – 8 x 2?

Answer: 3

Question: What’s pi to two decimal places?

Answer: 3.14

Question: What’s the area of a square with side lengths of 7?

Answer: 49

Question:  What’s the perimeter of a square with side lengths of 8?

Answer: 32

Question: Give a circle has a radius of 5. What’s the circle’s diameter?

Answer: 10

Question: For a rectangle with side lengths 4 and 3, what’s the length of the diagonal from one corner to the other? (Hint: use the Pythagorean theorem)

Answer: 5

Winning Message: Congratulations! You’re a math whiz! Come to the kitchen to get your prize

To create your own fun text message math game try our demo.

Fun Scavenger Hunt Clue Ideas

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Today we’re going to give you some ideas for great clues and riddles for your scavenger hunt. Whether you are using the TextClues service or making your scavenger hunt by hand we hope that you will find these ideas helpful and fun. If you haven’t heard of out text message scavenger hunt service you might want to read more about it here. Now onto the clues!

Online Research Clues

This type of clue is great for adding some education into the fun of a scavenger hunt! It will not only help teach kids interesting facts, but it will also help with their ability to research facts on the internet. This type of clue asks very specific questions about subjects that the participants are interested in or that they are learning about in school. Some examples are as follows:

Clue: In what year did the tyrannosaurus Rex get its name?

Answer: 1905

Clue: How old was Christopher Columbus when he discovered the new world?

Answer: 41, forty one

Clue: How many planets are in our solar system?

Answer: 9, Nine

It’s easy to find facts such as the ones above by typing the topic of interest into Google and reading the educational websites that come up. You’ll find lots of interesting questions to ask the kids and might even learn something yourself.

Rebus Clues 

Rebus Clues are great riddles for kids and are really easy to make. Sometimes they are take a little time to answer which is a great way to add some difficulty to the hunt without making it too hard. It may also help with the children’s spelling. An example for a simple Rebus Clue for “Toaster” is:

OR

TV – V + O + AXE – XE + LOBSTER – LOB

You can easily make these clues on Festisite and clicking the rebus option on the top right of the webpage. You can choose to either print out the clue and hide it for the hunter or write out the clue to send over text message. This is a really fun clue to add to a scavenger hunt and we think you should try it soon!

Mirror Message Clue

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One really neat riddle is one that can only be read by holding it up to a mirror. These riddles are a lot of fun and they are actually quite easy to make. There are two ways that you can go about creating the clues. One on the computer and one by hand.

If you want to create the clue on the computer and have a printer available here is an easy way to create your mirror message:

  • First, go into Word or your favorite word processor and type out you message
  • Highlight the text and use the “copy” function on your computer
  • Then open the program Paint. This can be found by clicking the start button and clicking on the accessories folder
  • Then paste you message into paint
  • Choose the drop-down menu for image and choose Flip/Rotate
  • Then click “Flip Horizontal” and save the image
  • Print the image and your message is done!

If that seemed too hard or you want to write the clue by hand there is another way. However, this way results in a messier looking message:

  • Get some paper, a mirror and a hard surface to write on (a book works well)
  • Now hold the paper up on the hard surface so you can see the page in the mirror
  • Looking in the mirror write the message out… this will feel strange! It might take a few tries

So there you have it, two ways to make an exciting new clue for your scavenger hunt. Now you’ll need to hide it close to a mirror. In the previous clue (whether sent via text message or otherwise) lead the hunter to the message and give a clue to the fact that it will need to be held up to the mirror.

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.

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) ! !

An Amazing Race using Text Messages

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Here’s an idea for a fun activity for a group of friends: set up an Amazing Race using TextClues. First, split everyone into teams. The leader of each team needs a cell phone to answer the text message challenges. You’ll want to have clues that lead the teams on an amazing race all over the city.

Before you start the race, you’ll want all the teams to compete in a contest to determine who gets a head start. This can be a trivia game or each team can dress up in matching costumes Parcours Obstacle Gonflable and you judge which team looks the best. Based on the scores, you can stagger the teams so that one leaves every 5 minutes, so they don’t all race off at the same time. You can schedule all the text hunts to start at the same time but just don’t give them the envelope with the first clue until they leave.

It’s up to you whether you want all the teams to have clues in the same order, but we do have a “shuffle” button if you want to randomize the clues for each team.You’ll want to come up with a scoring system. Each team has three tries for each clue, so you can give them 3 points if they get it right on the first try, 2 points on the second try, or 1 point on the third try. Finally, there should be a bonus for the time taken for each team to finish the amazing race and get back to the starting point. You could make this a percentage bonus to prevent teams from just guessing everything wrong but finishing first.

Here are some ideas for clues you could use:

Clue: Welcome to the 2012 Amazing Race. Check for the first clue in your envelope. (Inside the envelope you have the clue: Head west 10 blocks. What year was the church built?)

Answer: 1967

Clue: Head north to the park. Mike will be waiting for a game of bean bag toss. He’ll tell you the answer when you finish the game.

Answer: Mike is awesome

Clue: Good job. Now head to the fair trade coffee house where we always meet up with Liz. On the wall they have a picture of a plantation from what country?

Answer: Brazil

Clue: Head to the high school track and meet Jen. You guys will have to run some laps :) She’ll tell you the answer when you finish your sprints.

Answer: Jen rocks

Clue: How many tennis courts are on the other side of the school?

Answer: three, 3

Clue: Head south 6 blocks until you reach a park. What’s it called?

Answer: Jacob’s Park

Clue: Head to the baseball stadium. How many years has it been open?

Answer: 34

Clue: Use the pay phone to call Mike. Everyone on the team has to talk to him to make sure you’re all still there.

Answer: Subway

Clue: Yes hop on the subway and take it north 3 stops. Head into the shopping mall. What’s the name of the hair dresser up on the third floor.

Answer: Antonio’s

Winning Message: Alright you’re done! Now run back to the start of the race before the others make it back!

 

Try our demo to see how to create a text message amazing race.

Scavenger Hunt Riddles (Part V)

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We’ve got a few more riddles here that you can use on Tente Gonflable your next scavenger hunt. Use them to lead you hunter to the next prize hidden somewhere in the house. Don’t forget to check out all the other riddles we have on the site here.

  Bathtub   In this small pool little yellow ducks rule!
  Check in the place where wet warm water washes you well
  Look in the place where bubbles sooth all your troubles
  Sink   Don’t forget to wash your hands!
  Go to the spot where your hands rub before you touch grub
  Check the spot you see the water gush as your teeth get a brush
  Shower   Here the wall spouts spraying water out
  Check in the place where wet warm water washes you well
  In this spot you can make it rain again and again
  Closet   Everyone knows this is the spot where you hang your clothes
  This room may be small but it holds your clothes, shoes and all
  You can find cleaning supplies in this small room along with the broom
 Basement   In the space that’s underground your next prize can be found
  Look in the space down below where things for storage go
  Look in the space down below the cold air likes to go

Save time and use TextClues to make your next scavenger hunt.

Nature Scavenger Hunt

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Summer is almost here and it’s time to start getting the kids out of the house. Get them running around smiling with a nature scavenger hunt. Not only will the enjoy the sun and fresh air outside but they might end up learning something too.

This type of scavenger hunt is also really easy to make. You just need to think of a list of items that you kids can run around and collect. You can change the difficulty of the list depending on how much your kids know. Start simple with items like: a leaf, a stick, bark and a stone. If they know a little bit more you can list things like: maple leaf, oak leaf, birch bark, three leaf clover and acorns.

Creating a TextClues scavenger hunt can make it more fun than just a simple list. Sending clues to your kids via text messages will get them excited but adding a little bit of story will make it even better. Tell your kids that the government need some explorers to find samples of the local wildlife. Then you can create something like this:

Clue: I’m glad we found an explorer that can help us! Are you ready to go out and find samples of everything we need?

Answer: yes, ya

Clue: Alright perfect! We need you to find a leaf from an Oak tree. Let me know when you have found it.

Answer: Found it, Got it

Clue: Great, next wee need to see if you can find us a three leaf clover. Keep an eye out for a luck four leaf clover while you look . Let me know when you found it.

Answer: found it, got it

Clue: Last but not least see if you can find an acorn. Let me know when you’ve found the last item.

Answer: found it, got it

Clue: Congratulations! You found everything, now bring it home and show your parents.

Have a look at our demo and see how easy it is to make a text message scavenger hunt. Happy hunting!