Tag Archives: kid’s scavenger hunt

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.

Shopping Mall Scavenger Hunt

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Looking for a fun activity for a group of kids or teens? Well a Mall Scavenger Hunt provides family friendly fun at a very affordable price. There are a few different types of mall scavenger hunts. Have a read and pick your favorite.

The first is called a budget scavenger hunt. Each group is given a imaginary budget
and needs to come up with the best “purchases” for a certain scenario. They don’t
actually buy anything but instead write down what they found and can only “spend”
their imaginary budget. The scenarios can be fun like: A trip to the rain forest, a day
on the beach, climbing mount Everest or if you were trapped on a desert island.

Another fun idea is called the A-Z scavenger hunt. Here the Jeux Gonflables groups need to find an item starting with all the letters of the alphabet. You can give them a chart that has all the letters of the alphabet, a place to write the store name and a place to write the
product name.

The last option is a classic clue scavenger hunt around the mall. For this type you’ll have to head to the mall the day or morning before the hunt to come up with a list of clues. Walk around and look for interesting and funny features in the mall (storefronts, advertisements or mall features). Then ask questions about these features in the scavenger hunt.

Whenever you’re making a scavenger hunt you should consider how the TextClues service can make it that much more special. It allows you to complete the scavenger hunt entirely using text messages. See how it works using the demo.

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!

Why use Text Clues for your upcoming Easter Scavenger Hunt

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You’ve only got a few days away until Easter and you want to plan a really cool scavenger hunt for your kids, family, neighbours, friends, or anyone really!!! :) What do you do???

1) Don’t panic!!!

2) Use the quick and easy to use tool called Text Clues to make your next scavenger hunt!  Text Clues lets you create personalised mobile text message scavenger hunts for all occasions, and with Easter around the corner, what better time to starting using the tool?!

Why?

– It adds a little twist to the regular scavenger hunt (more fun and interactive – not looking aimlessly for prizes)

– Unlike a regular scavenger hunt, you don’t have to leave multiple paper clues throughout the hunt (i.e.: less set up time for you!)

– You can set up a hunt in minutes, and send it out to multiple numbers, thus again saving you time!!

– It works on any mobile phone :)

– It only costs $15 for 100 clues so you can create many many scavenger hunts for all occasions (and not just for Easter!)

– Great support to help you throughout your scavenger hunt needs and to ensure your scavenger hunt runs smoothly

Begin using Text Clues today and you and the huntee won’t be disappointed ;)

Ideas for a kid’s birthday party

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It is your turn to host an event for kids (e.g.: your child’s birthday party, a neighbourhood get together, or a fun fair, just to name a few events) and you don’t know what to do… Well, what do kids like the most? Games and winning prizes, of course! :) With a site like textclues.com, it enables you to cater both to the little and big kids by making a scavenger hunt adventure.  Scavenger hunts can be fun for all age-ranges, but using textclues.com, little kids will feel more important and like a “big kid” by using their parents devices (i.e.: their cell phone) to play a game. And, older kids will feel important to be able to use their cool gadgets to participate in some games.  So, how would this all work? A few things you need to think about:

Do you want one large prize at the end, or a few small prizes in between the hunt?

This fact will more just help you with deciding the type of clues you may want to create in between the scavenger hunt.  If it is a big prize for the winner at the end, the clues can be a build up to the winning prize.  If it is a few prizes in between, you’ll have to think of clever spots to hide these prizes, while incorporating them into the clues!
Example: “You’re getting close to winning the secret treasure! Your pot of gold awaits you where you can find three posts together within an “M”.

Do kids work in teams or individually?
Depending on the number of kids participating, this may be the determining factor.  However, even with 4 or more kids, groups can work in your favour as it allows kids to also work together as a team and co-operate with one another to help get through the hunt.

Do you want the hunt to run like a competition where there is only one (team of) winner(s) or everyone running in the hunt will win a prize?
Personally, because all kids love prizes, I think each kid should win *something*, even if it is a smaller prize than the grand prize winner.

Should kids all be running the hunt at the same time or should one child or team run at a time?
If all kids are running the hunt at the same time, it would be pretty straight forward because the person that reaches the last clue first will be the winner.  If you decide to have the kids run through the scavenger hunt individually, you can easily time each team or child to see who has the fastest time to finish the race.

Another idea that can add a little twist to your scavenger hunt can be as follows: Before beginning the hunt, tell each individual or team that at each clue station, they must pick up an object from the location. This means that you will need to ensure that there are an equal amount of objects at each clue location as the number of people/teams running in the race.  At the end of the race, you can do something silly like “The last requirement before potentially winning the prize is each team or individual must dress up one person as best as possible with all of the items picked up along the race”

Or, even other obstacles and games can be incorporated into the scavenger hunt.  For example, at the end of the race, there can be a puzzle that the kids must put together prior to winning; or, perhaps the first team that can throw 5 bean bags into a basket from a certain area on the field will be the winners! This will allow the teams/individuals that perhaps were running a bit slower in the race to catch up with the rest of the teams, making the possibility of winning for anyone! :)

As you can see, there are so many different ways to spice up a scavenger hunt for kids and make it just that much more exciting.  Go ahead, and try one out today with textclues.com.  Your kids wont be disappointed, and they will be asking you for more in no time ;)

Easter Scavenger Hunt

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Alright, so we have about a month away until Easter is here…  Why not make your Easter egg hunt just a little bit more fun and interactive for the huntee (and perhaps make them work a little to get the well deserved Easter treats)? ;) Use a text message scavenger hunt to hide your Easter treats. The huntee will have more fun going on the hunt so they aren’t just searching blindly AND because you will know exactly where all of the treats are hidden around the house/location, there won’t be any chocolate that is sitting unfound for many years to come :P

SO, how should an Easter hunt work? Really, it should work just like any other scavenger hunt, only you would more likely have various treats along the way of the hunt or you can just have one nice big prize at the very end of the hunt (your choice!) The good thing with textclues.com is that we provide you the means of providing all the clues and answers quite easily for the participant, without you needing to be there necessarily to supervise to see what is going on with the hunt :) All you need to do is find where you want to hide the treats, make up clues to get to these locations and you are done!

So, just to re-cap some components of this hunt:
– Determine if you want to hide treats/prizes throughout the hunt, or just one larger item for the very end of the hunt
– Think of clues to lead to the specific locations to arrive at the treats

With textclues.com, one even better feature is that you can setup the same (or different) scavenger hunt for different people and schedule the hunt to occur at a certain time. E.g.: If you have two kids, and are setting up this hunt for your kids, you can set up one scavenger hunt for each of your kids using the tool :)

Let’s end this blog post off with an example hunt:

Clue: Ready to have some fun on the hunt for some Easter treats? Reply with answer: “Yes” or “No”
Answer: Yes

Clue: Great! Start by going to the fridge. What has mom left in the fridge for dinner tonight?
Answer: Chicken

Clue: Yes! Now, what do chickens lay?
Answer: Eggs, Egg

Clue: Yes, they do. Go to where you can find the eggs in the house for your next clue.

(clue hidden in egg carton: No chocolate eggs here! But what is hidden under the kitchen sink?)
Answer: Cadbury egg, egg, chocolate egg

Clue: Woohoo! You got your first egg on the hunt :) Where is dad’s favorite room in the house?

Answer: Family room

Clue: That’s right.  Go there and look under dad’s favorite seat for the next clue.
(clue hidden under seat, along with treat: Yes, more treats :) Just to add an educational twist: What is 9 X 9?)
Answer: 81

Clue: Good job. You are learning well :) Go to where you do your homework for your next clue.

(clue: Thought you were off the hook after the first math question? Here’s another: 10 / 2 = ?)

Answer: 5

Clue: Excellent. Now, go to page 5 of your homework for the next clue.
(clue: We went on vacation last year to California. What is the capital of this city?)
Answer: Sacremento

Clue: Perfect.  Now, go to where we have our family photo from this trip and respond with the answer located at this spot.
(chocolate hidden by picture frame, with a note saying: “More Chocolate”)
Answer: More chocolate

Clue: You want more chocolate? That’s not enough for you? :) Alright, maybe a couple more… Go to your bedroom. What is hidden behind your favorite stuffed animal?
Answer: Toothbrush

Clue: Did we put that there? Oops. Must have put it in the wrong spot. Go to where you would place your toothbrush and text back to me what is hidden there.
Answer: Marshmallow bunny

Clue: We didn’t forget those were your favorite ;) Finally, what does the paper under the bathroom sink say?

(clue: Go to the family room)
Answer: Go to the family room

Winning message: Yes, go to the family room!! You’ll need that new toothbrush for a reason :) Happy Easter! (chocolate basket or bunny found in the family room)

Have some fun with your hunt. You can make it as easy or intricate as you would like the challenge to be for the huntee. If you want to add some educational touches to it for kids, go for it to make them earn the chocolate even more :P Or, if you have more space to work with for your hunt, or are working with an older crowd, make the clues a bit more complex and a challenge to find. You as the scavenger hunt maker should also have some fun making the hunt for others. Happy Easter everyone!

Try our text message scavenger hunt demo.