Tag Archives: Scavenger Hunts

Valentine’s Day Text Message Scavenger Hunt

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Valentines Day is the perfect time to set up a scavenger hunt for the special person in your life. Creat your own clues for them to follow with the prize of a gift chosen especially for them, they’ll love it.

Here at TextClues you can easily create a text message scavenger hunt. Our system automatically sends and responds to text messages to your loved one’s cell phone, so you can actually watch and guide them through the hunt or sit back and just watch the fun. You can schedule the scavenger hunt to start at any time you like, or you could set up a few surprise texts throughout the day.

It’s not difficult to set up your own special scavenger hunt, here are some ideas below to start you off.

First, decide on your gifts for the hunt, you could buy a bunch of little gifts for her or him such as chocolates, movie tickets, candles, perfume, lip balm, nail polish, bubble bath, massage oil, gift certificate, etc.  You can individually wrap each gift in a box if you’re going to have lots of little gifts or just have lots of clues leading to one special gift or surprise at the end of the hunt.

Next, decide where you want to start and end the scavenger hunt, you can plan one for around your home or use the clues to lead your loved one somewhere for a special date or a special restaurant that you’ve booked. One thing you’ll want to do is make sure you can set everything up before your hunt starts.

Finally, create your text clues, get a pen and jot down some ideas and try to make them personal and your loved one will know you think they are very special to you.  You can use clues incorporating any hobbies they might have, special places you have visited together, it can be as complicated or as simple as you choose.

Here’s an example:
Your first clue will start with them accepting the challenge:
Clue: Hi sweetheart, Happy Valentine’s Day.  Welcome to your scavenger hunt, reply with “begin” to start
Answer: begin

Clue: Where did we first meet?
Answer: Nick’s party

Clue: Great, go look in the right hand drawer of the dresser and tell me what you find hidden there
Answer: perfume

Clue: Perfect, take a look on the deck, right beside the BBQ, wrapped up in a bow is something special for you, what can it be?
Answer: chocolates

Clue: I know you love them, check out the trunk of the car, what do you find there?
Answer: flowers

Clue: Especially for you, what is your favorite restaurant?
Answer: The Keg

Clue: Right on, we’ll have dinner there at 7pm tonight, Happy V’s Day, I love you

Try our free demo right now!

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.

Learning can be fun too

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Homework and studying aren’t normally the number one things on a kid’s list of “fun things to do”. However, I believe that there can be so many different ways to incorporate learning and studying into something that kids could in fact enjoy.  Typically, when we try to test kids on content, it is always through pen and paper.  Why not use something like a text messaging tool, or a scavenger hunt through text messages so that:
1) One less thing to print out or write up (and hey, better for the environment too!)
2) Make your kids think that it is sort of like a game that they are playing, but really they are also learning at the same time.

You’re probably wondering how all of this would work, aren’t you?

Say, for example, you know that your kids have a math test or science test one day at school.  You can use a tool like TextClues to schedule a mini study/test session for them, but all through their cell phone! This way it makes it so easy for you to set up (just have to input questions into the easy to use TextClues tool) and kids can provide answers through their cell phone.  AND, you can see how your kids are doing via the real-time dashboard that shows how your kids are answering the questions and you can see where they need to study some more.  Best of all, you also don’t need to take the time to review all of the answers because the tool would do it for you!

Let’s give a quick example of how this would work:

Clue: You’ve got that upcoming test for school soon. Let’s see how prepared you are :) What is the volume of a cube that is 10 x 10 x 10? Reply with number answer only.
Answer: 1000
Clue: Great job! What is the square root of 9?
Answer: 3
Clue: Excellent! This property of gold allows it to be hammered into thin sheet and different shapes.
Answer: Malleable, malleability
Clue: You’ll do great if you keep on studying! :)

This is just a short example, but you can see that various different types of educational questions can be asked through text.

How would you make this a little bit more fun, perhaps for a younger child, to learn vocabulary or words?  You can make a scavenger hunt so that it will bring your kids from one location in the house to another, requiring that your child spells out the various words correctly.

Here’s another very quick example:

Clue: I keep food cool before you bring it to school. Spell it out and head there.
Answer: Refrigerator
Clue: Great! Now open the refrigerator, and find out what we are eating for dinner. Reply with the answer.
Answer: Casserole
Clue: Enjoy!

Last but not least, you can even use the tool to help kids learn another language, example Spanish or French.

Clue: How would you be greeted in the morning, in Spanish?
Answer: Buenos dias
Clue: Buenos dias to you too! How would you be greeted in the morning, in French?
Answer: Bon matin
Clue: And good morning to you :)

As you can see, a text messaging tool for educational purposes can be fun and interactive! Try TextClues out today and see how much more willing your kids will be to study at the same time :)

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 ;)

Scavenger Hunt Tip: Don’t Leave it too Late!

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Scavenger hunts are such great gifts because they are creative and original. Most people love getting scavenger hunts because it’s really a thoughtful gift. It shows you’re willing to put time and effort to make sure someone really has a great time.

This blog is here to help you make a memorable scavenger hunt in as little time as possible. That being said it’s still going to take some time if you really want to make a remarkable hunt. It’s certainly possible to make a great hunt the day before the big day but for a more substantial hunt we recommend you start at least a few days in advance.

The first step is to write out a quick draft of what you want the scavenger hunt to look like. Here you don’t have to go into much detail with the clues. It could be as simple as outlining the path you want them to take. The key is getting a general idea of what you want the scavenger hunt to look like. Once you’re done this step take a step away from the planning table for a few hours or days.

When you come back you’ll find that you came up with some great new ideas and you’ll be ready to put the finishing touches on the hunt. At this stage it’s time to fix up your clues to make sure they’re fun, personal and entertaining. Also you may find that you’ve thought of a totally new idea for the scavenger hunt! Don’t hesitate in changing your plan or creating a totally new one, the hunter will thank you. At this point all you need to do is prepare your physical clues and schedule a time for the hunt!

The free trial here on textclues.com is a great tool for planning a scavenger hunt even if you’re not planning on sending text message based clues. It allows you to save the scavenger hunt, access it from any computer with internet access and base a new scavenger hunt on an old one to easily make different versions.

Scavenger Hunt Clues that Rhyme are Always a Good Time

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One easy way to make your scavenger hunt riddles and clues a little more fun is by adding rhyming to the equation. A well timed rhyme will have any hunter smiling in no time. The great thing about adding rhymes is that it’s not difficult at all! In fact you’ll find yourself having a blast while creating new clues.

The easiest way to create a good rhyming clue is to start by writing it out just as you regularly would. Now have a look and see if there are any obvious ways you could add to or rearrange the clue to make a rhyme. Focus on short simple words because these are often the easiest to rhyme. If you’re still stuck I find it really helps to use a tool like Rhyme Zone. There you can type in any word from your clue and find all the words that rhyme. This really helps give you inspiration and almost always outlines a word that you missed. Also don’t be afraid of rewriting your clue once you see some ideas on Rhyme Zone… or better yet once you think of some great phrases.

If you want some simple examples check out our demo where you’ll find an example hunt with some simple rhymes. I hope it convinces you to incorporate rhyming into your next hunt!