Scavenger Hunt: How to Make After School Fun

We pick up N on Fridays after school and he stays with us until his family comes for dinner. I try to have a an interesting project ready. Recently, we baked an apple crisp. Last Friday, we went on a scavenger hunt in the neighborhood.

A scavenger hunt can be as simple or as complicated as you choose to make it. You can do a simple version for toddlers and a more complex one for older kids. I’ll tell you how I did mine, plus give you simpler options.

Scavenger Hunt Preparation, Step I

Start with a scouting expedition. On our neighborhood walk, Steve and I looked for objects N could find readily, that would be in his frame of vision.

I took photos of each object on my iPhone.

Then I made a Word document and inserted the photos, cropped to 1 1/2-inch squares. Next I labeled each image as a reading exercise for N. I laid out the photo images in the order he would encounter them on our walk. You could mix up the images if you want a harder challenge.

You can print the pages and stop here. Just add the sheets to a clipboard. Or staple the sheets together and give the child a hard surface, such as a tablet, to make the check sheet easier to handle outdoors. The child could then circle the items as they find each one.

Write clues and plan a treasure hunt as a fun, indoor option.

Scavenger Hunt Preparation, Step II

If you want to do something a little fancier, trim the sheets and make a book. Stitch the sheets together at the top with a sewing machine to hold them together.

And, instead of marking the found items with a pencil, give the child a hole punch to track their progress, like an old-fashioned train conductor cancelling a ticket. It’s good if your hole punch has a catcher for the punched bits, as mine does. It keeps from littering the neighborhood with confetti.

Scavenger Hunt Preparation, Step III

I went another step by making an “Eyes on the World” badge for N that he would win upon finding all the items. This was done simply with ribbon and gold paper seals. You’ll need a cardboard circle cut from a manilla file folder for a backing, googly eyes, a strip of felt, and a safety pin. I had everything in my craft room already.

To secure the badge, I encased a safety pin in a small felt strip using white school glue, and glued the safety pin to the badge.

How to Start the Scavenger Hunt

Before we began, I had N look over all the pictures and asked him to try to memorize as many as he could within a time limit. Initially, I gave him four minutes to study the photos, but I realized he didn’t seem to know how to use that time to memorize, as an older child would.

So, I simply asked him to tell me which ones he remembered after flipping through the book of pictures a couple of times. He came up with nine from 17, which wasn’t bad for someone who hadn’t tried to study.

Then we went on our walk. The weather was brisk and the child had just a light jacket, so we cut short the hunt and came home for some hot cocoa with marshmallows. N did not win the badge–he has five more images to find. But the success of the outing was clear when he asked, can we find the rest the next time?

You bet!

A Simpler Scavenger Hunt

• If a child can read, you can just provide a list of items written out.
• You can cut out magazine images or photos from the internet instead of taking your own pictures. Common images like: fence, stop sign, lamp post, and potted plants are easy to find.
• You can take photos and create an album on your phone; have the child scroll through the photos to learn what items they have to find. Delete the photo from the album as the child discovers each item, until there are none left.
• Instead of making a badge, consider rewarding the child at the end of the hunt with a few cookies, a favorite candy bar, or some other treat.

What Kids Learn from a Scavenger Hunt

This is a fun game that gets kids out of the house. Some benefits include:

• Hones the child’s powers of observation as they walk the neighborhood, intent on the search.
• Increases their powers of logic–for example, N looked at the images and immediately had ideas about where certain objects were likely to be found.
• Understanding equivalencies. While I photographed an airy white fence, he found a high-walled brown version; while my lamp post was the old-fashioned kind, he spied a modern one. He was not limited to finding the exact item photographed.

This Friday, weather permitting, we’ll conclude our scavenger hunt and award N his pin!

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