How to host a scavenger hunt?

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Oooohhh!!! Love it!
we do one with Easter eggs. Instead of candy in the eggs, I out little slips of paper that have either command or questions. There are point values assigned.  So, they have toe find the eggs, come back to me with one egg, perform the command or answer the question, and then I award the points. I time them for 45 minutes. I have 200 eggs. 

This is summer, we did one for the beach. The groups had to have their phone with the a dn take pictures of each thing on the list. Some of the stuff was stuff they had to find, some it was to create, some was other people on the beach. Then they had to show me the pictures. 

I can can email you the lists of stuff if you want. 

[Green Eyed Lady]

I like the photographic scavenger hunts.  Each team gets a digital camera.  Your list includes stuff they need to get a picture of.  We did this once and had a blast.  It keeps people from having to knock on doors.  One thing on the list was getting a picture of the team on a park slide.  Another item was getting a photograph of a "yield" sign - just stuff like that.  Of course, if these are kids, your area will have to be smaller since they don't dive. 

[Spellbound454]

 Did a treasure hunt in the local woods for a pirate party.

Had fun making a map and staining it with tea.....then attached numbers to trees where the clues were hidden.......ie 30 paces north

It wound round and round the building, off into the woods, to the map which led to a partially buried plastic chest with chocolate gold coins in.

Kids loved it.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Jan 21, 2014 15:11:33 GMT -5 Spellbound454 said:

 Did a treasure hunt in the local woods for a pirate party.

Had fun making a map and staining it with tea.....then attached numbers to trees where the clues were hidden.......ie 30 paces north

It wound round and round the building, off into the woods, to the map which led to a partially buried plastic chest with chocolate gold coins in.

Kids loved it.

The group we camp with every summer has a scavenger hunt.  My kids are a good 5-8 years younger than the other kids so it's geared for the older ones (esp. since the one who plans it has older kids!)  I did a pirate pinata the year pirates was our camping theme. 

[justme]

There's a couple different ways to do a scavenger hunt.

1) Nothing but clues. Each clue brings the team/group to the next on, first one to the 'end' wins. Either have envelopes with a clue for each group, or have it somewhere where each team reads and then goes on.

2) Photographic - like GEL mentioned, they have a list of things to take pictures of thing or things they do. Either first one back to do everything wins, or have a set time and assign points to items (harder being worth more) and whichever team gets the most points wins. (Previously these were more of find items and bring it back before the days of cameras and being worried about the kiddos knocking on doors in the neighborhood looking for a blue paperclip or something. Another option, but I'm guessing that's not something you'd want to do.)

3) Amazing race - If you haven't seen the show a combination of directions (go to X) and clues lead the teams to the next place. At each place there is either another clue/direct or there's some sort of activity they have to complete before they get their next clue. Could be really fun, but you'd need a fair amount of adults/older kids as at least one would need to be at each activity to hand over the clues when said activity is complete.

[Abby Normal]

All I can think about is the Big Bang episode where they did a scavanger hunt. And now I have Sweet Caroline stuck in my head.

But we have done a coupe.  The biggest thing is to decide on if it's going to be indoors or outdoors and what your range is. We had planned an outdoor one in the neighborhood, and the weather sucked that day and we quickly had to change everything.  My son like the clues best. We made them kinda hard so the kids had to work together to figure them out.