LITTLE SCAVENGERS Whether you’re exploring your backyard, your neighbourhood or a camp ground, scavenger hunts provide a wealth of opportunities for active outdoor fun. Scavenger hunts can be done just about anywhere, are easy to create and you can customise them to suit your child’s age, abilities and interests. They might feel like play, but there are many advantages and learning opportunities when children participate in scavenger hunts. Boosting observation skills, teaching kids to practice problem-solving, learning about the outdoors, teaching teamwork and making discoveries of their own... and it’s a great way to keep children occupied for a length of time. Impromptu scavenger hunts are easy to create, but if you’d like to plan ahead and create a scavenger hunt specific to your environment or your children’s ages and interests here are some ideas.
Creating a Scavenger Hunt Scavenger hunts can be held during the day or at night and they can basically be held anywhere. The location you chose and the time of day will depend on how old the players are, how large the group is, the weather, and what sort of scavenger hunt you are doing. LOCATION: A smaller more confined space is better for younger children while older children will enjoy exploring further afield. SINGLE PLAYER OR TEAM: If you have a large group of children or a wide range of ages you might consider creating teams that work together to find the items. If your scavenger hunt is for younger children, buddy them up with an older child or a parent or even in a team with older children. DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY: When designing a scavenger hunt, have them search for common outdoor objects that won’t be difficult or frustrating to find or items you have planted. 20
SAFETY AND SUPERVISION: Depending on the age of the children and the location, you might want to have adults on hand to provide guidance, maybe give a hint or two, and to keep watch over them. TIME OF DAY: Evening scavenger hunts can be so much fun for all ages and a great way to entertain kids away from their screens or by integrating the screens into the hunt. If any of the children are scared of the dark make sure they are in a team with older, more responsible children or an adult is there to supervise and look aft er them. PHYSICAL OR DIGITAL COLLECTION: Instead of asking the children to physically collect items, ask each participant or team to take a photo of the items on the list. This is especially great for national parks where you can’t remove things or even in your backyard neighbourhood to prevent flowers being picked from your garden or your neighbour’s garden. CREATING SCAVENGER HUNT LIST: There are several ways to include items in your scavenger hunt. You can simply create a list of known landmarks and items; you can deliberately hide items to be found (great for backyard hunts or alphabet hunts where you need to have items starting with letters such as Z); or you can be less specific, for example a colour scavenger hunt where there could be many items that match the colours on the list. EQUIPMENT YOU WILL NEED: The basic equipment you’ll need for any type of scavenger hunt is a list of things to find and a way to collect or record these things. You can either print out or hand write the list and give it on a clipboard and pen for each participant or team or let kids use their phones or devices to photograph the items as they find them. If the scavenger hunt is a physical collection of the items on the list make sure the items are not too heavy or cumbersome to collect and provide a bag or a container for collection.
