Little scavengers Create the ultimate scavenger hunt

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. 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.

ALPHABET SCAVENGER HUNT: This type of hunt is great for all ages and can either be a specific list of items that you stipulate from A to Z or you can just allow the children to find their own items from A to Z. You can also be more specific and create an A to Z of plants, animals, etc...maybe even number plates if you are hunting in an urban area. NATURE SCAVENGER HUNT: Make a list of items that would most likely be found in the area you are camping in or your backyard. If the children are older and have an interest in flora and fauna you could add specific animals or plant names to this list as well. FIVE SENSES SCAVENGER HUNT: A scavenger hunt doesn’t have to be about just collecting physical things. You can also scavenge for experiencing the different senses: smell, sound, sight, touch and taste. For safety and hygiene purposes scavenging for taste is probably best done using the contents of your pantry or camp kitchen.

PHOTOGRAPHY SCAVENGER HUNT:This is a great one for tweens and teenagers – instead of fighting to get them off their devices, encourage them to use their devices to engage with nature and the outdoors. The concept is simple: the scavenger hunters take photos of everything on the list instead of physically collecting everything on the list. After the hunt the children can upload their photos, and then arrange them into a short presentation or create a photo journal that can be printed out at a later time as a memory of the camping trip.

COLOUR SCAVENGER HUNT: All you need is a sheet of paper or a paper lunch bag on which you use pencils or markers to draw the colours - you can also print out a scavenger list using your colour printer. The children can either physically collect items that match the colour or take photos to “collect” the colours. At the end of the hunt everyone can share their items in a “show and tell” because they will have most likely collected some different items. DRAWING SCAVENGER HUNT: This is similar to the photography treasure hunt in that you don’t physically “collect” anything. The list for this type of treasure hunt will probably be smaller because it takes longer to draw an item than it takes to collect or photograph it. Some simple ideas for a drawing scavenger hunt include drawing a tree, flower, butterfly, plant, person, bird or animal. If your child is particularly fascinated with a particular plant or animal tailor the hunt to their interests.

NIGHT TIME SCAVENGER HUNT: When my children were younger my sister-in-law came up with a wonderful Christmas gift idea. She gave them all a headlamp as their Christmas present and then organised a night time scavenger hunt on Christmas night. Th ere were 16 cousins in total, ranging in age from 2 - 17 years old and the headlamps and night time scavenger hunt really was the best present ever - we still use these headlamps today, well over a decade later. Headlamps are inexpensive and ideal for camping in general or even just having fun in the backyard, but they are especially ideal for scavenger hunts because they free up both hands to hold a list or a phone and collect the items on the scavenger hunt list. Australian Geographic’s Camping & Outdoor Family Activity Guide is $39.99 RRP and is available now for preorder at www.booktopia. com.au for delivery early June.