Our favourite scavenger hunts from the 365 day nature play challenge and some thoughts on how to make a good one.

The basics

I came a bit late to scavenger hunts. They intimidated me a bit. I felt like I needed to have a good knowledge of different plants and things to put one together. I was really wrong. I’ve discovered they’re much easier than treasure hunts once you get on the right side of them.

For a basic scavenger hunt all you really need is a list of things that kids should be able to find. Then you challenge them to see how many they can get. You can do one anywhere. It can be in the house, in a public place, a park or just when you’re out and about and they’re bored. The trick is to work out what is there to find and what they’re going to like looking for.

Winter adventures

They’re really good for getting kids out in the winter. They kept us going during those endless seeming grey weeks running up to the February half term holiday. Here’s a couple of simple list examples.

If in doubt, time it…

Particularly in winter when it’s colder, timing kids to see how quickly they can do it really helps energise them. You can either time them to find the whole lot (‘ you’ve got 10 minutes – go go go!’) or, better still, time them for individual items that are relatively easy (’30 seconds to find a green leaf’; ‘1 minute to find a feather’). If you’ve got more than one kid, challenging them to be the first back with something can help too.

Getting a bit more complicated

Generally scavenger hunts are pretty quick to prepare but if you want to spend the time there’s lots of fun to be had. Instead of a list you can write individual items on different pieces of coloured paper, then fold them up small and put them in a basket. This works well for groups. I did one for B’s brownie pack last spring. They pulled an item out in a group, went off to do it and then came back when it was completed and got another one. The group that completed the most won.

You could also hide the clues so they have to find them, or put them somewhere it’s tricky to reach (like half way up a tree). Generally I’d say if you have several kids this works better. I’ve found with just B she gets grumpy if she doesn’t like the option and prefers working through a list.

Action based scavenger hunts

If the weather’s behaving itself, we’ve found action based scavenger hunts are brilliant. Instead of an item for kids to find you write an action they have to do. Here’s our favourite one from better weather times:

• Find something precious and hide it in the trunk of an old tree
• Find the prettiest oak leaf
• Climb 3 trees and decide which is your favourite
• Go into the little forest and find a secret place
• Find a fidget acorn
• Spot a butterfly and try to catch it
• Hug a tree
• Find 2 long sticks and have a sword fight
• Sit on a tree stump
• Pick a reed and make something with it
• Have a go at grass whistling
• Find the hidden place where the fairy lives (site specific this!)
• Swing on a branch
• Find something in the community garden that smells nice
• Find the prettiest flower you CAN’T pick
• Find the prettiest flower you CAN pick

I put each of these onto cards and into a basket and they had to pick them out and do them in turn. I suspect different ones will be popular at different times. The best thing about this is that it encourages them to think of other things they can do. It’s a great way of getting friends to bond and find things they both enjoy.

Negotiating the weather

I’d cautiously say that scavenger hunts are something you can do in almost any weather. Probably not during storms or when it’s really rainy but they work as well in cold grey weather as in nicer times. It’s also a great thing to do as the seasons change and there’s new things to find. We’ve found that the colder and wetter it is the more ‘finding things’ clues work. If it’s warmer and nicer being out, action based clues always win out. Particularly anything that involves hanging off a tree.