With the end of quarantine insight, there’s no doubt lots of us are feeling restless and jittery. What better way to use our excitement than engaging in an active at-home scavenger hunt for kids? These scavenger hunts for kids will keep them occupied indoors, and outdoors. The scavenger hunt for kids comes in handy while you are trying your best to with a little bit of work and creativity from your side.

Here’s a list of various ways you can conduct a scavenger hunt for kids that involves them completely.

Rainbow Round-up

Create a list of items to find, but don’t be too specific. For example, something to eat with, something to write with, something you can wear, something you can eat etc. Give the kids an appropriate amount of time to find these items. Once they’ve found the items go through each one they’ve discovered. Do an activity beginning with the first letter of the colour the item they’ve found. 

Examples:
Red; Run on the spot for 10 seconds. Blue; Blow up a Balloon. Yellow; hold a Yoga pose for 10 seconds. You can get as creative as you’d like.

Colour Hunt

This vivid activity is sure to brighten up your day. Hunting for colours seems quite easy, but it also allows kids to get super creative. For the older kids, you can make things a little harder by setting a requirement. For example: you can play with it, you use it during breakfast, you can smell it etc.

Hint: You can also look in the backyard for some flowers.

Sensory Scavenger

Rather than having a set list of items to find, this scavenger hunt will let the kids explore their 5 senses.

Examples: Something squishy, something that smells nice, something that makes sounds, something hard, etc. 

Draw it

In this scavenger hunt, not only do you have to run around to look for these items, but you have to draw them down! All you’ll need is some paper, pencils, and a creative mind. First, write down a list of things you can find indoors and/or outdoors, this can be super easy from a spoon to something more adventurous like a spider web. Once the kids find these items, they have to draw it, rather than bringing it back. 

Pause and Pose

First, gather up some old photos that have some funky poses. Then hide these around the house. Once the kids find these photos, before they can bring it back, they must strike the same pose and take a photo.

Can you balance it?

For a little twist on the classic scavenger hunt let the kids practice their balancing skills. For each item they find, they must have to balance it for a certain amount of time. You can choose the difficulty level by changing up where they balance it.

Example: You can balance it on the forehead or on the hand. Or you can add an extra task like balancing it on your forehead while standing on one leg.

Connect your treasure

For this activity, pick one common item to start off with. Then set a suitable time limit. Players then have to find an item that starts with the last letter of the item.

Example: If you start a game with a comb, players will have to find something starting with b. They can then find a bear which means the next object to look for has, to begin with, an ‘r’. The winner is the player with the most items found.

I like to move it move it

A little twist on the classic scavenger hunt. Rather than finding and collecting items, this movement hunt requires children to complete an action to ‘find it’.  This hunt lets kids get moving, noticing, and thinking about their surroundings. First compile a list of actions, for instance:  jumping, crawling, hiding, etc. Now make it into a checklist. For example, something you can jump over, something you can crawl under, something you can hide behind. 

Tip: you can take a photo to ‘check off’ the ‘item’.

Sweet Treat

Before you get baking, it’s the perfect time to do a quick scavenger hunt. Hide the (dry) ingredients to a simple recipe around the house and get the kids to find them. Only once you’ve found all the items, can you bake your treat. 

Hunt for Letters 

Write down a list of words that you want to use. Players then have to hunt for items that start with each letter of the word. You can choose to give a time limit and the winner is the person who finds the most items, or the winner can be the first person to find everything. 

For example: using the word H-U-N-T

H: hat

U: umbrella

N: nut

T: telephone 
Tip: you can spice things up by using longer words or using words that have difficult letters in them.

Piece the puzzle

For a fun fusion of doing a puzzle and conducting a scavenger hunt. For this activity, you’ll need a simple puzzle with relatively few pieces. Separate the puzzle pieces however you like and place them into zip lock bags. Think of some places where you can hide these puzzle bags. On the bags, using a sticky note, write down a clue to where the kids can find the next puzzle bag.

Example: You can write things like; “you will find the next clue in a place that’s never warm,” this can hint to the fridge.

The best thing about an at-home scavenger hunt for kids is that it’s not that nerve-wracking. Come rain or sunshine, you can pick the perfect scavenger hunt for kids from our list. We hope we help with your keeping your kids’ creative juices flowing.

Kudos to Good House Keeping for their super fun at-home scavenger hunt for kids tips. If you need more such fun activities while the whole family stays at home, check out our blogpost on video chat activities for kids.

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