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Outdoor scavenger hunts are one of my son’s and daughter’s favorite activities. Neither of them are old enough to read, but they can still do mine since it is picture based. For my son’s ball themed 2nd birthday party, I wanted to make him a similar hunt. The hard part was the age range of my extended family’s kids. 2 of the kids are similar ages to my kids, but the other two are preteens. If the birthday scavenger hunt was purely pictures it would be boring for the older kids. Thankfully, I was able to come up with a plan that scaled the difficulty per child.
How to Make a Birthday Scavenger Hunt For All Ages
Supplies:
Prepping the Hunt:
Before making clues for anyone, I decided where all I wanted to send the kids. With the party being during the winter I had to wait until the week of the party to decide. It was supposed to snow, so I decided to do the hunt inside. It was a good thing I did, because it ended up snowing quite a bit the day of the party. Once I decided on inside, I chose places throughout the house that were good landmarks for kids.
Making the Picture Clues For Toddlers and Preschoolers:
First, I made the clues for the little kids. I made them all picture based since they can’t read yet. I went to all the places I had decided on before and took pictures of them. Next, I printed out one picture of each place for each kid on plain white printer paper. To do this easily on a Windows computer, select all your pictures, right click, choose print, and select wallet size. Make as many copies as you have kids coming.
Then, I chose a color of construction paper for each kid coming. I did my best to make them each kid’s favorite color, but them all being different is what matters. I cut out a rectangle slightly bigger than wallet size for each picture in each color.
Lastly, I glued four sets of the pictures to the construction paper for the younger kids.
Making the Word Clues for Older Children:
To avoid making the scavenger hunt too easy for the older kids, I came up with a word clue for each hiding spot. Then, I wrote these clues on the backs of the 2 sets of picture clues I had left over. To finish them, I taped them to the last two sets of construction paper on just one side. This way if they couldn’t figure out the word clue they could flip it over and use the picture clues instead.
Setting Up The Birthday Scavenger Hunt:
Now that I had all the clues ready, I needed to set it up. But I didn’t want to set it up until people arrived to prevent clues being found early. I also didn’t want 6 kids stampeding through the house following each other instead of the clues. So, I wrote down a different path for each kid. I kept in mind the age of each kid. For example, I made sure the youngest kids had the most direct route with the least amount of trips up and down the stairs. Everyone’s hunt ended in the same place.
Once I had the paths figured out, I labeled 6 envelopes with the name of each hiding place excluding the final one. I also made a 7th envelope with all the clues that needed handed out at the start. Then, I went through every person’s route mentally and placed each clue in the envelope where I needed to hide it. Then, as people showed up I was able to quickly take an envelope and put all its clues in that location. Not having to think through any of it the morning of the party was great.
Doing The Birthday Scavenger Hunt:
When all the kids arrived, I gave them a quick explanation of a scavenger hunt. Then I gave them each their first clue and told them to grab the clue of that same color in each spot. A parent or grandparent went with each of the younger kids to help. When they reached the garage, which was the last place, there was a DIY individual ball pinata for each of them. Its color matched their clue color. I had them all wait until everyone got there before they could open them to get the party favors inside.
Conclusion of My Son’s Birthday Scavenger Hunt
It was complete chaos! Kids happily ran around in every direction getting distracted by what the other kids were doing. But, the picture clues seemed to be the perfect level of difficulty for the younger ones. And the word clues for the older ones were….well I have no idea. As I mentioned above, it snowed the day of my son’s party and the two older kids weren’t able to make it. So, if you give them a try, let me (and everyone else) know how well they work.
Need ideas for what to place at the end of your birthday scavenger hunt? Learn how to make my cool ball pinatas here or check out other fun ideas from Get Your Holiday On.
Make sure to check out the rest of my ball themed party ideas here.
