How to run a kids scavenger hunt as a party game

We recently hosted a scavenger hunt for a group of kids and we decided to take inspiration from the BBC hit TV show Traitors! In Traitors is everyone is out for themselves and to win the big prize, but every day they have to carry out a team task with some element that makes everyone have to work together. Even when people are split into two teams they benefit if ultimately they come together and add to their pot of money. Therefore we split everyone into two teams and had them running around collecting different clues. They actually went to all the same locations but they did them in a different order (again as they do on Traitors).

They each had a starting clue, which took them to a location, where there was another clue, to take them to another location, and so on. We actually used AI to write the clues! I'll go into more detail on that on another blog post another day! (So make sure you're following on Facebook to hear about it.)

In our Scavenger hunt, which took place in a field, each team collected letters at each clue point. Then, when they got back to the base point they had to arrange these letters into a word.

The letters for one team spelled the place of the prize and the letters for the other team gave a clue as to a more detailed exact location at that place. In our case one team's letters spelled out polytunnel whilst the other teams spelled out flowerpot because a flowerpot marked the site in the polytunnel where they had to dig. It was a team effort and the children could all have a go at digging to try to find the prize (having the prize actually buried added to the excitement and made the activity last a few precious minutes longer!). 

The prize was a plastic container (so as to keep the contents clean and dry) containing their party bags with some flower seeds inside - which meant they got them early in the party, but they could then add to them as they won sweets from other games.

We did accidentally make it a bit tricky by scattering a few too many flowerpots around so they had quite a few places to dig! If you ever need flower beds dug ready for for planting just tell some kids there is a prize under there and you get some very enthusiastic digging done!