Hunting in the Urban Jungle!

Is anyone up for a scavenger hunt? A friend of mine recently needed some assistance meeting her daughter’s request to have a scavenger hunt with her friends in celebration of her birthday. After hashing out the details of expectations from both mother and daughter, I was able to pull together a fun little adventure. Here is a brief over view of what I pulled together…

The Rules…

The participants in this scavenger hunt are a small group of pre-teen girls with the request of hosting the hunt in a local shopping center. This particular center is an outdoor arrangement with non-traditional features such as a bandstand, park areas, etc. Considering the age of the “hunters” and the layout of the shopping area, the number one rule of the game is that they have to be accompanied by their “guide” (aka: responsible adult) at all times. Other rule criteria spun off of this to drive home the point with the consequence of ditching their “guide” and/or anyone wandering off solo resulting in an immediate stop to the hunt.

The Game…

Because the requested hunting ground is a publicly accessible and privately owned, I was able to find a map to help with the planning process. (If you can’t find a map, a scouting mission may be in order.) With the map, I was able to select appropriate shops and locations to use in the scavenger hunt and build clue verbiage around them. Most challenge and most fun was the development of the clue verbiage. Teenagers can be brutal, so I had to find that balance of fun and challenging without falling into the land of cheese!  Once I had the clues sorted out, the next step was to create a challenge for each clue location. You don’t necessarily have to add a challenge, but since the mission of this hunt is the celebration of a birthday I thought the challenges would offer a memory making opportunity. (Most involve taking group photos doing silly things.)

The basic flow of the hunt balances between the receipt of a clue followed by a challenge. The players must decipher the clue to determine the location they must get to – as a group. Once at the correct clue destination they receive the challenge and must complete it before receiving the next clue. At the final clue location they are handed the final challenge card offering a congratulations and instructions to return to the house for a celebration (cake and presents).

The Twist…

For this particular scavenger hunt, we added a dash of theme to correspond to the overall birthday celebration. As part of her gift, the birthday girl’s bedroom was recently decorated in a Safari theme. To ensure a cohesive party theme, we dressed up the scavenger hunt details as taking place in the “Urban Jungle”. For extra effect, the first stop on this hunt is at a local shop specializing is animal print accessories where the girls all receive their party favors. To incorporate this into the theme, we simply made it the first clue by stating that any hunter requires the proper gear along with some details indicating the shop’s name. In the instructions and other game materials the players are referred to as the “hunters”, the supervising parent as the “hunting guide”, and the home base as “camp”.

Adding the final touches to the theme, the clue and challenge cards are printed on graphics of parchment rolls and leather background. Each card was folded inside a decorative paper to create a sort of envelope and sealed with a clear label indicating the clue/challenge number. You could also use a decorative sticker corresponding to your theme. As with most things, there are loads of ways to playfully twist this format to suite a variety of themes. It just takes a little creativity with the verbiage and packaging of the clues.