A scavenger hunt is not only a great way to keep children occupied during lockdown, it is also very popular for children's birthday parties. The idea for this article came to me when my son's best friend had a birthday during lockdown and wanted to stop by our garden in the afternoon to say "hello" to his friend. Of course, we also wanted to give him a small gift. But so that it wouldn't be over in 2 minutes at most, I had the idea of organizing a small scavenger hunt in the garden. It was only supposed to be a few stations and small, simple riddles about things you could find in the garden (shed, armchair, swing, etc.). I didn't really find what I was looking for on the internet, so I made up my own riddles. I don't want to withhold the templates and ideas from you; perhaps they will be practical for one or two of you.
Ideas and templates for a scavenger hunt in the garden with children
First, I thought of a few stations in the garden where you can easily attach clues. These are small, simple riddles that are supposed to lead the children from one station to the next until they can finally find the gift. The notes can be printed out or copied. We folded up the small clues (attention: cut out the clues without the solutions :-)) and attached them with adhesive tape, for example under the seat of the swing, on the underside of the slide, or on the shed door, etc.
Pros can of course laminate these notes or wrap them even more nicely. Here you can let your ideas run wild. It is also important to consider where you can nicely hide the gift depending on its size and weight: e.g., in a shed or in a chest or even in the paper bin, so that it is not seen immediately and is perhaps also a little protected depending on the season. Also, attach the clues in a slightly hidden way so that they are not immediately visible at first glance, e.g., do not stick them directly to the rope of the swing, but under the seat, or under the slide, etc. It can be a little tricky.
Riddles for a scavenger hunt in the garden
Of course, the possibilities for riddles are vast; you can either use small rhyming texts as clues, a crossword puzzle with a solution word, or simply list things in the garden that need to be found. You can find ideas for this here:
Rhyming riddles
Small, simple, rhyming riddles that lead to things that can be found in the garden. Using Google has made it much easier to rhyme; you simply enter the term and (usually) many words are shown that could fit. Simply try out several words here, rewrite the sentences, or swap words, and this results in funny sentences with the keywords. My daughter and I had a lot of fun inventing these little riddles.
Template: Riddles for a scavenger hunt in the garden with children
Crossword puzzle
The idea also came from my daughter; she wanted some variety in the scavenger hunt and suggested a crossword puzzle. With this simple crossword puzzle, nice solution words can be found. To do this, print out the template or trace it and add the individual solution word. At the very bottom, add a few boxes and look for letters, mark the letters in color, and also number them. Solution words can be "house", "flower", "bee", "stone", "slide", etc.
Template: Crossword puzzle for a scavenger hunt with children in the garden
Questions for a crossword puzzle for a scavenger hunt with children in the garden
Solution for the crossword puzzle for a scavenger hunt with children in the garden
Our homemade riddle looked like this:
Template: Crossword puzzle with solution word
Solutions to the crossword puzzle
Simple clues
If you want to make it even simpler and faster, give short, concise clues like "Find the red ball", or "Look around in the shed", "Where do birds find food in our garden?". Here you can send the children all over the garden with simple little clues.
Conclusion: The recipient and our children had a lot of fun and were disappointed when it was already over. The clues were simple and were guessed quickly. It was a beautiful experience and all the children liked it very much. Try it out!
Read also: Games for a children’s birthday party
Photo by Sabine, meinhaushalt.at
