My boys LOVE anything that involves treasure, maps and clues – they often draw their own fantasy maps, complete with sea monster, lava lakes and buried treasure.  I have to admit, I have a bit of a soft spot for these things as well, so I find it a lot of fun to make up scavenger hunts for them.  When Mr Now-7 turned 5, the theme for his party was The Magic Faraway Tree (his favourite book at the time) and we had it in our garden, complete with a faraway tree (including a door and an owl up in the branches), and mushrooms to sit on.  I also made a scavenger hunt around the garden and it was a huge hit.  Since then, I’ve whipped up different hunts for my boys – some for lazy sunny afternoons in the garden, others for rainy days indoors.  They’ve changed over time, too, and I’ve found that it has been a fun way to encourage reading: the earlier hunts were pictures AND words, then they moved on to being simple object descriptions (for example, “a car”) and then to help develop their reading, more complicated and more abstract descriptions (for example, “a round object”).  

Scavenger hunts are really quick to make, especially if you don’t have to use images, and I’ve had to whip up a few on the fly to satisfy the hunger for “more!” Luckily, I’ve managed to find a couple that I have saved for later, so if you can’t be bothered making your own, simply click on the links to download.  The first is a simple version and the second, more complicated.  You can use them indoors or both indoors and outdoors, or you can edit them to make your own versions.  Enjoy!

Scavenger Hunt #1 (Easy – for early readers)

Scavenger Hunt #2 (Harder – for more confident readers)