Neighborhood scavenger hunt

Every object tells a story. Scavenger hunts are a great way to imagine how objects found in nature and neighborhoods came to be. Bring the whole family along and include the neighbors. You may be surprised at what you find and learn.

Step 1: Select a Scavenger Hunt Theme

You can put together any theme for a fun scavenger hunt. Be creative! Depending on the age of participants, you can have different levels for kids and adults, or break into teams. Some ideas for scavenger hunt themes are:

• Seasonal hunts –spring, fall, winter, summer
• Animals
• Holiday (shamrocks or hearts in windows, holiday decorations)
• Random yard decorations
• Search for one item and collect as many as you can in your neighborhood. For example, find the blue houses or heart-shaped rocks.

Step 2: Create a Checklist for your Participants

Create a checklist of things to look for on the scavenger hunt.

Step 3: Pick a date for the scavenger hunt and invite people to participate!

Post about the scavenger hunt, including the checklist, date and time, on your local neighborhood social media group.

Here’s a simple message you could use:

“Hey neighbors, my family and I plan to do a scavenger hunt <<insert date/time>> and we’d love for you to join in the fun! Here is the list of items we will be looking for on our hunt. If you have some of these items, place them outside for us to find. And if you would like to participate in the hunt, meet us at <<insert meeting location and time>> to get started, and afterwards we will share what we found! Thanks for joining us!”

Step 4: Get Your Hunt On

Head out for the hunt! Encourage neighbors to take pictures of their hunt and the items they find to share with others afterwards.