Suggest a treasure hunt to a group of children and the response will invariably be one of noisy enthusiasm! I recently asked some young people why they liked treasure hunts and their replies ranged from, 'I like seeing if I can work out the clues' to 'they're fun' and (very important, this!) 'the treasure'.
For the playworker, the advantages of a treasure hunt are many and varied.
They are virtually cost free; they can be adapted to suit just about any age group or environment; they get the children moving around their environment in a purposeful way; sets of clues can be laminated and re-used and, most important of all, the children can make up their own hunts (more of this later).
The most straightforward kind of treasure hunt is the 'free for all', where you simply hide sweets around your setting. This is useful if you want to prepare a hunt at the last minute, although you may wish to limit the numbers hunting at any one time. I learned this the hard way when no less than four children made a dive for a hidden Easter egg at exactly the same moment...
For something a little more structured, try the following ideas:
Give us a clue!
Hide written clues around your setting, with each clue leading on to the next. If you are feeling clever, try making the clues rhyme - often easier to do than it sounds once you get going.
Have fun with your clues by tailoring them to a theme. For example, a classic treasure hunt could include cards written out in archaic script with a small wooden casket for the treasure, and chocolate coins, perhaps.
Transform everyday items into exotic landmarks or creatures - the goldfish could become 'miniature golden sea monsters' the piano a 'sheer, black, musical cliff'. Each clue could also include a letter resulting in an anagram of the place where the treasure is hidden.
Puzzle hunts
Collect up old birthday cards and cut the pictures into puzzle pieces. Save one piece from each picture and hide the rest around your setting. Give each child a piece to start off with and tell them how many more pieces they have to find. Go for contrasting pictures so that children can easily tell which pieces are theirs and which to leave untouched. Older children can be given smaller pieces to find, plus a letter on the back of each piece. They then have to un-jumble their letters to create a word as well as make up their puzzle in order to get their prize.
I usually set limits, such as nothing needs to be moved to find a piece and no pieces are hidden higher than your head. Whether or not you choose to do the same will depend on the nature of your group and setting.
Outdoor challenge
Write out cards with different things to find: two brown items, three different types of flowers, four stones that can be graded in size, a round object, something about 5cm long and so on. Match the challenge to the age and ability level of each child, checking first that all items are present in the garden; I occasionally 'plant' objects such as snail shells to provide a spiral pattern. When all the items have been found, award a small prize.
Children's treasure hunts
Encourage children to make up their own clues. The following are just three clues from a hunt created by Hannah (10) and Charlotte (11).
'In the kitchen near the bread,
Your next clue has made a bed.'
'Tiptoe to the washing place,
Look where you can see your face.'
'Walk into the reading spot,
Where you'll see a seaside pot.'
Converting treasure hunts into maps also goes down well. Prepare 'ancient'
parchment by soaking sheets of paper in coffee. Dry out the paper in the microwave and then burn round the edges - I always do this over the sink as the dry paper catches very quickly. Provide red pens (blood) and gold pens for representing the treasure.
Older children who are into Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings or Warhammer models will also enjoy making up their own codes for others to decipher.
