Boost Engagement Around the Holidays with Scavenger Hunts

Saturday, December 8, 2018

One way I LOVE boosting engagement is through the use of scavenger hunts. I have started placing them strategically right before breaks, on holidays, and on typical crazy days so that crazy days become crazy productive instead of just crazy!

Creating a scavenger hunt for your kiddos does NOT have to be difficult, and my goal of this blog post is to share a few tips and tricks that will make creating and implementing scavenger hunts even more easy for you to do in your classroom.

There are two main types of scavenger hunts I like to use in my classroom - around the classroom and around the school. My kiddos are obsessed with the around the school scavenger hunts, but if you aren't ready to release your kiddos into the school, simply do the scavenger hunt in your own classroom - it will still be just as FUN.

How to create your own around the school scavenger hunt:

1) Grab or create a set of task cards. I choose to do between 8-10 task cards. I aim to make them more challenging since there are fewer of them. Print however many you need for each group to have one and place them in large envelopes.

2) Develop clues that your students will solve in order to find the next task card. I have created different riddles students have to solve, and I've also just scrambled up words that students have to unscramble. You can scramble words such as "cafeteria" or you can scramble teacher's names. Print enough of each clue for each group to have one.

3) Write the answers to each task card on the outside of a small envelope and place one set of clues inside each small envelope.

4) Lay out the large envelopes and place the corresponding small envelope on top.

5) Step five is the MOST IMPORTANT step! = ) After everything is laid out, move each small envelope to the right one space. This movement creates a loop. If you don't create this loop, the scavenger hunt won't work.

6) After you've moved each small envelope, write the location of the clue in the small envelope on the back of the large envelope it is on top of - this is reminding you were you need to hide the large envelope.

7) Hide the large envelopes around the school and place the small envelopes on the board. At this point, you are ready to go hunting! = )

*I choose to add a joke that students have to solve to my scavenger hunts. Please look at my products to see an example with how I did this. = )

Pre-Created Scavenger Hunts: 

If you don't want to create your own scavenger hunts, I have already created some really fun scavenger hunts for several different holidays. You will still have to create the loop, but each product includes detailed directions on how to do this. All three products are fully editable so that you can create your own questions if you don't teach 4th/5th grade. = )

This Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt includes a mixture of adding/subtracting/multiplying/dividing whole numbers, along with some decimal practice, but the product is fully editable in case you would like to create your own problems. CLICK HERE to learn more.

The Christmas Scavenger hunt includes a variety of math skills including: ordering decimals, adding decimals, multiplying decimals, and multiplication and division of whole numbers, but the product is fully editable in case you would like to create your own problems. CLICK HERE to learn more.
 

The Valentine's Day scavenger hunt includes: adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing decimals, but the product is fully editable in case you would like to create your own problems. Click HERE to learn more. *Some problems are two step.


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