nonsequitur, as always, you have great ideas! The door to door thing is a bit scary in these parts though, and it's generally discouraged. Like you said, it's defintiely for GROUPS of kids (preferably with an adult monitoring). I really like the idea with the teachers--what a terrific way to get the kids to interact with them on a level outside of instruction! In our school that would be very helpful--the teachers are hardly the "get involved type," and this sort of thing might get them to a little more willingly!
You could do a question based scavenger hunt -
Ie - Find a teacher who lived in Kenya.
What teacher is the youngest of 10 kids?
What teacher loves pickle and peanut butter sandwhiches?
Find out interesting things that are unique to each teacher and make up your list.
Another scavenger hunt is to look for landmarks around the school. Trees shaped a certain way, bulletin boards with certain things on them.
Puzzles with clues are another way to do it. Send them from one room/teacher to another based on clues. Color code the teams so not everyone goes in the same order or to all the same places.
If this goes further than just the school grounds, my favorite scavenger hunt is the cookie hunter. Teams have 2 minutes to memorize a cookie recipe. They go door to door with a bowl and ask for the ingredients in the quanities they remember (Minus eggs, those are back at the end.) Then everyone comes back and bakes their cookies. The best tasting ones win. It's really fun, but may be better for a scout group than a whole school.
There are so many ways to do it. It might be easier to suggest something if we had more details like how many people you expect, who is participating (Kids only or families), what the theme is (Is it get to know and love your teachers better?) and what you're willing to use.
You could make something at the end like the cookies, a puzzle, a snowman (just snowed in Colorado) or a large picture. Have the hunt be for the pieces.
Although it sounds fun, I'm not exactly clear how a scavenger hunt ties into Teacher appreciation. What - they have to earn their gifts??
But as far as ideas, you could also do a photo scavenger hunt from the other direction (if your school has digital cameras). Divide the people into groups and give each one a list of pictures collect, a camera, and a time period in which it needs to be done. (The time frame can be anything: an hour or week or first-one-done-wins.)
You can have a lot of fun deciding what pictures they need to capture (Principal with a silly expression, 2 girls on the playground slide, the school sign - whatever.) Then you can make a slide show at the end.
Winning can be based on first one done, everyone who completes it wins, or voting on the best slideshow.
Would you please give me some more scavenger hunt ideas? I just love this idea ! Do you do it in one day ? Any help you would give will be great !
THANKS !!
Judi This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
I love scavanger hunts, and you guys have GREAT ideas--especially the photo one from Venzmama! How about a note signed by a specific member of the staff (or in the same vein, three male staff signatures, or a piece of paper with a teacher from each grade's signature?), calculator, penny with a certain year on it and a tongue depressor? Are there any items you think aren't good? How else could you use a scavenger hunt (ie family fun night, fundraiser)?
