Every Thursday, we provide ideas for youth work sessions. These ideas are usually ways to explore various issues that young people face, but sometimes it’s good to run sessions that are just for fun.
This week’s session idea is a mall photo scavenger hunt – something that’s fun, but is also a perfect team-building and youth bonding activity. Here’s how to run it:
Resources
- Cameras (cell phones cameras can also be used)
- Mall photo scavenger hunt list (see below)
- Pens
- Projector, screen & laptop to display all the scavenger hunt photos
- Prize(s) for the winning team
Instructions
Take your youth group to a shopping mall and split them into teams. Depending on their age, it might be fine to send them off in groups without leaders. However, this is a great opportunity for relationship building, so we’d still encourage you to have at least one leader with each group.
Give each group a copy of the list and a pen to check off as they go along. They need to find all of the items on the list and take photos of them.
As you’ll be out in a public area and representing your youth group, remind them about your group agreement, behavior policy, etc.
Decide ahead of time if the groups will be allowed to buy items for the photos. If so, consider giving them a small amount of money (e.g. $5 per group) for incidentals – that way there will be a level playing field for all the groups.
Advise the groups of a location to meet at the end and what time they should be there and send them off.
Mall Photo Scavenger Hunt List
This list should contain items that your young people will be able to find at the mall, but which will take some time to find. We’ve provided a list of possible items below to get started.
Also consider providing a list of a few bonus items on the scavenger hunt list for them to take photos of. The way the bonus points are allocated is completely up to you, but we’d recommend rewarding creativity, humor and ingenuity – that’s why the bonus suggestions below are more subjective photo ideas.
Regular Items
- XL size blue T-shirt with white stripes
- Ring costing $999
- Hat with 3 flowers on it
- CD with an album title of more than 10 words
- Book with the Eiffel Tower on the front cover
- Purple gloves
- Necklace with a turtle on it
- 5 different versions of Monopoly (can be in separate photos)
- Pair of socks with at least 6 different colors on them
- Birthday card for a 100 year old
Bonus Items
- DVD with the strangest movie title
- Funniest T-shirt design
- Most pointless kitchen gadget
- Largest cuddly toy you can find (with team member next to it to indicate size)
Winners
The team with the most points at the end are the winners, once all the bonus points have been taken into account.
If you liked this idea, we also have a separate scavenger hunt site that contains a number of other mall scavenger hunt ideas.
We’ve also published a book with loads of these activities, complete with lists that you can photocopy / print off (depending on what format you buy it in). Get your copy of 52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas from Amazon or direct from us.
Question: What other items would you add to the mall photo scavenger hunt list? Share your ideas in the comments below.
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