Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

10 Scavenger Hunt Ideas For Teenagers

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Scavenger hunt ideas for teenagersScavenger hunts are a great activity to do with young people as they’re perfect for team building, getting them to use their initiative and are also just incredibly fun.

This week’s Best of Youth Workin’ It therefore has a nice long list of scavenger hunt ideas for teenagers:

1. 52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas – This book has the most comprehensive collection of scavenger hunts you’ll ever need, including lists for each one that you can photocopy or print off over and over again. Pick up your copy from Amazon here.

2. Christmas Scavenger Hunt – At the time of writing this, it’s less than two months until Christmas. This could therefore be the perfect time to start planning this activity.

3. Christian Christmas Scavenger Hunt – The previous idea is perfect whether or not you’re a Christian youth group, whereas this idea is tailored more for church youth groups.

4. Holiday Scavenger Hunt – The last couple of scavenger hunt ideas for teenagers have related to Christmas, whereas this list has ideas that cover other holidays like Kwanzaa.

5. Mall Photo Scavenger Hunt – This idea has been our most popular scavenger hunt post so far, as it’s simple to plan and can result in some great photos and memories.

6. Hunt The Spy Scavenger Hunt – This was the first hunt I was ever part of and has some great memories for me. Teenagers love it as well as they get to see their leaders dressed up in all kinds of weird and wonderful outfits.

7. Travel Scavenger Hunt – If you’re running sessions about world awareness, this is an activity that fits perfectly alongside that. It can also result in some hilarious photos depending on how the youth decide to interpret each country’s name (you’ll see what I mean!)

8. Grocery Store Scavenger Hunt – This may not sound particularly exciting, but it can help you teach important life skills to teenagers in a fun way.

9. Flea Market Scavenger Hunt – This idea doesn’t have any particular purpose to it, other than to have them enjoy themselves!

10. Hunger Scavenger Hunt – Organize a quite literal scavenger hunt by making your young people hunt for their food while on a youth retreat.

So there are our 10 scavenger hunt ideas for teenagers. To get even more ideas as time goes on, check out our separate site for many new scavenger hunt ideas each week.

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OFFER HAS ENDED – Get Two Youth Work Books For The Price Of One

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52 Scavenger Hunt IdeasEDIT – THIS OFFER HAS NOW ENDED

We’re really pleased to launch our new book today – 52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas.

Check out the dedicated book page where you can find out:

  • Why we decided to publish it
  • The reason there are 52 scavenger hunt ideas
  • What the book contains to help you plan these activities (hint – everything!)
  • How you can photocopy or print all the scavenger hunt lists you’ll ever need

Formats & Pricing

52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas is available in both paperback and ebook formats – use the links below to pick up your own copy:

Special Offer

To celebrate the launch of the book, we’re pleased to also announce a special offer. For a limited time, if you buy a copy of 52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas in any format, you’ll get a PDF copy of How To Plan A Youth Retreat for free!

All you need to do is email us a copy of your receipt showing that you’ve bought a copy of 52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas. We’ll then email you a copy of the youth retreat book – it’s as easy as that.

So don’t delay – pick up your copy of 52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas before the offer ends.

We’ve also launched a separate site called Scavenger Hunt. This has all kinds of other ideas, lists, clues and riddles, so check that out for inspiration too!

 

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Get A Free Copy Of 52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas

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52 scavenger hunt ideas
Yep, there’s a beach scavenger hunt in the book

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS OFFER HAS NOW ENDED

Next month, we’re launching our second youth work resource – 52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas. As the name suggests, the book has enough scavenger hunt ideas so that you could do a different one each week of the year if you wanted.

Each idea comes complete with a list of resources needed, any additional preparation required (usually none) and instructions on how to run the scavenger hunt.

Most helpful of all though is that every single idea comes complete with a list of scavenger hunt items that need to be found. This list can be photocopied, meaning there’s pretty much nothing that you need to do as we’ve taken care of it for you!

That’s not all though. We have a number of pre-release copies to give away to youth workers just like you. It doesn’t matter where you live in the world – we’re happy to ship it anywhere, all for free. All that we ask is that once you’ve looked through the book, you review it on Amazon.

Don’t worry, we’re not being shady about this – we’re not asking you to say it’s amazing if that’s not what you think. We just want genuine reviews from people who have actually read the book. Regardless of what rating you give it, the book will be yours to keep.

How do I get a free copy?

Just get in contact with us by either:

  • Emailing us – scavengerhunt at youthworkinit dot com
  • Using our contact page

It really is as simple as that. We’ll reply to everybody that contacts us to let you know if you’re one of the lucky people to get a free copy. If you are, we’ll ask for your mailing address so that we can send you a copy fresh from the printers. Don’t delay though – you only have until 24 September 2012 to be considered for this free copy of 52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas.

In the meantime, check out some of our scavenger hunt ideas to get an idea of what our new book will be like, as well as our first book – How To Plan A Youth Retreat.

 

Grocery Store Scavenger Hunt – Life Skills For Teenagers

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Grocery store scavenger huntLast week’s session idea gave ideas on how to teach food shopping life skills to teenagers. This week continues the theme with a grocery store scavenger hunt.

The aim of this session is to help young people learn more about the cost of food. This is done by having them find various premium brands during the grocery store scavenger hunt and noting down their price, then finding similar products by other brands/store brands that cost less.

Resources

  • Scavenger hunt list (see below)
  • Pens
  • Clipboards (not essential, but useful)
  • Calculators (they should have this function on their phones)

Preparation

Put together the scavenger hunt list. This should be split into two columns – the left column should list some premium brands and have space for youth to write down the cost of the item, while the right column should be left empty so they can write down the alternative brands and their prices.

How To Organize

Take your youth to a grocery store – the larger the better, as this will mean they have a greater variety of products to choose from. Depending on how many young people you have, either split them into teams or have them go around the store individually.

As they’ll be out and about representing your youth group/project, remind them of any group agreement or behavior policy that you have. Set a location and time to meet up once they’ve completed the scavenger hunt.

Provide each team/person with a copy of the grocery store scavenger hunt list, along with a pen (and clipboard if applicable). Explain that they need to find all the premium branded items on the list and write down their cost; advise that this should be written down in the left column.

Once they’ve done this for an item, explain that they need to find a similar product of a similar size/weight, but which is cheaper. They should then note down the name of the brand (or if it’s a store brand) and the cost.

Evaluation

Once they’ve completed the scavenger hunt, get the young people to total up both columns. Next, have them calculate the difference between the two columns and get the teams/individuals to compare each others’ different totals.

Finally, facilitate a discussion about food shopping on a budget and get their observations on what they learned during this activity regarding the cost of food. Do they think that the premium brands are worth paying that much more money for?

Grocery Store Scavenger Hunt List

The list can be as long or short as you like; this will also vary depending on how much time you’re allocating to the scavenger hunt itself.

We know our readers are based all over the world, so it’s hard to provide a list of items as brands will vary by country. Here are some suggestions of items to list though given that they’re global brands (as far as I’m aware anyway!)

  • Heinz Tomato Ketchup
  • Newman’s Own pasta sauce
  • 12 pack of Coca-Cola cans
  • Salt & Vinegar Pringles
  • Nutella
  • Nutri-Grain bars
  • Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes
  • Dannon Activia yogurt
  • Tropicana orange juice
  • Nacho Cheese Doritos
  • Green Giant frozen sweet corn
  • Ben & Jerry’s chocolate fudge brownie ice-cream

Tip

Contact the grocery store in advance to advise them of what you have planned. They’ll no doubt appreciate being given a heads-up as to why there’ll be a number of teenagers wandering around their store with no basket or shopping cart!

They may even be willing to have someone at their store offer advice about food shopping, coupons, meal planning, etc.

If you’ve found this idea helpful, check out our other scavenger hunt ideas on this site, plus our food label scavenger hunt idea on our sister site.

We’ve also published 52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas – a book with all the scavenger hunt activities that you’ll ever need. Pick up your copy now from Amazon or direct from us.

Question: What other items would you include on the grocery store scavenger hunt list? Share your ideas in the comments below.

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Flea Market Scavenger Hunt

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Flea market scavenger hunt
Major props if you get why we’ve used this image!

Our youth scavenger hunt ideas always prove to be popular, so this week we have another one for you – a flea market scavenger hunt (for UK readers, think car boot sales).

There are a couple of ways this can be run:

  • With money – If budget is no issue, consider giving each team $10-$20 to buy as many items as they can from the list
  • Without money – To save money, this could be run as a photo scavenger hunt instead, whereby the teams take photos of the items instead of buying them

Resources

  • Money (if youth will be buying the items)
  • Cameras (if youth will be taking photos of items instead – cellphone cameras should be fine)
  • Flea market scavenger hunt list
  • Pens
  • Projector, screen & laptop to display all the photos at the end (if going down the photo route)
  • Prize(s) for the winning team

Instructions

Take your young people to a flea market / swap meet / car boot sale. Split the youth into teams and allocate a leader to go with them. Your group may be old enough to do this activity without leaders going with them, but it’s a great opportunity to spend time building relationships, so we’d always recommend having at least one leader per group regardless.

Each group should be given a copy of the flea market scavenger hunt list (see below) and a pen – this enables them to check off each item as they go along. If they’re to take photos of the items, make sure each team has at least one camera. If buying the items, ensure each team is given the money before they head off.

The youth will be representing your group while they’re out and about, so remind them of your behavior policy, group agreement, etc. Be sure to emphasize any boundaries of where they can and can’t go, as well as the need to stay together as a team.

Finally, arrange a time and location for them to all meet at the end – perhaps at a snack stand or by the exit. To encourage them to arrive on time – or so that they don’t cheat by trying to spend more time than other groups completing the list – consider warning them that their team will be deducted 1 point for every minute that they’re late.

Flea Market Scavenger Hunt List

The great thing about organizing a scavenger hunt to be done at a flea market is that you can make the list as weird and wonderful as you like – chances are someone will be selling it!

If you’re going to be having your youth buy the items on the list, bear in mind that you’ll need to list items that won’t prove to be too expensive. There’s no point listing a bunch of expensive items if they’re only going to have $10 to spend. Having said that, this could be a perfect opportunity for them to learn some life skills in negotiation and bartering!

Like I said, the list could contain anything but here are some ideas to get you started:

  • Postcard with a black & white photo design
  • Michael Jackson cassette tape
  • Book by Agatha Christie
  • Brown plate with a yellow flower decorative design
  • An item dated 1986
  • Green spoon

Also consider making a list of a few additional items that they can earn bonus points for. These items should be more subjective, such as:

  • Funniest T-shirt design
  • Vinyl album with the cheesiest cover sleeve

Cassette tapes…..vinyl albums…..this is going to blow the minds of the Spotify generation 😉

Winners

The winning team is the one with the most points at the end. If you’re going to give them a prize, consider buying something from the flea market – the more ridiculous the better!

If you liked this idea, check out our other scavenger hunt ideas, as well as our youth work session ideas. We also now have another site that publishes multiple scavenger hunt ideas each week.

Don’t miss out on our book as well – 52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas – that includes lists for each of the 52 ideas. You’ll never need to come up with your own lists again!

Question: What items would you add to the list for a flea market scavenger hunt? Share your ideas in the comments below.

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