In Church Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger Relay Structure:
Split up into 2 teams (3 or 4 teams if larger group of 25 plus). All teams are located together in a central location. Each team then receives a bucket or container filled with slips of paper (each team has the same items). Upon “go!”, the first person on each team draws a slip of paper and must go retrieve the item on that slip (ie: a songbook from the church auditorium). Once the first player on the team has returned to the central location with the item, the next person in line for that team can draw a slip of paper and retrieve their item. After the round is over Teens must return the item to its proper place

• Winning the game
  • 1) Whichever team finishes first stops the game, and current point totals are final ...OR...
  • 2) Set a time limit and whichever team has the most points wins
• Variables
  • Place different point values on different items. Some items may take longer to find (ie: something outside, something relatively hidden, or an item that could potentially be in multiple locations)
  • To eliminate drag, you could set a time limit (ie: 90 seconds), and once that time has been hit, the next person on the team must draw a new slip, but the current teen loses the ability to get the points for their item.
  • Because there are different point values, Team A can retrieve more items than Team B in a set time frame but still lose the game if Team B retrieved more high point value items than Team A.

I did not do this, but you can create riddles to describe the items (it just takes more prep)

• Pros: relay oriented so relatively fast moving; gets everybody involved; can be funny if a teen needs to retrieve something comical

• Cons: if you have more than 8 or 10 people on a team, individuals can find themselves standing while waiting; there is running involved, the mistake I made was making the central location right around a corner…we had several run-ins including my 5 year old son getting hit with a plant base and a massive black eye, so I’d suggest using a location that minimizes unforeseen collisions 

• Prep & Supplies Needed:
  • List of (non-breakable) items throughout the building (or property)
  • Typed clues on slips of paper
  • Predetermine the point values
  • Buckets or containers
  • Master copy of items with appropriate point values

• Roles
  • Moderator
  • Score keeper for each team (it can be hard to juggle multiple point values for multiple teams)
  • Optional: bucket holder for each team 

Churchwide Scavenger Hunt Structure:
Each team is assigned a color and x amount of cups in that color (we did purple and blue cups from Dollar Tree) Before the activity, hide the cups throughout whatever the “arena” is; we did the entire church building (minus a few “off limits” areas). Hide them in pairs (one of each color), but not in the exact same location (ie: a purple cup in a microwave but a blue in the refrigerator) this way teens could not shadow the other team and get free finds.  They could know there’s a cup somewhere in the nearby vicinity but not the exact location. Wise tip to help - Take pictures of each location a cup is hidden or have a spreadsheet listing each location; this will allow you to mark which cups have been found for each team. Some prep here but I found it very advantageous. Have a third color cup (ie: green) and an odd number of them hidden (to avoid a tie) in more difficult locations than the team color cups. Give point values for the team cups and a higher point value for the green cups. Begin everyone in a set location and explain the breakdown, specify “off limits” areas, rules etc. Upon “Go!”, the teens scatter throughout the facility and begin looking for their team’s cups. They cannot retrieve or tamper with the other team’s cups; if they find one of the other team’s cups, their goal is to not reveal to them where it is. The green cups are up for grabs by either team. When a cup is found, they have to bring it back to the starting location. Once certain rooms or zones are empty of cups, announce that or lock the room so teens aren’t looking for cups that aren’t there. The team that brings all their team color cups first gets bonus points; team with the most points at the end of the game wins!

• Variables:
  • It’s hard to say how long or how short the game will go, but if the cups are hidden well enough you’ll run out of time and can expedite the game by giving hints (hence the spreadsheet for reference) I would ballpark somewhere between 30-45 minutes, ours I think lasted about 45 minutes

• Pros: they do all the running lol us workers got to just watch them be occupied with finding the cups; little to no standing around

• Cons: when there’s only a couple cups left the game becomes less active; inability to determine a fixed time frame