Mall Scavenger Hunt

I dropped Trevor and a friend at the movie theater for the $1 Summer Movie Express at the mall, did the shopping I needed to do, and found myself with an extra hour before the kids would be done. I'm not sure what a normal person would do with an extra hour at the mall, but I'm far from normal. So naturally, I made a scavenger hunt. 

Make your own scavenger hunt by photographing the names of stores at your mall. These should be permanent, non-seasonal, store-front marquee signs if you want your scavenger hunt to be good for more than a few days. A bonus is that the stores don't need to be open to do the hunt if you stick with marquees. Once you have your photos, open PicMonkey. Go to Collage, Layouts, and Square Deal. Click on the far right option and you'll have a 5x5 grid. Now just drop in your photos, using the tool to change the size until you've isolated the correct letter. I chose to do just A-Y because I liked the way it looks, but you can easily add a square if you want to do A-Z. Now print out your scavenger hunt, grab the kids, and head to the mall! 

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Mall Scavenger Hunt

Can you name the store for each of the letters below? The photos are from July 2018 at the Solano Mall, but many of them are national brands that you'll find at malls across the US.

If you'd like to play along with my scavenger hunt, please do! Leave your answers in the comments. I might just have a prize for the first person with all the correct answers!

Being Creative on Vacation: Photo Scavenger Hunt

We just got back from a weeklong vacation to Bear Valley, CA.  My inlaws own a cabin there.  It's less than 5 minutes from beautiful Lake Alpine.

As my longtime readers know, I am a huge fan of scavenger hunts.  I've made scavenger hunts for Disneyland, for camping, and for numerous other occasions.  I created a new scavenger hunt specifically for this trip.  Trevor had just finished a 3-week online Photography Summer Camp, so I thought it would be fun to do a photo scavenger hunt at Lake Alpine.  (Not to mention, a great way to reinforce the skills he'd learned.)

I started by typing up a list of items I knew we'd be able to find at Alpine.  I kept the list fairly generic, but left room for interpretation and creativity.  I backed the list with patterned paper, added a sticker, and backed the whole thing with cardstock.  Here's how it looked:   

 

I wanted to be able to use these cards again for future trips, so I covered them with clear contact paper.  Then I added grommets and yarn.

 

When it was time for our scavenger hunt, I passed out the lists to the family.  I asked each person to photograph their list before we started.  Later, when it was time for judging, this would make it really easy to find the start of the scavenger hunt photos on the photo card. Here's Trevor's list:

Everyone set out to take their photographs.  Here's a spider web that Trevor found.

And Trevor's picture of moss.

 

Steve found a different type of moss.

Aunt Teri photographed this unusual rock.

Steve took this picture of "something alive."  

Aunt Teri took this creative picture of her own shadow.

I loved watching how each person photographed the letters in their name.  Grandpa Dave and Gradma Pat photographed license plates in the parking lot to spell their names.  Trevor used pinecones, rocks and sticks to spell his name along the trail.

 

Steve took five different pictures and put them together into a collage.

 

We had such a fun time with our Photo Scavenger Hunt!

Christmas Photo Scavenger Hunt

Photo-a-Day challenges are awesome.  They're lots of fun and such a great way to spark ideas for creative photography.  When someone posted this Christmas Challenge list at Scrapjazz at the beginning of December, I knew I wanted to play along... and that I wanted Steve and Trevor to play along too. 

But rather than complete the list as a Photo-a-Day, I decided to treat it as a Photo Scavenger Hunt.  (As you know, I love any type of Scavenger Hunt.)  I printed out the list and set it aside.  

Fast forward to the weekend of Dec. 6/7. Trevor woke up with a fever and had to miss several events he had been looking forward to attending, including a gingerbread decorating party.  He was really disappointed.  

I pulled out the list and announced we'd be doing a Photo Scavenger Hunt, which perked him right up. Each of us had all day to take as many of the 31 pictures as we could, with Trevor able to rest as much as he needed between photos.  Here are a few of Trevor's pictures:

Twinkle.

Wrapped.

Carols.

After a handful of pictures, Trevor was back on the couch resting.  Over the course of the day, he ended up taking 20 pictures out of the 31 prompts.  It was a fun activity for him and he enjoyed watching from the couch to see the pictures that Steve and I took, even if he wasn't up to taking them all himself. 

Here are a few of my favorites from among the ones Steve took:

Merry.

Wrapped.  (Note that he only photographed the gifts for Daddy.)


The Naughty List.


Candlelit.



Peace.


Lit.

And here are some of my favorites from the ones I took.

Rosy.

Stocking.

Ornament.

The Naughty List.

Bow.

Warm and Cozy.

Must Be Santa.

Lit.

Between the three of us, we took a total of 82 pictures based on the prompts (plus a bunch of other random ones).  I'm planning to use the best of them on a layout about how we decorate the house for Christmas.

Have you done a Photo-a-Day Challenge, either the way it was intended or all at once like a Photo Scavenger Hunt?  If not, I'd encourage you to give it a try!  It's a great activity to do alone or as a family.  

Nature Scavenger Hunt

I've had so much fun teaching US history to Trevor's fifth grade class! My last day with them was not to teach history, but rather to lead a nature hike and teach about the local flora and fauna. To explain how this came to be, I have to back up a bit. 

At the beginning of the year, Trevor was elected Class President. His campaign promises included: teaching robotics and coding to his classmates, incorporating ping pong into PE, learning about different cultures, and having his mom lead a birdwatching nature hike. I found out about this after he'd given his speech. He'd assumed (correctly) that I'd be happy to lead a hike, but I made it clear that he should never make a promise on behalf of someone else without discussing it first. I also made it clear that we would be leading the hike together and that Trevor would do the bulk of the planning and preparations. I suggested we broaden the activity to include plants and other animals besides birds, and that we incorporate a nature-themed photo scavenger hunt. (The deRosiers are obsessed with scavenger hunts.) Trevor thought it was a great idea. 

Finally it was time for the big day. I headed out with a line of 31 students (plus their teacher and some chaperones, of course) trailing behind me as we walked a few blocks from the school on a sunny afternoon to a beautiful open space area. 

Despite it being just minutes from the school, only three of the kids had ever hiked there. The rest couldn't believe they hadn't known about it. They kept saying how pretty it was. 

  

We stopped to learn about trees, wildflowers, and other plants. We walked down to a creek, over rocks, and along a slope. We listened. We spotted ducks, turkeys, mice, and evidence of several animals in the form of scat.

We left the open space area to head to a developed preserve, also right near the school. Here, Trevor explained his scavenger hunt. The kids would divide into teams and search the preserve for the items on the list, taking photos of each as they found them. The items were divided by category and awarded points based on Trevor's perception of how difficult each would be to find. He had a somewhat complicated point system that awarded bonus points for completing all items in a category. The kids were excited and set off on their hunt. 

I took lots of photos of the kids... of their backs, that is!

  

  

  

I also took my own photos of the items on Trevor's list, including this orange dragonfly (bug) and blue peacock feather. 

  

Look dead center at the first photo. Do you see the peacock? The close-up could have been used for moss (1 point), but I used it for circle (3 points).

  

We had so much fun on our nature hike and scavenger hunt! I'm really going to miss my time with the fifth graders. As they all head off different directions for middle school, I hope they have fond memories of their fifth grade year. I know I will. 

DIY Photo Scavenger Hunt - 75 Ideas

I love photo scavenger hunts. It's such a fun way to look at a place differently. I always end up with unique photos I never would have thought to take. You can do photo scavenger hunts while camping, at Disneyland, for Halloween, during Christmas, or even just around the house. 

I want to do a photo scavenger hunt on an upcoming trip, so I started by making myself a template, designed like a BINGO card. I put FREE CHOICE in the center; the remaining squares are blank. For now. 

Next, I brainstormed a list of 75 attributes that work well for a photo scavenger hunt. Each can be taken at face value, but for some words there is room for interpretation. For example, #62 Wave could refer to something wave-shaped, an actual ocean wave, a flag moving in the wind, a person waving, or even something like amber waves of grain. 

Finally, I used random.org to generate a numbers between 1 and 75. 

Since #31 is Soft, I added it to the first square of my card. I repeated the process for the remaining 23 squares until my card was all filled in. If a duplicate came up, I generated a new random number. 

I love that the prompts are truly random. If I had chosen the items to go in each square, I would have balanced the colors, shapes, patterns, etc. Instead, it's all over the place, which adds to the fun. I'm looking forward to using my new photo scavenger hunt card!

Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt

I'm a bit obsessed with scavenger hunts.  So when I saw this Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt, I immediately printed it out for us to do.  I put the list on a clipboard, attached a red pen, and we headed out for a walk through our neighborhood.  Each time we got to a decorated house, Trevor would search through the decorations for items on the list to scratch off.

Steve helped out by shining a flashlight on the list.

After walking up and down every street, we managed to check 12 items off the list of 20.  Not too bad, I guess.  A few days later, we took the same list to visit Candy Cane Lane, a neighborhood where all the residents go all out in decorating their houses.  

At each house, Trevor would carefully check the list and check off an item, this time with a green pen.

 

In no time, we had 18 of the 20 items checked off the list.  Two remained elusive: a gingerbread house decoration and someone outside fixing lights.  After passing every single house, we returned to where our car was parked.  As we buckled in, the owner of the house we were parked in front of drove up, got out of his car, and without even putting down his briefcase, he went straight over to fix a small section of lights that were out!  We all cheered.  It was surprisingly exciting to scratch it off the list.

 

We had such a great time with the Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt that Trevor decided to make his own for next year.  I helped him create a document with a list of 20 items in the center and places to check off whether we found each in our neighborhood and/or at Candy Cane Lane. Here is his finished Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt.  Some of the items are going to be difficult, but that's half the fun.

 

I'm already looking forward to Christmas 2014!