Halloween Scavenger Hunt

Here are some Halloween Scavenger Hunt that you might want to consider!

Nature Scavenger Hunt - If you live in a rural area or have a park near by, you could have a nature scavenger hunt. Make a list of things readily available that are safe for the children to collect, such as a maple leaf (maybe of specific color), pine cones, different color rocks, acorns, etc. Give each child or team a list and a paper bag to collect their treasures. You could even hide some things in the area they will be searching such as mini pumpkins or pre-wrapped treats.

Decorations Scavenger Hunt - This will take a bit more planning; yet can be a lot of fun. Go around your neighborhood looking for interesting and unique decorations. Make note of the address, name of the family or possibly stores. Then give a list describing the decorations and the children have to find the location where the decorations reside and write it down. If they aren't old enough to write, be sure your teams are split with older children or adults.

Costume Scavenger Hunt - Sometimes businesses, malls or plazas have a Trick or Treat time earlier in the day and have their employees dress in costumes. List several different costumes they might find and see who can find the most costumes on the list. They could have the person sign their paper when they find the different costumes.

Photo Scavenger Hunt - If you have enough adults with either Polaroid or digital cameras, you can have a photo scavenger hunt. This is a good alternative to having the children gather things, especially if you live in an urban area where there may not be many things the kids can collect legally. Once all the teams are back to the starting point, they can compare pictures to determine the winner. This also allows for people to find the same thing and have a more specific list of items. This can be done for more than one age group, by having more obvious clues for the younger children and more difficult ones for the older kids.

If the weather isn't nice, you can have an indoor scavenger hunt and hide things around the house. Some rules will need to be given such as if a door is closed, that room doesn't have any of the items in it. Give clues for the items they are looking for and a bag for collecting. Candy, apples, mini pumpkins, small toys and Halloween themed items are great for indoor scavenger hunts and lots of fun for the kids.

Halloween is one of those times of years (like Christmas) where, frankly, kids expect some kind of entertainment! Besides, it can be a great time for the entire family anyway so everybody wins. Here are some Halloween games for kids that you can try on this spooky night.

The Classic

One of the classic games is bobbing for apples. Simply get a large tub and fill it with water and throw in a bunch of apples which should float and bob around.

The idea is to keep your hands behind your back and grab an apple with your teeth.

These days many parents are running a variation of this classic game. Instead of using the tub of water, each apple is dangled on the end of a string. This means that kids won't lose all their makeup in the water!

The Simple

The simple treasure hunt game can be played with a twist at Halloween and there are many ways to do this.

One way is to have many pieces of treasure to look for. In this way, the game is similar to an Easter egg hunt. Instead, you can use something more "scary" such as eyeball style marbles. If you can, try to get some Halloween themed candies because this will give kids instant rewards while they are hunting.

Another way is to have a single item that needs to be found. You can even leave a clue with an item that tells the kids where to find the next one if the kids are old enough to understand. They can either sequentially follow the clues or just look everywhere! Make sure you have a good reward lined up though or else the kids won't bother to play the game!

The Gross

Kids love gross stuff, especially at Halloween. Fear not because you can pull this off without causing a huge mess in your family home. Having said this, the best place for these games is the yard.

One way of doing gross games is to fill small containers with gross stuff. The idea is for the kids to retrieve something from the bottom of the container with their hands.

You can use all sorts of perfectly safe but gross things for this game. For example, you can use cans of slime available from party stores. You could have a small box of maggots procured from your local fishing store. You can even have a small bucket of cold baked beans.