Is your child’s birthday in winter and is snow expected around that date? Are you on a skiing holiday with a large group and would you like to do something other than skiing? Then a treasure hunt in the snow with fun assignments might be an idea. You can easily hide everything in the white blanket. You can also look for animal tracks in the snow. And you can make original turn signals. A treasure hunt in the snow: ideas for a fun afternoon with a reward as the icing on the cake.
Scavenger hunts: how do you get started?
The basis of a treasure hunt is always the same. You divide the participants into two groups. Group 1 leaves. In the meantime, group 2 can have a drink or play a game. The intention is that group 1 maps out a path for group 2. Assignments are made up along the way. The more difficult and difficult the assignments, the less quickly group 2 will catch up with group 1. Which in turn gives group 1 the opportunity to think longer about the assignments and prepare them more carefully. After an hour you can meet up somewhere for a drink and a bite to eat. Then you can reverse the roles. Group 2 now leaves first and can put group 1 to the test. The best thing is to take a different route to return, so that you encounter new elements and can come up with other assignments.
Scavenger hunt: what do you need for it?
In principle, you don’t need anything for a treasure hunt. You can build your quest around what you encounter along the way. Still, you can make it more fun with a few simple things. First and foremost with pen and paper. This way you can write down assignments and then hide the notes somewhere. You can also bring ribbons, preferably made of perishable material such as crepe or toilet paper, for example. Small flags, like the ones you use on a cheese platter. You can bring peanuts, all kinds of nuts or pieces of apple. You can bring a bag of sweets. If you want to complete part of the treasure hunt in the dark, it is best to take a flashlight with you. It can also be fun to take a cell phone with you that you can take photos with.
Indicate the way
Making indications in the snow
You can indicate the way in the classic way, but a number of things will not be possible due to the snow. Making indications with chalk will be difficult, for example. You can mark the way in the snow by making a trail with a stick. You can also make a trail of footprints. However, you can only use these two methods when it is no longer snowing and when it is not thawing, otherwise your indications will quickly disappear.
With tools
Less ephemeral ways are hanging ribbons on tree branches. To make it more difficult you can use two colors. The green ribbons are the ribbons to follow, if you find a red ribbon, you are on the wrong track. You can also make a trail with twigs. With twigs you can make an arrow that shows you the direction to follow. Another way is to show the way with assignments on paper. You hide the pieces of paper and you can indicate the place where the paper is with a ribbon, a stone or a nut. Possible indications are: follow the road to the next intersection and turn left, after the third pine tree to the right, etc. But you can also make your indications more mysterious and therefore more difficult, possibly by using rebuses, assignments in secret script and riddles .
The assignments
In principle, you can use all the assignments of a classic treasure hunt for a treasure hunt in the snow. But with the added bonus of the winter cold and snow you can add extra elements. The assignments will also have to be adapted to the age of the participants. You’re not going to get a six-year-old to do the same thing as a twenty-something or thirty-something.
Assignments for children At a birthday party with children, divide the children present into two groups. You can have the birthday boy or girl appoint someone who will be the leader of the other group. Then each leader can take turns choosing a child from the group to join his group. Young children must also have an adult supervisor per group. Possible assignments for young children are:
- hide peanuts in the snow. To mark the place where the peanuts are hidden, you can plant small flags where a peanut is in the snow. Write on an assignment sheet how many peanuts the children have to find. Place this note in a bag together with a thick needle and a woolen thread. The aim now is for the children to find the correct number of peanuts. Then the children have to stick the peanuts on the wire, so that a peanut chain is formed. They have to bring the chain. Firstly, because it has to be counted whether the children have found all the peanuts, secondly, because the garland can later be attached to a tree in the garden for the birds.
- making snow angels: on the assignment sheet you ask that all children make a snow angel in the snow. For this, all children have to lie apart on their backs in the snow with their arms next to their bodies. Then they have to make flying movements with their arms in the snow. This is how the wings of the angels are formed. As proof, the adult takes a photo with his mobile phone or with a camera. Later the photo can be submitted as evidence. It is best to do this at the end of the treasure hunt, because it will make the children a bit wet.
- hide candy in the snow. A piece of candy is hidden in the snow for each child, possibly marked by flags. Or the candies can be in a certain letter or in a certain shape. The group is not allowed to continue until each child has found their candy. If a child finds two pieces of candy, he must give one of them to another child. Only when each child has a piece of candy can the piece of candy be eaten and the group continue. Take a photo as proof if necessary.
- making a snowman: the assignment is clear. Conditions can be set if necessary: the snowman must be a certain height, he must have three buttons, his nose must be an icicle, his eyes must be pine cones, etc. Make sure that what you request is available nearby. Also take the season into account. A photo is again the proof to bring.
- solve a winter riddle or rebus. Draw a rebus with a winter proverb. A few examples: melting like snow in the sun, seeing black snow, skating crookedly, etc. Group 1 draws the rebus on a paper or writes down a riddle. Group 2 solves it and brings the solution.
- Come up with a winter song of at least five lines. Group 2 must write down a song and bring it with them. This is an assignment that can be solved along the way.
- a list of items to bring: pine cones, a photo of an animal’s track, an icicle (can be kept in a plastic bag if it is very cold), a photo of a pine tree with snow on it, etc.
- learn a song by heart. Take a text from a song or a poem about winter. An example of this is ,In winter when it rains,. The intention is that the group can sing the song or recite the poem upon arrival. This is an assignment that can be done on the go. The supervisor can divide the poem into parts and have each participant learn a part.
Assignments for adults
You can also use the above assignments for a mixed group and even for adults. Want to bet you’ll have a good laugh while making snow angels? In addition to these assignments, you can add a number of assignments for adults:
- A winter book assignment. There are many books that have winter as a theme. Or you can ask to write down three titles freely. Or you can specify writers and the title must be guessed. Or you give the title and the author has to be guessed. Some nice winter books are ,Child of Snow, and the fairy tale of Snegurotchka. The Snow Queen is also a possibility. Children may be familiar with the activity booklet ,Jules in winter,.
- a proverb assignment: find five proverbs that have to do with winter, snow and ice.
- a track assignment: take a photo of the track of a dog, a deer and a bird.
- Have a person climb a pine tree and take a picture of it.
- Drawing assignment: draw an ice crystal as accurately as possible (there are many possibilities!)
- You can replace the children’s sweets with a hidden bottle of gin or small liqueur bottles for the adults. In another place the plastic glasses can be found, either all together in a plastic bag, or all in a different place. Be sure to take all the rubbish back with you after consuming the drink!
After the treasure hunt: counting points and reward
After the treasure hunt, the answers and photos of the two groups are checked and points are awarded for each correct answer and for each correctly completed assignment. The winner is the group with the most points. A nice gift can be provided for the winners for a birthday party. This could be a tasty box of candy or raisins. Or you can just bake pancakes or poffertjes for the whole group. You can provide small bottles of drinks for adults. Or a delicious cheese fondue for the whole group. When you are on a skiing holiday with the whole family, the losers can treat the whole group to a drink, a cup of soup, a waffle or a dinner!
If you have a nice assignment yourself, be sure to leave a message. This way, people who read this will have even more ideas to make their treasure hunt even more exciting! Thank you in advance!