Have you ever tried a scavenger hunt at your community? These events take a lot of planning, but provide a perfect sense of mystery and adventure that will surely get your residents up and moving throughout the community! Here’s how to make it happen.

Have you ever tried a scavenger hunt at your community? These events take a lot of planning, but provide a perfect sense of mystery and adventure that will surely get your residents up and moving throughout the community!

In this article we cover:

  • Benefits of Scavenger Hunts
  • Types of Scavenger Hunts
  • Who Will Participate?
  • When Will the Hunt Be?
  • Where Will You Pass Out Clues or Lists?
  • What About the Prizes?
  • Items or Clue Suggestions

Related Activities



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Wendi 28th Dec 2023 Activity Coordinator
I work in a 24 bed ALF and my residents absolutely LOVE scavenger hunts! Thank you for the additional ideas posted here. For Christmas I picked up 5 stuffed elves from the dollar store and hid them throughout the facility. I changed the locations daily for 4 days and gave them a sheet to write each day where they were located. Then they all turned in their sheets and I drew a name for a prize. They were so active and somewhat competitive and hounded me for new locations early each day!
I am planning a poker run activity this month which will be somewhat in the realm of a scavenger hunt. I hope they enjoy it!
Susan 29th Dec 2023 Activity Director
What a great idea Wendi
Thanks for sharing it. I am anxious to hear about your poker scavenger hunt.
You must be a great activity coordinator and happy new year
Scavenger Hunt Chicago 8th Jun 2023
Scavenger hunts are fun for any age, and this article serves as a thorough guide to setting up your own for friends and family. Thank you so much for sharing!
Susan 16th Feb 2022 Activity Director
Erica
Maybe you can try one of these
https://www.goldencarers.com/search/?search=Scavenger+hunt&search_tag=Activity
You will probably have to adapt and modify them so that the residents do not have to go far to participate
Also you could do this activity as a team or team one or two residents to help each other out
Let us know how it goes
Erica 19th Feb 2022 Program Coordinator
Thank you so much. I will let you all know how it goes :)
Erica 16th Feb 2022 Program Coordinator
Hello All,
These ideas are all awesome ! I was wondering if anyone had advice on how to do a scavenger hunt with persons who are less mobile. I am the activities coordinator for an adult daycare for persons with dementia. Many of my participants are less mobile and their individual cognitions level vary.
This being said they really so enjoy new and exciting things and I would love to try this in some form.
Thank you in advance for any ideas that you may have.
Kindly, Erica
Nikki 8th Feb 2022 Day Centre Coordinator
Sounds great!
I work with people who live in the community. Our activity centre has been closed for almost 6 months due to the pandemic. I found that emailing or posting a list to each person, with items they could find at home, made this a good remote activity. For example, a family photo, something in the kitchen which is blue, an item which is more than 50 years old, a hobby or sport item, something which belonged to your elders... This is really suitable for adapting to a particular group or seasonal changes if they can see outside. Reminiscence was encouraged by looking for the older items. I'm going to follow up with a Zoom gathering after the next scavenger hunt so everyone can share their finds with others.
Talita 14th Feb 2022
Love these ideas, thanks for sharing Nikki x
Susan 8th Feb 2022 Activity Director
Nikki
Thank you for the information
Sounds like the residents are having a lot of fun
St 8th Feb 2022 Diversional Therapist
Thanks it sounds great, I like the sound of your questions. I am a Lifestyle Coordinator from Mount Gambier Australia.
Nikki 8th Feb 2022 Activity Director
Hello! We do Hunts on the weekends when I am not here! I make a list of things and they write in where the item is or answer a question from the list. Right now since it's cold we do Main Building Scavenger Hunts and in the warm weather we do Outside. My list may consist of, how many hearts are in the dining room? Who do you see in the living room? I may ask If I want to read a Fiction book what color dot do I look for in the library. Ha! Hope this makes sense. Have a wonderful week. Stay well!
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