Your first task is to locate or identify a variety of hidden ‘treasured items’ in and around a defined area for your group to uncover.
Note, that ‘to locate’ in the context of a Treasure Hunt is intended to mean that your group will simply note its existence or appearance (and record their answer to prove they found it.) Whereas, in the case of a Scavenger Hunt (a wholly different exercise,) the primary purpose of the event is to find and collect a series of items.
The sky’s the limit, but some common examples of treasure lists could include locating and noting the following items:
- The graffiti etched into the side of a building
- The year marked on a commemorative plaque
- Number of white pickets in a fence
- Type of tree, shrub or flower
- Colour of an object, eg sign
- Exact geographic coordinates of an object
- Spelling mistakes (on any public sign)
- Phone number displayed on a vehicle, sign, window, etc
- Brand of an object
- Description of the scene carved into the stained glass window
- Opening hours of an establishment
Clearly, a treasure hunt of this type will require a lot of preparation in advance.
Then, upon locating or identifying these items, you will need to develop a series of clues or a map that will guide your teams to their location.
Your clues can be as obvious as “LOOK AT SIGN ABOVE DOOR,” to the more navigational, cryptic-style clues which will take some working out, eg “GO FIRST ON SECOND FOR A THIRD” which may indicate a turn on Second Street and travelling for a third of a kilometre to commence the hunt.
Note, cryptic clues are more fun but will take a lot more effort on your part to develop accurately, lest you confuse or lead your group astray.
Armed with a list of clues or ‘treasures’ to find, you have three further tasks to complete:
- Determine the format of the hunt
- Produce the treasure map and/or list
- Form your teams
First, decide if your group will move about the designated area of your hunt with or without a pattern, ie there are two popular formats:
- Without pattern – each team is permitted to engage with each treasure (on the list or map) in whatever order they choose, in which case you will need to provide specific address coordinates; or
- With pattern – every team is given the same set of navigational hints (like compass bearings or cryptic clues) to guide them in a prescribed sequence to find each treasure. In this case, you may consider starting each team in a different spot on the map (or navigational sequence) to prevent ‘follow-the-leader’ strategies.
To illustrate the difference, consider that one of the treasures is to count the number of white picket fence posts belonging to the home of 13 Asana Street. Each team will be required to physically visit this house to count them but how they get there will depend on your chosen format. Without a pattern means that each team will be provided with a specific address on the map (in advance) to visit this treasure (at any time.) Whereas ‘with a pattern’ means that you will provide a series of clues that will guide them to be standing outside 13 Asana Street (at some point in the hunt) without ever providing the actual address.
Either way, you will need to create a map or list which communicates all of the expected items to be found.
In regards to the size of your small teams, there is no magic number. In my experience, groups of about 2 to 6 people work well, but you know your group better than I do. Just don’t make them too small or large. You may also choose to form these teams randomly, or specifically allocate certain people to each team.
Once you have formed teams, distributed the treasure list or map and answered any questions, confirm the time you want everyone to return and announce “GO.”
Scoring can be as simple as awarding one point per item found or response recorded or endowing certain harder-to-find items with more points than easier-to-find items.
The team with the most points wins.
Naturally, as a team-based event, there is always value in inviting your group (once all teams have re-gathered) to reflect on what happened and, perhaps, what was learned during the hunt.
Depending on the age and abilities of your group, you may wish to arm each team with a map that clearly marks the boundaries of the search area.
Check and double-check that all of your clues are correct and unambiguous before you distribute your list. Nothing worse than discovering that one of your clues was wrong or could be interpreted in a different way (thus causing some teams to get lost.)
Also, check that your group does not need to enter any private grounds or areas as part fo their hunt. The last thing you want to deal with is trespassing issues.
The number of treasures to be discovered or found within a certain timeframe will always vary based on the location of such treasures, the abilities of your group and the difficulty of your clues. That said, I have found that uncovering ten items within an hour has been a good fit for most treasure hunts.
There is no specific health & wellness perspective to this activity other than promoting the benefits to one’s well-being of enjoying a fun team-based challenge.
In some respects, you could argue that the focus required to interact and solve problems as a small team may speak to the benefits of having developed a set of supportive and healthy behavioural norms in advance. Or, if not, you could use these less-than-desired interactions or outcomes to explore what sorts of behaviours your group would prefer to see. For example, you could invite your group to reflect on the types of leadership and initiative that were demonstrated during the activity and relate this to a set of observed impacts on others.
If you can think of more explicit ways in which Treasure Hunt could be purposefully integrated into a health and wellness program, please leave a comment at the base of this page.
Reading a map is one of those skills that some people just have and others do not. It is clearly a learned skill, but it is equally clear that some people pick up these skills quicker than others. In a few moments, we are about to break into small teams, so let’s hope you have at least one or two members who possess navigational skills to help you be successful…
Much like a crossword, your team is about to be presented with a series of cryptic clues which will guide you on a march throughout our neighbourhood. Along the way, you will be asked to take notice of certain features or treasures…
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Have you played this activity? What worked, what didn't work? What type of group? Do you have useful advice for other users? Do you know a fun variation?