45 Amazingly Fun School Scavenger Hunts for 2024

Updated: February 01, 2024

Scavenger hunts are a great way to help your students with team building and to teach them to use collaborative skills to solve problems.

Scavenger hunts can also be used to reinforce current subject matter in the classroom and social skills with classmates. There are a lot of direct and indirect benefits to hosting a scavenger hunt adventure for your students, which is why you should consider putting this activity on the list of things to do each year in your classroom.

If you've been considering a scavenger hunt but the process of planning the activity has felt daunting, don’t worry! These great ideas will help you to get the right scavenger hunt planned for your teams of students to enjoy.

If you're ready to learn more about how amazingly fun scavenger hunts can be for your school, keep reading.

What is a School Scavenger Hunt?

School scavenger hunts consist of a list of items, riddles, and/or clues, typically designed around the subject matter students are learning, for students to track down, solve, or answer.

School scavenger hunts are a great way to help your students to work on team building activities, interpersonal skills, and problem-solving. These kinds of activities are always a great way to reward students for working hard during the term and to teach them skills at the same time. You can create pretty much any kind of scavenger hunt that you want for your class and base your hunt on pretty much any theme at all.

School-based scavenger hunts can be simply list-hunting events, or you might want to work on clues, riddles, and games for your students to solve. The age of the kids who will be participating makes a difference in the kinds of activities and clues that you can use, so make sure that you are thinking about the skill and maturity level of your students as you plan.

How to Make a School Scavenger Hunt

School scavenger hunts can be really easy to plan. You might want to check out printable resources that will help you to create clues and lists. You can also make up all of your own materials for the hunt if you want. Technology has also made this process much easier and more interactive with apps and platforms, like Scavify, that can manage everything for you.

First, you will need to curate the list of items, questions, riddles, and/or clues. This is usually the most important and core part of the preparation. Decide whether you'll want a long list or short list for students to complete, the level of difficulty, and the right mix of fun vs. educational.

Next, you'll want to consider whether it makes more sense for students to complete the activity as individuals or in teams. Each route has it's relatively obvious pros and cons. You'll also want to consider whether it makes more sense to have the activity take place in a set place at a set time (e.g. for an hour on a particular day) or whether a more passive version of the activity would be more impactful (e.g. students complete the hunt over the course of the week both in school and at home as a part of homework).

Lastly, you'll probably want to provide some level of incentive to those who complete all the items, take creative approaches toward submissions, or exemplify quality teamwork with others. Prizes and rewards (depending on school policy of course) are usually nice ways to reward students if possible.

School Scavenger Hunt Ideas

1. Science Lab Hunt

Science classes can have a great time hunting outside or inside for items that they have been learning about in class. Have your students perform little tests or small experiments to be able to get their next clues.

2. Fall or Spring Outdoor Hunt

If you have a large playground or other outdoor space to explore, your teams of students can find wildlife, outdoor items, and more during the race. This is one of the easiest kinds of scavenger hunt to plan.

3. Earth Day Hunt

Earth day is a great excuse for a scavenger hunt, and your teams can work on recycling, finding outdoor items and nature items, and have lots of fun hunting for recycling and earth-day related items. This is also a great chance to let your teams head out to other facilities like recycling facilities as part of the adventure.

4. Happy Holiday Hunt

No matter what holiday is coming up, you can plan a scavenger hunt based on the holiday for your students to enjoy. Make sure that you consider letting students come in costume.

5. Snow Day Hunt

If your students need something to do that is really fun on a snow day, have them complete an at-home or virtual scavenger hunt to keep them engaged.

6. Rhyme Time Hunt

Have your students find things that rhyme with the clues that you have given them. A list of clues like this helps students work on problem-solving, and this list can act like riddles.

7. Seasonal Hunts

If you have planned your scavenger hunt during the changing of the seasons, this can be your theme for your hunt! You can make your hunt about fall, spring, summer, or winter if you wish!

8. Photo Hunt

Make the entire hunt photo-based and have teams take pictures of the items that they are looking for. Teams have to be sure that they get an image of each item on the list to finish the hunt!

9. Meet and Greet Hunt

Turn your kids loose in a large space like the cafeteria or the gym and have them meet people to check off clues on their list. Make sure they learn something about every person they meet to finish the hunt and then have them talk about the people they met at the end.

10. Craft Hunt

Give teams a list of items to find all over the school and then have them race back to the starting point when they have collected them. The first team to make the item that they got supplies for wins!

11. Costume Hunt

Send teams around to find parts of a costume. This might be the school mascot or something else that you have selected. Someone has to dress up in costume at the end to win!

12. Math Hunt

If you have a math class you are creating a hunt for, have them solve math equations to get their next clues.

13. Drawing Challenge

Have your teams draw the items that they have found before they can move on to the next clue. This can be really funny as well as really engaging for kids.

14. Meet Other Classes

Just like in the meet and greet hunt, your team can meet other teams of kids from around the school and make new friends in this version of the meet and greet scavenger hunt.

15. Mad Libs

Have your teams fill in the items that are missing from a Mad libs-style story as they race around the school.

16. Sticker Hunt

Give your teams stickers at each check-in. Fill out the book and win the race!

17. Vocab Words Hunt

Vocabulary words can be hard to remember, but hunting for them as part of the clues in your race can help your teams to learn them.

18. Take a Test

Tests can be stressful, but you can pair up teams and have them work to memorize a phrase, a story, or some other information that you want them to use to solve clues.

19. Navigation Hunt

Have your teams head to all the places that they will need to know about during the school year and check-in.

20. Do Not Speak

Give the teams lists of clues or things to find, but don’t let them talk about things out loud as they are hunting. This taps into other skills related to showing and not telling, which can be a great life skill.

21. Gif Hunt

If all of your teams have smartphones or tablets, have them upload the silliest gifs they can find that are related to the clues as they hunt. The funniest gif wins!

22. Selfie Hunt

Have your teams take a selfie with a prop, or with the clues that they have found at each check-in location.

23. Dance Hunt

Have your team make up a dance move each time they find a clue. At the end of the hunt, have the team perform all the dance moves together.

24. QR Clue Hunt

Have each of your check-ins be done with a QR code using an app like Scavify.

25. Timed Hunt

A race can be a ton of fun for kids, and this is the kind of thing that you can easily plan for your student teams to do. This is a great idea if you have a small space to work with.

26. Baby Picture Hunt

Have your teams race to find baby pictures of everyone in their class or on other teams. The teams need to match the pictures with the yearbook pictures or the start of the year pictures of their friends and classmates to win.

27. Locker Race

Hide clues and prizes in various lockers if your school uses them. Have teams figure out combinations to open the lockers in order to get the next clue.

28. Sports Round-Up

Make your scavenger hunt all about small sporting events. Teams must play through the mini-games to get each clue.

29. Local Knowledge

If the kids in your class are all familiar with the area, use local landmark quizzes as clue answers.

30. Subject Matters

Whatever class you teach, make the clues about current topics that are being discussed in class.

31. Video Games

Have your teams watch small clips of videos and see how fast they can guess what is going on with limited information. This is a race to the finish through all the checkpoints!

32. Favorite Things

Find out all the favorite things of each of the kids in your class. Have teams pair their favorite things with classmates at the end of the race to win!

33. Library Hunt

Have your teams race through the library, finding books that are requested by clues.

34. Cafeteria Race

It’s a clue-solving, snacking race through different checkpoints that are food-based!

35. Spell a Phrase

Each checkpoint or stop will offer a letter that will be used to solve a phrase at the end of the race!

School Scavenger Hunt Clues

These clues are ideal for use in the school environment. Make sure that you consider the age of the kids that you have hunted so that you are not picking clues that are too hard for younger students.

1. During the school year, we will head here to see plays and hold assemblies. Answer: auditorium
2. When you are hungry, this is the place where you can get a meal or a treat. Answer: the cafeteria
3. When you leave your class, you enter this space and travel here from place to place. Answer: hallway
4. You will have one of these in each classroom, all your own. Make sure that you don’t write or carve on me while reading a tome. Answer: desk
5. Visit this place when you have a headache, or you need a bandaid. Answer: nurses office

School Scavenger Hunt Riddles

1. Give me a tap, and I’ll give you some suds. I can come in handy if you are covered in mud. Answer: soap dispenser
2. This room has boxes with all the knowledge inside. You will head here for one of your classes, where you will learn to type. Answer: computer room
3. Chain your bike up here so that you don’t lose your ride. Make sure that you don’t leave your bike unattended outside. Answer: bike rack
4. Feeling cold, bring me along! You will need to have my help as the year goes on. Answer: jacket
5. Take a gulp to cool down. When it comes to beverages, I wear the best hydration crown! Answer: drinking fountain

Back to School Scavenger Hunt

Back-to-school time can be tough on some kids.

There is a lot to adjust to, especially for kids moving up a grade into middle or high school. These times are ideal for some team building and some activities that help kids to get to know one another better and feel included.

Scavenger hunts are a great way to get your students talking and interacting, and making friends, even during the first couple of weeks of school.

You can easily plan an ice-breaker scavenger hunt where the activities and check-ins are based on easy ice-breaker games that must be completed to move on to the next clue. Make sure as well that you consider some really simple clues and games that will not intimidate anyone and will make a conversation easy among your teams of students. Students can also race independently with a list in hand if they have a small class.

Sending your students around the school can also be a great way to get them familiar with their surroundings and help them to know where the school nurse is and where all of their classes are. You should consider using this kind of hunt as a way to help kids get used to changing classrooms all day long when they move up from grade school to middle school. There is no reason not to make your scavenger hunt a great way to give your kids an orientation session!

Last Day of School Scavenger Hunt

The end of school can be a sad day for kids. You can make this day less stressful if you make it really fun.

1. Say Your Goodbyes, Hunt

Make sure that your teams find people to take selfies with per category. You can make a list based on classes that people attended together, sports that were played, or anything else that you want to be the motivation for the picture-taking.

2. School Spirit Hunt

Have your teams race for school spirit items and then take a school spirit picture at the end of the hunt to complete it!

3. Visit All the Places

Have your teams race around the school, finding items or clues at all the places where they have taken classes. This will be like a memory lane experience for your students.

4. Create Art

Have teams race to the art room and then bring back all the items on their list. They need to make a copy of the art piece waiting for them to finish the race.

5. Yearbook Race

Make the scavenger hunt focused on yearbook signing. Collecting memories matters, and your teams will be able to share their memories while racing.

6. School Trivia Race

Your teams will know about the school by now, so make all the clues about school spirit and school trivia items.

7. Mini Games

Have your teams play mini-games at each check-in to progress to the next step or clue.

8. Room Race

Give teams a list of classrooms to visit and have clues or activities that must be completed in each room as a race.

9. Memory Round-Up

Have everyone write a memory down before the scavenger hunt. Have teams race to find the memories and then pair them correctly with the participants.

10. Snacking Race

Have your teams race around the school to find snacks, and then they can share their treats at the end of the race!

Round up of School Scavenger Hunts

School Scavenger hunts are lots of fun, and we have created lists of great school scavenger hunt ideas. You can find the right hunt for your college students, high schoolers, or kids who are younger with ease when you check out these resources!

If you're looking to take your scavenger to the next level for your school or university with an interactive and immersive experience, check out Scavify's scavenger hunt app. The app and platform makes organizing and managing your hunt a breeze and students will love the photos, video, GPS, QR code, and trivia options for completing their hunt.