Winter Break Scavenger Hunt at Home (Free Printable)

The hunt list

All 28 finds are loaded above. The last four need a step outside, so cross them out on a stormy day or save them for a sunny morning.

How to run the hunt on a bored day

Somewhere around day four of the break, the new toys lose their shine and the complaints start. This hunt is the answer you can print in one minute. It needs no hiding and no shopping, because the finds are already in your house.

1. Print a sheet for each child, or one shared sheet for a team of two.
2. Pick a home base, such as the kitchen table, where finds are brought or pointed out.
3. Give a start signal and let them loose on the indoor items. Anything too big to carry is shown to a grown-up instead.
4. When the indoor finds are ticked, put on coats for the outdoor ones. Five minutes in the yard or on the front step is enough.
5. Add up the points, celebrate the odd finds, and put everything back together as the last task.

The points after some items reward the harder finds. A child who spots a bird gets more than one who grabs a mug, which keeps older siblings from winning on speed alone.

Ways to stretch it over the break

• One a day. Instead of a single afternoon, pin the sheet to the fridge and let children tick one or two items each day until school starts.
• Fort challenge. When someone finds the blanket fort spot, pause the hunt and build it. Then finish the list from inside the fort with the flashlight.
• Photo hunt for older kids. Children of 10 to 12 can photograph each find with a family camera or an old phone and present a slideshow at dinner.
• Grandparents' house. Take the sheet along when you visit relatives. A new house makes every item harder and more interesting.

Tips for parents and sitters

Shuffle is on by default, so two children get the same items in a different order and do not race for the same mug at the same moment.

Leave the outdoor items for the brightest part of the day. In many places the light goes early in winter, and a cold, dark yard is no fun.

Have the snack item be a real snack break. It is a natural halfway point and it calms the pace.

Teachers can staple this sheet to the last-day packet as an optional take-home activity. It asks nothing of parents beyond a printer.

Safety for the outdoor finds

An adult goes out with the children for the last four items, and everyone wears a coat, a hat and shoes with grip, since steps and paths can be icy. Stay in your own yard or on the sidewalk right outside, within sight of the door. Look at birds and tracks without chasing them, pick up a pinecone or a twig only from the ground, and leave berries and anything unknown alone. Indoors, keep the search away from candles, the stove and the medicine cabinet, and remind children to walk when carrying their finds.

Printing at home

Plain paper and black ink are all you need. The checklist layout leaves room to write where each item was found, which children enjoy. Print three copies so there is one for each child and a spare, and clip a pencil to each sheet with a clothespin so nobody hunts for a pencil before the hunt begins.