Can you help me make a kids treasure hunt?

[steppemum]

So, I run a kids camp every summer, and they used to do a walk round the village. Last year I turned this into a treasure hunt.
One of the points of it is to show them lots of little things which are typical to UK, eg one question is - at the bus stop, what time is the first bus to Next Town?

The questions need to follow the route they take.

They loved it being a treasure hunt, but the way I did the answer sheets was clunky and the younger ones couldn't do it (the adult leaders helped) The answer sheet had spaces for all the answers, with a box round certain letters, and the boxed letters spelt out a clue to where to find the treasure back at camp. But the answers had to be in a different order to the questions in order to make the clue spell out, and that didn't work.

I can't get pictures or anything ahead of time, so I'm looking for a clever way of presenting questions and answers that will end up with a clue to the treasure. The village is busy, so no chance of hiding actual treasure round the place.

Any ideas? There are about 14 questions and the kids are aged 6-12

Thanks!

(oh and I'm off to work, so will pick up answers this evening)

Could you label parts of the camp after places in the village, and get them used to those names first? So 'The King's Arms' Kitchen, 'North Hotel' Dorm, 'All Saints' Music and TV Room' etc then the last place they end up at in the village is the 'place' they will find the treasure in the camp. Could something like that work?

And although you couldn't hide treasure aroudn the village could you stick up clues for them to follow?

Could you do it so that at each spot there is a letter they have to write down, then once back at base unscramble the letters to make a word/phrase. First team to do this gets the prize. You could do this either by having a route from letter to letter, or else a list of clues on the sheet that directs them to individual spots to collect the letter.

If the latter then each team could have the list of clues in a different order so that they are not trailing each other around.

And you could then decide whether the letter would be easily visible or more difficult to spot.

Can you use letters in shop or pub names to spell out the clue.

Or they get a paper letter for each question they get right. You could number the letters so they can put them in order. That way they have something to rearrange to help them.

Anagrams are the way to go. And different clues for different age groups, for the young ones it could be things like "what animal do you see on the pub sign" rather than having to make a word at the end.

Can someone go round the various places before hand to put a letter they have to find? That way it could spell the word directly, so something for the little ones to find and a letter to spell out the final clue in order. For the big ones they get the letter as you are currently doing it and have to rearrange them.

Hope that makes sense

It sounds like a great idea. You could just put the question numbers in the corner of the boxes for the final clues. Don't give them the final sheet until the end.

You could also use a grid labelled with letters on the X axis and numbers on the Y. Give pairs of clues which create coordinates on the grid. They circle the coordinates. The final clue then reads from left to right, top to bottom. Probably a bit complicated though.

Thanks all, lots of great ideas.

The questions need to be based on the things in the village, and they need to look at them to find the answer, so on the original, for example, a question might be
What is the name of the school? They have to look at the building to find the answer.

The reason for this quiz is to get them to interact with typical things in UK eg a school, bus stop, post office, pub, war memorial etc, and as they go round the leaders chat to them about the things, so I am really keen to keep the questions based on the village, which means not hiding random letters.

I think putting the answers by the questions and just numbering the boxes would work, and then when they get back get an solution sheet with the empty boxes on.

or getting paper letter for each correct answer, which they solve at the end. (number the ones for the younger ones) That is more tactile, sounds more fun.

they have a staggered start and some start clockwise and some start anti clockwise, so they don't really bump into each other.

hmm, actually, if the leader gave them a letter every time they found a correct answer, we wouldn't need numbered questions and answers, and they wouldn't need to write it down, just find the answer, which would be easier.

How many letters would they be finding?

If there aren't loads could you base it on colours, but with two questions per place. So one being 'What's the next stop on the number 52 bus route?' Then 'What colour is the bus company's logo?'

When they get back you hand them a pile of small bits of paper, different colours, each with a letter on. They then have to put them in the order they found to get the answer.

It actually wouldn't matter if a few were the same colour, it would just make it slightly harder for them to sort out.

Oh that sounds good TimeIHadANameChange

not sure I can use colours, but could use something similar, so the questions give the order, and they get a pile of letters to sort when they get back

If you have, or could borrow, something like letter fridge magnets, it might be a bit more fun than letters on bits of paper. Or Scrabble tiles for craft

Bally - you are genius, I have a bag full of craft scrabble tiles that I bought for something and only used a few!
Much more fun than letters, as long as I have enough....

So nice when something you've kept "just because it might come in useful" actually comes in useful!!

OK, so here is how I'm going to do it, thank you so much for all your thoughts, it really helps.
List of questions, don't need to write answers, don't need to do them in the right order (much easier when two groups head off to the left and two groups to the right, and there are easier questions for the youngest group!) Questions can be about anything without worrying about having the right letters!
Leader has a bag of scrabble letters. Every time you get an answer right, the group gets a letter for their treasure bag. The letters I have are wood, and I can paint over any wrong letters and change them so I have enough letters, I have enough for each group.

The letters will have a little red number in the top corner, if they put them together in numerical order at the end it spells out the place where the treasure is (and it is a wonderfully obscure clue, think - in the chicken in the big tent, and when they go there there is a wooden chicken they have never seen before sitting in a corner, with bags of chocolate coins underneath)

If they miss a question they will be a letter short, and have to guess
Much simpler, more fun, less writing, fewer bits of paper to flap around, no need for clipboards and pencils. I can make the questions harder for the older ones without ruining the format.

That feels so good to have that sorted! one more task ticked off, 593 more to go.....

Sounds brilliant! Can I come play?