An indoor scavenger hunt for kids is an amazing idea for so many reasons.
Whether you’re having an online party, bored at home, or stuck inside on a rainy (or snowy!) day, this is a fun and super easy idea that takes little to no prep work.
Best of all, with a little customization it can work with almost any age – from toddler to a school-aged child.
We’ll talk today about some simple ideas of themes and items you can use for your next indoor scavenger hunt activity. And before you go, be sure to download our completely free and awesome Indoor Scavenger Hunt printable, suitable for all ages (including toddlers!).
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Color Scavenger Hunt
This is a ridiculously easy way to do an indoor scavenger hunt for toddlers. It requires zero prep and makes a fun activity to keep young kids busy.
All you do is tell your kids to find a color. They can bring you anything in that color. Seriously, it’s that easy and you can continue this as long as you can keep thinking of colors.
In fact, don’t worry about repeating colors, because toddlers love it anyway!
Plus, it helps little ones practice color recognition.
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Book Scavenger Hunt
Sometimes you want your kids to run around and get out energy, but sometimes you want them to sit still.
When you need a few minutes of calm, give them a picture book or magazine to search instead of your whole house.It works best if you have some idea of what sorts of pictures are in the book so they aren’t going on a wild goose chase.
We love using Wimmelbooks
This idea is super adaptable as it can be easily done as a color hunt for little kids or a letter or rhyming hunt for older kids.
Also, while this is a great chill activity at home, it also works well in the car, waiting rooms, and restaurants.
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Letter Search
This activity is better suited for 4-6 year olds that have learned the alphabet. It’s a wonderful and fun way to have kids practice their letter sounds.
Similar to the idea of a color indoor scavenger hunt for kids, this search idea requires zero prep and can keep children busy for a while.
All you have to do is tell the kids to find an object that starts with a certain letter. While you can have them go through all the letters in order, or even choose letters at random, I like to introduce another fun twist.
After they have found an item with the requested letter, we stretch out the word using letter sounds to help them figure out what the last letter of the word is. That letter then becomes the next search.
For example: If the letter they’re searching for is “K”, they might find a stuffed kangaroo. We’d then stretch out the word “k-a-n-g-er-oo” and exaggerate the letter sounds. After discovering that “o” was the last letter of the word, that would become the new target letter for the next hunt.
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Rhyming Items
With this fun twist, kids have to bring back two items that rhyme (or at least sound similar).
This is different from the other ideas because you don’t have to give them a specific target to search for. Instead, they have to be on the lookout for similar sounding items so the possibilities are endless.
That can be especially nice because you don’t have to bother brainstorming ideas. It also takes a bit longer than some of the other searches so you get an extra second to breathe.
For younger kids, you might have to nudge them in the right direction or give them a starting word. For example: find something that rhymes with ‘chair’.
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List Ideas for Your Indoor Scavenger Hunt for Kids
And then there’s the good ol’ scavenger hunt list. To make things as easy as possible, we’ve created some ideas below for you to make your own list.
Better yet, download our completely free Indoor Scavenger Hunt printable. We’ve even got two versions, a traditional text list and one with pictures for younger children.
You can print it out and have kids write directly on the paper. Another idea is to laminate it
Laminators
Without further ado, here’s a great list to get you started on your indoor scavenger hunt for kids:
- Stuffed Animal
- Piece of Fruit
- Rubberband
- Penny
- Something soft
- Hat
- Shoe
- Book
- Spoon
- Game
- Toilet paper
- Something with wheels
- Lego
- Crayon
- Pillow
- TV remote
- Sunglasses
- Something square
- Toothpaste
- Comb
- Jewelry
- Sock
- Deck of cards
- Cup
- Flashlight
- Musical Instrument
