Clues games for kids

For example, a picture of a bee minus the letter E would leave you with the word "be. Figuring them out can take a bit of time, thinking, and spelling, so they're a challenging addition to a treasure or scavenger hunt. For Kids: Make sure that the images you use are unambiguous. It's annoying to get stuck on a rebus because you thought that an image of a rat was actually a mouse.

Also, make sure that the addition and removal of letters isn't too complicated for kids, and avoid using hard-to-spell words.

Working through a rebus can be a decent spelling exercise, as long as it isn't frustrating! For Adults: A basic rebus can pose a fair challenge for adults, too, because figuring out the images and carrying out the spelling operations will require some time.

However, feel free to bust out those hard-to-spell words for your adult clue-solvers to make it a real puzzle. Drawing a rebus takes time, and some artistic talent may be necessary to ensure that your images are identifiable. If you could use a little help, Festisite is an awesome site that creates rebuses for you. Just select "rebus" on the left and type in your clue at the bottom. Print it out and add it to your hunt. So here's the next clue. What on Earth is this a picture of?

A picture clue shows an image of the place or object where the next clue is hidden. For example, one clue might be an image of a rug, and then the clue-solver knows to go search around the rug. These tend to be straightforward clues, and they're particularly good for younger kids who can't read yet. Another way of doing picture clues is to take a picture or print an image of an object where you want to hide another clue, then cut the picture into about four or more pieces, as seen below.

You can place each piece along with a clue. At the end, the participants can reassemble the picture pieces to find their final prize. This is an image of a microwave that has been cut into six pieces. Each piece will be hidden alongside a clue. At the end of the hunt, the clue-solvers can reassemble the picture and go find their final prize near the microwave!

For Kids: Simple, engaging picture clues are great for little kids. When I first created a hunt for my daughter, she was only three and very into Blue's Clues. So, we put little Blue's Clues stamps on one side of each piece of paper, and on the other side we drew the location of the clue—easy stuff, like a bathtub, TV, bed, etc.

She thoroughly enjoyed her first treasure hunt, particularly her present at the end. For Adults: To make a picture clue interesting for adults, you'll need to add some extra layers of challenge to it. If you use a cut-up picture, cut it up into many more pieces—ideally uniform pieces, like squares—to make it harder to reassemble.

Instead of using a cut-up picture, you could include a series of close-up photos of the final hiding spot—so close up that each photo only reveals a texture or color, for example. The participants will need to figure out what it is once they've gathered all the photos. You could also buy a small blank puzzle 12 to 28 pieces , write or draw the final clue on it with a permanent marker, and include a couple of random puzzle pieces alongside each other clue.

For added challenge, use a cipher for any text in the final clue! Participants will need to assemble the puzzle, decode the cipher, and figure out the final clue to finish the hunt. You can find tons of free Creative Commons images online, including both photos and drawings. Print them out and use them to make your picture clues. Of course, you can easily use your own personal photos, too! Of course, it was a picture of the rug! Looks like this clue requires some knowledge of historical facts.

Online clues generally require the participants to look up facts on the internet. Trivia clues fit into this category, for example. This type of clue is especially useful for teachers who want to incorporate a hunt into their lesson plan, and it works well both in the classroom and at home. Add the year that Columbus reached America to the age that George Washington was when he died, plus one.

Divide this number by eight. The answer will provide you with the location of your next clue. By the way, the answer to the clue above is , in case you were wondering. Online clues are also useful if you want the participants to find a certain missing word.

Just find a web page that has the name of an item where you plan to hide a clue, then write down the web address, paragraph or sentence number, and word number on the clue. For example, if you wanted to hide a clue in a plant, you might provide a link to this National Geographic Kids article on Apatosaurus along with the clue " Sentence 4, word For Kids: Online clues are great for kids, and you can even take the opportunity to teach them a little about conducting research online.

Just make sure that any facts you have them look up and any websites you have them visit are safe and age-appropriate. For Adults: This type of clue works equally well for adults without much modification. You can just increase the challenge by giving them more to look up and more challenging math to do.

You can also make the clues more complex—for example, "Take the zip code of the city hall in the capital city of the 26th state admitted to the United States. I got the answer , which told me to go to the stairs. This next clue appears to be written in some sort of code. Are those dots and dashes? You can apply different codes and ciphers to disguise your clues.

Even a simple clue like "Look in your sock drawer" becomes tricky when you first have to decode it. I once printed up a copy of Egyptian hieroglyphics and used it as a code. You can use Morse code or even a telephone number pad. You can also create your own code using symbols or numbers. For Kids: When making hunts for my children, I have used pictures of a keyboard and numbered the keys.

This actually provides two clues: First, the kids have to find a keyboard in order to solve the code. Second, they have to actually solve their individual clue. Below are a few reference sheets you can use to create different types of codes that work well for kids. Make sure to provide the kids with a copy of the reference sheet! For Adults: There are many intriguing ways to encode text that will challenge your adult clue-solvers.

All of the ideas mentioned above work for adults as well, and check out the online resources below for additional types of codes. Cryptii offers a free online encoder for Caesar cipher. It allows you to copy, paste, and print your encoded clues. Puzzled Pint is an organization that hosts puzzle nights around the world.

It offers a free codesheet with nine different code types, ranging from the NATO alphabet to binary to semaphore. I cracked the code: "Go to the bookshelf. A maze clue is like a combination of a maze and a word hunt. You give your clue-solvers a maze with letters written along every path. To solve it, they draw a line with a highlighter from the start of the maze to the exit.

When they're finished, the highlighted text will spell out a secret message that tells them where to go for the next clue. For Kids: These clues are a little more challenging, so they are probably best for kids aged 10 and up. You may want to have several copies of the maze available and several different colors of highlighter in case the kids make a mistake in the maze and need to start over.

For Adults: Grown-ups may be able to discern the message too easily without even doing the maze. It would be best to combine a maze clue with a secret code clue so that the answer isn't obvious at a glance. Festisite also has a tool for making maze clues. Click on "maze" at the left and type up your clue at the bottom. The site gives you a PDF of your maze that you can print out, like the one above. The maze asked what was in my coat pocket, and I found this clue.

Hmm, this looks like a word search. In a word search clue, the participants have to pick out a secret message from a sea of letters. It's easy to adjust the complexity of word search clues based on how many words you include, how big the grid is, and how random the extra letters are. For Kids: The word search shown above is a simple version, and it can be used with kids 10 and under. It differs a little from a traditional word search.

Here's how to do it:. For Adults: You might use a more traditional word search with adult participants and modify it to increase the challenge.

For example, you can include a group of themed words in the puzzle that lead the participants to the next clue after they identify them. Don't provide the clue-solvers with a word list in this case; they first have to find all the words, then figure them out. Another idea takes a little more effort on your part, but it's pretty easy to do with a word processing program just use a table or grid template.

It's basically a reverse word search: After the clue-solvers have crossed out all the words they need to find, the leftover letters will spell out the clue. There are many online word search generators, though they tend to generate very traditional word searches. Most will create a word list for you automatically; if you don't want to provide the participants with a list, just cut off that part of the paper before you hand out the clues!

Here are two options for word search generators:. I found a map in the plant—the final clue! Time to retrieve my loot! Finally, one of my favorite clue types: the treasure map. No other clue matches the sense of adventure that this type of clue provides, in my opinion. This clue is great to use for large-scale hunts, like neighborhood or park hunts, though it also works well for hunts in the house—or even in a single room!

To make a treasure map, draw out the hunting grounds and place a big X where the final treasure lies. As with the picture clues, you can cut up the map into multiple pieces and add them to certain clues. Once the participants solve their final clue, they can tape together the pieces of the map they have collected and make their way to their "treasure.

For Kids: Keep the map simple and focus on the major landmarks. For a map of your house or apartment, include the most identifying feature for each room a bed for the bedroom, a toilet or bath for the bathroom, etc. For a backyard map, highlight some of your particularly colorful or recognizable plants or trees to help kids orient themselves.

You can map a single room by drawing the notable pieces of furniture or appliances. For Adults: Grown-ups can handle more detailed maps. If you have the time and inclination, you can even add a scale to your map so your clue-solvers can determine that the treasure is located, say, six feet west of a particular landmark. The treasure was in the dish cupboard all along. Fake coins and gems, small toys, and candy all make fun loot ideas for kids. Little treasure chests are a great way to present the loot, especially if you're doing a pirate-themed hunt.

You don't need a theme to design a scavenger or treasure hunt, but themes are fun and can make the activity more engrossing for the participants. Here are a few common themes and what types of clues work well for each.

Ye'll never find me buried treasure! Pirates are an incredibly popular theme for scavenger and treasure hunts. If it's possible to have the participants actually dig up the final reward, go for it! You can facilitate this both outdoors and indoors. Outdoors, if you're able to dig a shallow hole and bury the reward protected in a plastic bag , that can be a lot of fun. Of course, that's not always an option. You could also just cover it with leaves, mulch, or potting soil rather than actually digging a hole.

Indoors, you could "bury" the treasure in a pile of clean clothes, towels, pillows, pet toys, fabric scraps—whatever you might have a lot of! Ye scurvy sea dogs, I say yarrrrrrr! I spied yer next clue by the carrrrrrr! A treasure hunt in honor of someone's birthday can highlight some of their favorite things, plus fun facts about them.

For a child: Add Amy's age to the number of siblings she has. If you get 6, look in the hall closet. If you get 7, go to. For a friend or family member: Next, go to the spot where we spilled all that soda that one time remember?! For a co-worker: Add the year that Juana started working for the company to the number for her phone extension.

Subtract the number of people on her team. Divide by 4, then. You can design a scavenger or treasure hunt to suit most any holiday. Make a romantic hunt for your significant other on Valentine's Day, or write up some spooky clues for Halloween—there are lots of opportunities for festive inspiration.

This will depend on the particular holiday you're celebrating, but here are a few clue types that can easily be modified to match any holiday. Don't let this happen to your clue. Get some tips for holding a treasure hunt indoors, such as pet-proofing your hiding spots. When you picture a scavenger or treasure hunt, you might imagine a group of people running around outside, overturning rocks and searching under bushes.

That kind of hunt is great, but indoor hunts have a lot of advantages, too. For one, they're not dependent on the weather, and there's less chance that the clues will get dirty and become illegible. They're just as challenging to design, but they'll probably take you less time to set up. And you don't need to have a big yard—or even a big house—to hold one. For a bookshelf hunt , have the clues lead participants to different books on the shelf, and slip each clue between the pages of the books in question.

Your clues could relate to the books' titles, authors, plotlines, or even physical attributes like the size of the book or the color of the book jacket. For a cupboard hunt , each clue should point towards a different item in the cupboard, and you put the clues inside those items or tape them to the undersides. If you're using a food cupboard, just make sure the clues don't touch any food—you can slip a clue between the plastic bag and the cardboard of a cereal box, for example, instead of putting it in the bag with the cereal.

If you're centering your hunt on a single room, it's more likely that your clue-solvers might accidentally find the clues out of order. You can combat this by making sure that each clue is well-hidden—instead of just putting a clue under the blanket on the bed, you might tape it to the underside of the bed; it's less likely to be stumbled upon by accident that way. Also, make sure that the clues are unambiguous. Computer, 7. Dishwasher, 8. Shower, 9.

Refrigerator, Television, Kitchen stove, Clothes dryer, Front door, Recliner, Clothes washer, Bed pillow, Lamp, Bookshelf, Desk, Toaster, Mirror, Coffee maker, Stairs, Toilet paper, Clock, Potato, Towel, Dictionary, You can edit this list to incorporate items that are specific to your home. If clues are ambiguous, it can make the game last longer, gives the children more exercise, and adds to the fun.

To make the hunt more challenging, assign each item a point value based on how difficult it is to find. Tween children or grandchildren particularly enjoy this type of hunt. When the weather is nice, treat the kids or grandkids to an outdoor treasure hunt.

Similar to the indoor treasure hunt, use clues to point to items or locations in the yard or outside the house. If the child is doing this activity outside or is old enough to do a neighborhood hunt, make sure traffic isn't an issue. Consider an enclosed park as a safe location. Treasure hunts involving cameras are a fun way of incorporating technology in the mix. Children love using devices to augment their daily experiences. There are two ways to do this.

You can use "photo clues" and take pictures of odd nooks and crannies in your home. Print out the images and place them as a pointer, directing the child on how to find the next spot. Children might appreciate a photo-only treasure hunt, which is suitable for those who are old enough to use digital cameras or smartphones. In this scenario, the child will be taking the photos.

Make a list of items in the home or outside and ask them to take a photo of that item. Give the child a set period to find the object and take their photographs. The child can work in a team or on their own. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data.