Eggs marks the Spot
March 27, 2019 10:27 AM Subscribe
I'm trying to design an overly elaborate easter egg hunt/ treasure quest for some small children between the ages of 4 and 9.
Give your ideas for puzzles and activities.
So, the basic premise here is that we had an easter egg hunt before and one of the older children was quite keen to "win" i.e. find more eggs.
So she found most of them before the others had a chance.
To slightly combat this (and to make the whole affair last longer and be more fun) this year I wanted to stage an easter treasure hunt extravaganza! (What? no... I don't care if it's traditional I don't.. I have to? Oh... ok then fine just this once) EGGStravaganza!
Things I know!
1) It'll be on a small island in the Thames (and surroundings)
2) There will be 6 children (3 4 or 5 year olds and 3 older)
3) There will be a locked treasure chest at the end (maybe with a code lock)
4) They should need to work as a team to get the main prize.
5) There might be a little shop with it's own currency. So intermediate prizes might be coins.
Give me all your ideas for games / maps / puzzles / egg hunting etc. etc.
So, the basic premise here is that we had an easter egg hunt before and one of the older children was quite keen to "win" i.e. find more eggs.
So she found most of them before the others had a chance.
To slightly combat this (and to make the whole affair last longer and be more fun) this year I wanted to stage an easter treasure hunt extravaganza! (What? no... I don't care if it's traditional I don't.. I have to? Oh... ok then fine just this once) EGGStravaganza!
Things I know!
1) It'll be on a small island in the Thames (and surroundings)
2) There will be 6 children (3 4 or 5 year olds and 3 older)
3) There will be a locked treasure chest at the end (maybe with a code lock)
4) They should need to work as a team to get the main prize.
5) There might be a little shop with it's own currency. So intermediate prizes might be coins.
Give me all your ideas for games / maps / puzzles / egg hunting etc. etc.
You could also make a map with certain spots marked, and each spot could contain a number and a clue for the next place to look for more numbers. All the numbers together could be the code to open the chest.
Hmm, I realize my suggestions don't solve the problem of the child who is too keen to win all by herself. Alternatively, before the party you could have each child pick their own secret clue from a hat. Each clue could lead to a spot with a hidden egg containing a bit of a riddle phrase. That would give each kid an equal chance to get started on assembling the riddle.
posted by prewar lemonade at 10:49 AM on March 27, 2019 [1 favorite]
Hmm, I realize my suggestions don't solve the problem of the child who is too keen to win all by herself. Alternatively, before the party you could have each child pick their own secret clue from a hat. Each clue could lead to a spot with a hidden egg containing a bit of a riddle phrase. That would give each kid an equal chance to get started on assembling the riddle.
posted by prewar lemonade at 10:49 AM on March 27, 2019 [1 favorite]
Two teams? Younger and older, with two sets of clues. The little ones get picture clues, the older ones who can read get riddles. Something like that.
Each clue leads to an egg with a piece of a (repurposed) jigsaw puzzle inside. The assembled puzzle shows a rebus? which leads to the ultimate treasure.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 10:59 AM on March 27, 2019
Each clue leads to an egg with a piece of a (repurposed) jigsaw puzzle inside. The assembled puzzle shows a rebus? which leads to the ultimate treasure.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 10:59 AM on March 27, 2019
Well, you could have multiple puzzles and have the kids work in teams. So the three younger have one set of puzzles and the three older have another, and they'll each get to work together on their things. Maybe one of them is finding the chest and the other is finding the combination to open it.
Kinds of puzzles:
-A set of maps. The first map leads to the second map leads to the third map leads to the treasure. Or the first map leads to a puzzle that leads you to the treasure.
-An actual puzzle. If you'll be outdoors, I'd use a giant floor puzzle type of thing with like 25 pieces or whatever. On each piece, write one letter of the clue somewhere (tiny, so you have to look for it and can still see the picture). Then when the puzzle is put together, the letters are in order from left to right, top to bottom.
-Actual Easter eggs hidden around with one or two letters that then need to be anagrammed into the instructions.
-An adult playing the role of some kind of wizard or gatekeeper and the kids have to beat them at (riddles, charades, hopscotch, whatever) to get the clue.
posted by gideonfrog at 11:01 AM on March 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
Kinds of puzzles:
-A set of maps. The first map leads to the second map leads to the third map leads to the treasure. Or the first map leads to a puzzle that leads you to the treasure.
-An actual puzzle. If you'll be outdoors, I'd use a giant floor puzzle type of thing with like 25 pieces or whatever. On each piece, write one letter of the clue somewhere (tiny, so you have to look for it and can still see the picture). Then when the puzzle is put together, the letters are in order from left to right, top to bottom.
-Actual Easter eggs hidden around with one or two letters that then need to be anagrammed into the instructions.
-An adult playing the role of some kind of wizard or gatekeeper and the kids have to beat them at (riddles, charades, hopscotch, whatever) to get the clue.
posted by gideonfrog at 11:01 AM on March 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
This is tangential, but my kid's grandmothers each hit on the solution of having a unique egg color for each kid, changing the game from "who found the most?" to "have you found all of yours yet?" You could balance the teams by age and make it so they have to find all of each kid's color to get more clues.
posted by Flannery Culp at 11:01 AM on March 27, 2019 [20 favorites]
posted by Flannery Culp at 11:01 AM on March 27, 2019 [20 favorites]
Our family also did the unique color per kid thing. If there's more kids than colors you can also do stripes or polka dots.
posted by vignettist at 11:04 AM on March 27, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by vignettist at 11:04 AM on March 27, 2019 [6 favorites]
different eggs for every kid. the last eggs for each kid hold part of the combination and a clue as to order. then they have to work together to open the chest.
posted by koroshiya at 11:04 AM on March 27, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by koroshiya at 11:04 AM on March 27, 2019 [4 favorites]
This genuinely sounds far too complicated for a 3 or 4 year old to me. Would it be possible to tackle the basic problem by doing 8 different egg colours, one assigned to each child? We do this with the little foil wrapped chocolate eggs. You can do coins in the same foil colours if you want to use your currency/store idea. Whomever unlocks the chest at the end could find a small prize for each child tied in their ribbon colour?
posted by DarlingBri at 11:07 AM on March 27, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by DarlingBri at 11:07 AM on March 27, 2019 [4 favorites]
We recently went to a birthday party where the kids had to find these huge eggs. Inside the eggs were map pieces. The kids had to work together to put the map pieces together, and once they found all the map pieces, it showed where the treasure was buried. (in their case, it was where the goody bags were "buried"). this would help with team work, and also you could hide the map pieces in easy and hard places.
the mom made the map out of paper she stained with tea (to make it look "old"), then just tore it up into big pieces.
posted by alathia at 11:20 AM on March 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
the mom made the map out of paper she stained with tea (to make it look "old"), then just tore it up into big pieces.
posted by alathia at 11:20 AM on March 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
Having the bigger kids help hide the eggs would probably make everyone happy- I LOVED doing this for my little brother and his friends
posted by genmonster at 11:48 AM on March 27, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by genmonster at 11:48 AM on March 27, 2019 [1 favorite]
You can and should make your own scratch tickets using scratch ticket stickers.
It doesn't really matter what's underneath -- it could be clues or answers to clues or whatever -- but kids love love love scratching them off.
(For the uninitiated, scratch ticket stickers are clear plastic stickers that are covered with scratch-offable stuff. You can print or write on cards, e.g. business card stock, and then cover up what you printed with a sticker. When the scratch-offable stuff is scratched off, only the transparent plastic remains, revealing what is underneath.)
posted by Winnie the Proust at 12:34 PM on March 27, 2019 [2 favorites]
It doesn't really matter what's underneath -- it could be clues or answers to clues or whatever -- but kids love love love scratching them off.
(For the uninitiated, scratch ticket stickers are clear plastic stickers that are covered with scratch-offable stuff. You can print or write on cards, e.g. business card stock, and then cover up what you printed with a sticker. When the scratch-offable stuff is scratched off, only the transparent plastic remains, revealing what is underneath.)
posted by Winnie the Proust at 12:34 PM on March 27, 2019 [2 favorites]
I did an agg hunt for my infant nephew once that was more of a scavenger hunt, and he and his mom LOVED it. SIL raved about afterwards. It included lots of turning around 3-1/2 times, easy funny hints to a note w/a next step, going inside and outside, jumping etc. I’m still not sure who enjoyed it more, me making it or them following it.
Make it simple, fun and funny, and of course lovely baskets at the end w/sweets, books and little toys is great. You can do special personalizations geared to recipients too.
posted by RichardHenryYarbo at 1:29 PM on March 27, 2019
Make it simple, fun and funny, and of course lovely baskets at the end w/sweets, books and little toys is great. You can do special personalizations geared to recipients too.
posted by RichardHenryYarbo at 1:29 PM on March 27, 2019
In my family, we had to find our hidden baskets before we were allowed to pick up any eggs. So hide the older kids’ baskets in a diabolically hard place and the younger ones’ practically out in the open, and you’ll have a decent handicap.
Otherwise, 6 is definitely old enough to understand not ruining it for littler kids.
posted by Liesl at 3:27 PM on March 27, 2019 [5 favorites]
Otherwise, 6 is definitely old enough to understand not ruining it for littler kids.
posted by Liesl at 3:27 PM on March 27, 2019 [5 favorites]
Best answer: Rob Cockerham details several backyard treasure hunts that he developed for his children's birthday parties on his Cockeyed blog.
posted by JDC8 at 9:14 AM on March 29, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by JDC8 at 9:14 AM on March 29, 2019 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: I ended up just not having all that much prep time, so I HEAVILY ripped off Rob Cockerham's treasure hunts.
Thanks for the link JDC8.
The hunters all got a note to say that the Easter Bunnies ship would be arriving at 1300.
They got there to find.... no ship.
So they went down to the river (which was low tide) and found a message in a bottle on the riverbed,
That led them to a series of clues many of which came with a piece of treasure map.
Eventually they arrived at my freezer where they found an impenetrable lump of green ice (And freeze pops, because it was a hot day)
More clues, more maps and they arrived at a cake (in fact cake, from sarah and duck)
Inside the cake? Another Clue.
They eventually got all the pieces of the treasure map and found the X that Marks the Spot. (Or the spot that marks the Eggs)
It was in the woods, so they charged over there and eventually managed to dig up the treasure chest.
It was still locked.
A bit more searching found the rest of the combination puzzle, they unlocked it and found a hoard of shiny eggs and chocolate bunnies. Hooray!
Here's a link to a twitter thread that I tried to update as the hunt went on. Some fun pictures of messages in bottles and unearthed treasure chests.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 10:39 AM on April 23, 2019 [4 favorites]
Thanks for the link JDC8.
The hunters all got a note to say that the Easter Bunnies ship would be arriving at 1300.
They got there to find.... no ship.
So they went down to the river (which was low tide) and found a message in a bottle on the riverbed,
That led them to a series of clues many of which came with a piece of treasure map.
Eventually they arrived at my freezer where they found an impenetrable lump of green ice (And freeze pops, because it was a hot day)
More clues, more maps and they arrived at a cake (in fact cake, from sarah and duck)
Inside the cake? Another Clue.
They eventually got all the pieces of the treasure map and found the X that Marks the Spot. (Or the spot that marks the Eggs)
It was in the woods, so they charged over there and eventually managed to dig up the treasure chest.
It was still locked.
A bit more searching found the rest of the combination puzzle, they unlocked it and found a hoard of shiny eggs and chocolate bunnies. Hooray!
Here's a link to a twitter thread that I tried to update as the hunt went on. Some fun pictures of messages in bottles and unearthed treasure chests.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 10:39 AM on April 23, 2019 [4 favorites]
That is SO AWESOME!
I was inspired by this thread (and also recent experience with an Escape Room) to create my own "puzzle hunt." I also ripped off Cockerham in part which...thanks, Rob! I had eight 8-year-olds and because it was rainy and muddy we had to do the hunt indoors. I put the treasure box (locked) in the oven. The kids had to find 20 of a certain plastic egg, open them up, put together a "map" which was a floorplan of the kitchen (bad idea! don't hide your treasure box in the same room as your first clue - the kids almost opened the oven!) and an "X marks the spot" for the first clue. That clue led them to another spot, that clue led them to a third and then finally to the box in the oven. The lid had some drawings on it - a mustache, some bunny ears, a feather boa - and a little rhyme that led them to look for these objects. The moms were of course wearing a faux mustache, some bunny ears and a boa and had clues in their pockets - math clues! The answers helped them open the lock and inside were kinder eggs, sunglasses (Great idea, Rob!) and bubble wands.
I can't wait to make it more extensive next year! The kids seemed wild about it. Thanks for asking this question!
posted by amanda at 5:57 PM on April 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
I was inspired by this thread (and also recent experience with an Escape Room) to create my own "puzzle hunt." I also ripped off Cockerham in part which...thanks, Rob! I had eight 8-year-olds and because it was rainy and muddy we had to do the hunt indoors. I put the treasure box (locked) in the oven. The kids had to find 20 of a certain plastic egg, open them up, put together a "map" which was a floorplan of the kitchen (bad idea! don't hide your treasure box in the same room as your first clue - the kids almost opened the oven!) and an "X marks the spot" for the first clue. That clue led them to another spot, that clue led them to a third and then finally to the box in the oven. The lid had some drawings on it - a mustache, some bunny ears, a feather boa - and a little rhyme that led them to look for these objects. The moms were of course wearing a faux mustache, some bunny ears and a boa and had clues in their pockets - math clues! The answers helped them open the lock and inside were kinder eggs, sunglasses (Great idea, Rob!) and bubble wands.
I can't wait to make it more extensive next year! The kids seemed wild about it. Thanks for asking this question!
posted by amanda at 5:57 PM on April 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
Glad to read that this was a successful treasure hunt, and I'm pleased that Rob was given credit here and on Twitter. Nice to see a good resolution of an Ask MeFi question.
posted by JDC8 at 5:07 PM on April 25, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by JDC8 at 5:07 PM on April 25, 2019 [1 favorite]
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posted by prewar lemonade at 10:39 AM on March 27, 2019 [6 favorites]