Archive for the ‘Teen’ Category
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007Hi Nikki,
I have been able to get the scavenger hunt downloaded successfully and just briefly looked at, looks good.
My task is to organize a lock-in for youth ( appro. 100 grades7-12) at my church, my theme is mission impossible eluding to the fact that without Christ it is impossible to get into Heaven. I was planning to use some of your ideas to make a week long mission to be accomplished before they could get into the lock-in. This is probably going to be a very elaborate event (I hope I can pull it off) in early April.
Thanks
Jim Abbott, Montana USA
Sunday, September 23rd, 2007Hi Nikki,
We live in the USA, in Moore, OK. The party is this Saturday the 23rd.
It is a surprise birthday party for my son who turned 13 last Sunday.
There will be mostly 13 to 14 year olds but a few younger and some older siblings at the party, and of course aunts and uncles to help drive for the scavenger hunt.
I have read over the planner and am trying to decide which one I want to do. I really like the one they have to find something for each letter of the alphabet.
Thank you,
Kim Rogers, Oklahoma USA
Tuesday, September 11th, 2007I am doing a treasure hunt for a bunch of 17 year old soccer players as a team bonding event before they leave to compete in a Regional tournament
Patty Seitz, New Jersey USA
Monday, September 10th, 2007Our treasure hunt was based on the pirates of the Caribbean II Dead Man?s Chest characters. It was a swarm of fun for all and a huge hit participants and watchers alike enjoyed the games and puzzles and the treasure at the end!! Thank you for the kit it was a big hit. A lot of work transforming it to my theme on the computer. But so worth it. We had three teams of 3-4 boys ages 11-14. Thanks again
Monique Rogers, Georgia USA
Sunday, September 9th, 2007I’m having a party for my daughter’s 13th birthday party and she has invited boys which really threw me for loop when it came to deciding what activities to have to keep them all busy for 4 hrs. I could find no books at the library or bookstore that had the detail that you have in your treasure hunt planner.
Kim Leggett, Ohio USA
Monday, September 3rd, 2007In Concord, California we’re having a scavenger hunt around town for my daughter’s 17th birthday. It is a slumber party with swimming and scavenger hunt!
Cindy Johnson, California USA
Saturday, August 11th, 2007The treasure hunt party is for my daughters’ 13th birthday. It will be the night of October 8th. We are in the East Texas area, Chester to be exact. I plan on starting the party around 5:30 pm; I am hoping for cool weather; with E. Texas you never know. The party will be around our pool, and we have about 15 acres of lawn to use. Because it is her 13th, we are planning to bar-b-q, and of course the kids will swim (weather permitting). I am unsure of guest totals, the minimum will be about 30 kids, and 20 parents.
I would love to include some of the parents on the teams. Safely I figure there will be 42 players, and had considered making 7 teams.
Krista Jernigan, Texas USA
Sunday, August 5th, 2007Nikki,
I was able to get several good ideas for my treasure hunt. I’m putting together a birthday party for my son and two nieces on the last weekend of January, (the 27th & 28th). My son turns 16 on the 20th, one niece turns 18 on the 23rd, and another niece turns 17 on the 26th. This party will consist mostly of teenagers, and their parents with a total group of about 35-40 people. My son and both nieces wanted to invite all their friends who have ATV’s, and play games that could involve ATV’s. We have a wooded area that consists of about 320 acres, and most attendees will be staying and camping on Saturday night. The treasure hunt seemed like a good idea.
Since most everyone participating will be riding an ATV, I wanted to limit the number of teams to only 3 or 4, with responsible adults leading each group. I need to emphasize that this is not a race because I don’t want anyone riding too fast and risk anyone getting injured. Also, only about 1/2 of those attending are familiar with our land. Some of those attending has never even been there before.
At this time, I’m thinking I will probably use GPS coordinates to direct each team from one location to the other. On our property, we have a small pond, we have 4 access gates (chain link), an old cabin with an old outhouse, and several deer hunting stands that would all make for good hiding places. By the way, our party is in East Texas.
Steve Carver, Texas USA
Saturday, August 4th, 2007Hello.
I read your book yesterday. I will being doing the Scavenger Hunt some time in July. I have until then to get it together. I am doing it for an age group of 12-17 both boys and girls. There should be approximately 6 girls and 6 boys. If invite another group it could potentially be more. For two years I had a neighborhood girls ministry. We use to do all kinds of things. That has been over for about 2 years. Recently I had a bible study for 12 year old boys in my home. That’s been over for a month or so. Both groups have asked me to have ’something’ for them this summer. They miss me, ahhhh. ha ha just kidding - they like being entertained. Anyway, both were bible study type deals in the past. The hunt doesn’t have to do with the bible BUT I am sending them a paper with some short scripture fill in the blanks…that will be their ticket to come to the hunt. I’m thinking about having it in our downtown area - we live a small community. We can be at the park and they will have access to the city building, library, post office, tennis courts, river front, businesses, restaurants, etc… They can work for a while - break for lunch - and go again. I think it will be the boys against the girls. I have a lot of ideas running through my head. I’m going to need to go back through your book and write things down this time. I still need to think about what they have to do, why, what the prizes are etc… Lots to do yet.
Thanks for taking the time to help.
Michelle Green, Kentucky USA
Wednesday, August 1st, 2007Nikki -
We are planning a Scavenger Hunt Party for a bunch of 8th grade girls (14yrs old). 10-20 girls. The area will be around our neighborhood. We were thinking about having the girls take digital pictures of the things they need to find, or tasks they need to perform. Then setting up slide show of the pictures when they get back, so they can all have a laugh. Thanks.
Rich Russell, USA
Friday, July 27th, 2007I am planning a treasure hunt for our youth group of approx 15 teenagers in a church hall.
Carol Caven, UK
Monday, July 16th, 2007The treasure hunt game was great. It still took me a while to put it together; but it would not have happened at all without your program. The girls playing were 12 and 13 years old, so it needed to be sophisticated enough to keep their interest; and it was. I thought the activities might be too easy for them but in fact they said it was just right. It was interesting to see how one activity would stump one team and not another. I had to work with the adult supervisors to prevent them from helping too much, explaining that each team has their own challenge and let them work though it. It took them at least an hour to get through the game and everyone loved it including the adults.
Thanks
Kimber Smith, California USA
Sunday, July 15th, 2007Nikki,
The party was a big success! Had 4 teams of 7-8 girls ages 12-13. The ‘bigger or better’ scavenger hunt theme was great. Each team kept each item obtained and in the end all the teams voted for the winning team. The big items obtained were an end table/chair, box spring, computer/scanner/printer, paintings, swimming pool.
It was fun watching the teams coming down the street trying to carry all their items before the deadline. The winners received $10 each and everyone else could take home any of the collected items they so desired. They worked up their appetites and enjoyed the taco bar. Fun was had by all! Thanks again.
Allan Luistro, North Dakota USA
Friday, July 13th, 2007Dear Nikki,
The treasure hunt party is the day after Thanksgiving for my son’s 13th birthday.
There will probably only be 3-4 other boys and several adult family members (about 8?) We live in a neighborhood where there are large yards and a lot of woods around so I had planned to bury the treasure (yet to be determined) in the woods. I think a map would probably be the best idea but not sure. We live in North Central Florida in Gainesville.
Eva Dimitrov, Florida USA
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007I am planning a surprise 16th birthday party with a pirate theme for my daughter. The pirate treasure hunt will take place in a park in Yucaipa, CA. The party is for girls around my daughter’s age. I have planned a treasure hunt around the park, enlisted some helpers and plan to ‘bury’ the treasure in a painted styrofoam chest filled with gifts from the .99 cent store under some bushes. We will begin by kidnapping my daughter from a local ice cream shop and proceed to the park for the treasure hunt. I think it will be great fun and I hope the girls will dress up in pirate garb. If not, I have some props for them. I’ll let you know how it went after Friday.
RobAnne Burns, California USA
Saturday, June 30th, 2007Nikki ~ Just so you know it was 10 through 14 year olds that we had this for and since there were (4) birthdays in the group of cousins we spent a little more time to make every team a winner.
It was in Granbury, Texas, September. It was birthday celebrations for a set of 10 year old twins, a 13 year old niece and a 14 year old niece. Everyone was there - 8 years old through Grandparent
We combined the Treasure Hunt with a scavenger hunt and skill/speed competition, I have to tell you the kids had a ball. Thanks for everything it worked out great!!!!
Erin Linney, Texas USA
Friday, June 29th, 2007Hi Nikki -
I have found the e-book extremely helpful in planning my daughter?s 13th birthday party.
Our party is taking place in Phoenix, Arizona, USA
The party is the weekend of October 7, 2006
The special occasion is my daughter’s 13th birthday
The age range is 12-14
We are doing a Mall Hunt as a local mall most of the girls are not familiar with to add extra challenge. I have broken it into three different types - things to take photos of, questions to find answers to and items to collect.
We are checking in to a hotel with a water park, going for dinner to Sweet Tomatoes and then to the mall for the HUNT. After our return to the hotel - I have some games planned for the girls to play - then they can do what they do at this age - talk all night. In the morning, we go to the water park following breakfast and then home around 2:00 PM. Everyone gets a party bag with body glitter, lotion, nail file, nail polish, body powder, etc…….
My daughter has chosen to not be a part of the planning so it will be a surprise to her as well as the girls invited. We are ALL excited about it.
I’m sure I will be referring back to the information in your book frequently over the next few years……
Thanks
Rebecca Ihori, Arizona USA
Tuesday, June 26th, 2007Nikki,
Sorry it’s taken a while to get back to you. Yes, we had our scavenger hunt. It was for my daughters’ Sweet 16 and she had invited 10 friends.
We had been looking around and trying to think of something fun to do. I came across several websites about scavenger hunts and she agreed to letting me plan one. The hard part was I had less than one week by the time I got your book online. But I had some basic ideas and used your book to help out.
It was very fun. I took them to the mall with a list of 16 stores they had to find via an envelope with a ‘pictionary’ type clue on it. They were divided up into 3 groups, so I had 16 envelopes of clues, all in the same order for each group. I started each group out at a different spot on the list, so they wouldn’t run into each other. At each store, they had to do one of several options: take a picture of themselves doing something, (at the GAP, holding a pair of underwear that my daughter would wear); find/purchase an item (at a bead store, they had to buy a small string of beads for under $3.00 in her favorite color) or contact someone at the store for their task, etc (at the GAP, the manager had them walk out of the store quacking like ducks! She really got into it!!)
I provided them with a list of rules (which we went over beforehand), some money to use for specific tasks, pens and paper to list the stores on and a bag with the clues in it. They were to call me if they got stuck on a clue.
Everything had points, so the first team done, didn’t necessarily win.
My daughter was very afraid I would make them do something ‘weird’ and was fairly anxious about the whole thing. The GAP store manager was a riot and really got into the whole thing. She was so fun and the girls actually really had a lot of fun! It was a cold weekend here, so the mall was VERY crowded on a late Saturday afternoon. I had contacted the stores where they were to take pictures and got oks from all of them. That’s how the Gap manager got involved. She couldn’t wait to help out.
The crowds at the mall were a problem, in that at one store one group had to wait to pay for their item for 15 minutes, which eventually left them without enough time to get to the last clue. But all in all , it was a huge success! The girls all had a great time and were very excited to participate. Afterwards, we took them all out to a local restaurant to eat and we gave out prizes there. We had used digital cameras, so while they were getting dressed to go to eat, we loaded them to my husbands’ laptop and
were able to show them all at dinner. That was really fun and they were all laughing.
So, that’s how it all went. It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun for the girls. Plus, no one else had done anything like that before, so that was very cool. Score one for MOM! ha
Your book was a big help. I hope to use it again sometime. I’m thinking how fun an adult one would be. Hmmm…..
Sandy Kollmorgen, Virginia USA
Saturday, June 2nd, 2007Hello Nikki,
I have read through your scavenger hunt planner and have gotten some good ideas. The party is in Ann Arbor, MI for my daughters 14th birthday this weekend. My husband got a limo to truck 14 girls around. I think I want to go with a photo theme around town. Any thoughts? I’m sure they’ll have fun no matter what.
Debi
Debi Kacznski, Michigan USA
Monday, May 28th, 2007We will be holding the treasure hunt July 8th and then 9th for Camp TBI which is a camp for children and young adults with brain injuries.
I am doing a treasure hunt first with the counselors during training so that they can get oriented to the different places at camp. When they find a clue they will be given a little token that they have to bring back to the main office. When they have all of the clues they will be given a card from their main counselor that explains what each of the tokens are, for example, they will get a ’smartie’ candy to let them know how smart they are. They will be given an eraser so that they know that everyone makes mistakes and it’s okay. Anyway the theme of all the clues will be a ‘counselor survivor kit’. The next day, the campers will do something very similar and the counselors will be giving the campers the survivor kits.
It will be held in GA, USA. I will have 70 counselors and 42 campers. Age range of campers is 8-24 counselors 16-70.
I only glanced at the book and need to start working on it soon. I was excited to figure out how to incorporate it into our camp. Our theme this year for camp is Wild and Wacky sports so I will be changing the stations or ports to different places that have to do with sports, for example, one of the stations will be ‘Green Ball Court’ meaning that they have to first figure out that they have to go to the tennis courts. So they have two clues to figure out, one is where the station is, and then what the puzzle will be
Judie Thompson, Georgia USA
Sunday, May 27th, 2007I downloaded everything yesterday and now I just have to hide all the clues in the backyard now. It’s an outside treasure hunt for a 14 year old’s princess party. I’ll let you know how it goes. I’m thinking of adding some scavenger hunt elements to the hunt. Like finding something before solving the next riddle. A few of those riddles are going to be brain stumpers!
I’m thinking the game may take upwards of 2 hours. I did 19 clues! 
Wendy Brown, Florida USA
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007Hello Nikki
Thanks for the email. Very happy with all the ideas & info, very clear.
Will be running 2 residential summer camps in August 2006.
6-11 year olds- 40+ kids
12 - 14 year olds 60+ kids
We are a registered charity here in Ireland, an interdenominational team of Christians working with kids from north & South ( Catholic, Protestant and also ethnic minorities).
We have being doing this since 1986 and this will be my 20th Year!!!!! Where does the time go?
I no longer run the games workshops (as the team have younger & more energetic members than me), But I still organize the EVENTS programme which involve the entire camp all at the same time, i.e. Fancy Dress, Treasure Hunts, Live Drama on stage, Quizzes.
So I’m looking forward to adapting the Treasure hunt ideas you have sent, and I will send you some photos of how we get on.
Many Thanks,
Kindest regards,
Paul Boyle, Republic of Ireland
Sunday, May 13th, 2007Nikki,
I usually plan my kid’s birthdays in advance. My daughter is turning 13 this year, and decided ‘last minute’ to throw her a surprise birthday party. All the girls attending the party will be between 13-15 years old. We are north of Denver, Colorado, USA.
She loves that show ‘Treasure Hunters’ so we decided a treasure hunt theme is what we would have. I began scouring the internet for treasure hunt information, as I had an idea of what to do. I found your website, bought the online ‘book’, and printed it (wow lots of pages). I was happy to find something I could get immediately, because of the time constraint.
After my daughter went to bed, my husband and I began reading through it. Wow! What wonderful ideas! We have decided on 7 different locations to hide the ‘puzzle pieces’ and activities, along with the clues to the next location. All outside, and the puzzle will tell them to go to the (community) pool to find the treasure. That way they can swim when they have found it.
Her party is on Saturday (which is only three days away), and we are so excited. I only have to buy a few things (chocolate gold coins, necklaces, bandanas, etc) for the party. Your book (so far) has been an asset to me.
I’ll let you know how the party went.
Terri Snyder, Colorado USA
Sunday, May 6th, 2007The treasure hunt party was great; my 16 year old son said it was an awesome party. All the kids came dressed in costume as well as the adults! The hunt took about 1.5 hours to complete. The clues lead to a compass and spade, the compass lead to a treasure map, and the map then lead to the treasure that was buried. When they dug up the chest it was wrapped in chains and locked, and a clue giving them a hint as to where they could find the key, which was hidden in another chest. Being a pirate party, there were several chests for them to look through, but it was in the cake which was shaped like a chest.
We served jerk chicken and shrimp before the hunt, they did the hunt, then ate cake, opened the chest, then played capture the flag in the dark (they had on glow stick necklaces). Everyone had a grand time!! Thanks for your ideas.
Teresa Arthur, Vancouver USA
Thursday, April 19th, 2007Hi Nikki,
our birthday scavenger hunt was a GREAT success. Your material gave me lots to choose from and I was grateful. I used the treasure map for the invitations and rolled them up to hand out. The list was on the treasure map and it was 8 items to look for or info to find and 8 were photos to take to make memories & proof of it getting done. It was a teen girl team against teen guy team and the playing field was the city of Wichita, KS so they had a certain time to be back complete or not and the one with the most done was the winner. They all came back with wonderful stories and had lots of fun. I learned though that the guy against girl wasn’t the best cause the guys were too COOL to do some of the list, but the things they did they had FUN! Whereas if they had mixed teams the girls would have persuaded them into doing everything.
While planning this double birthday party it has prompted other ideas one for our leadership Christmas party at church promoting unity & working together to accomplish a task.
Also I have talked with our the coordinator who is up for the idea of a scavenger hunt during next summer’s Family Reunion. Should be loads of fun.
Thanks for the great info! I am going to try to send a photo let me know if it makes it.
Dena Hudson, Kansas USA