Planning A Scavenger Hunt At The Mall
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Planning a scavenger hunt at the mall can be a real blast!
When planning a scavenger hunt, you'll first want to send out invitations to your party. We've created credit-card shaped invitations (for great shopping ;-) specifically for this theme. After filling in all of the party information, it would be nice to laminate each credit-card invitation to look and feel more like a real credit-card.
The following credit-card invitations are geared more for girls, they have a "DIVA" logo ;-) instead of a "VISA" logo:
| Click here to access the username and password for these free printables | |
We've also created a more generic credit card if you have a mix of boys and girls coming to the party, or if it's an all boys party:
| Click here to access the username and password for these free printables | |
Divide everyone into teams and give each team a list full of things the kids need to find at the mall. For younger kids you'll need an adult with each team.
Let everyone know that they need to collect the items and not buy them. If you DO want them to buy some of the things, you can give them a price limit of how much they can spend.
On the list you can write things that the kids need to actually collect, and other things that can't be collected and can be photographed with a digital camera or even on video.
Here's an example of a list of things the kids need to collect at the mall:
- A price tag
- A map of the mall
- An old receipt
- A straw (from a restaurant)
- A ketchup packet
- A napkin with a restaurant logo on it (from the food court)
- Three different business cards
- A restaurant menu
- A french fry (can't buy it...)
- A clearance sticker
- A clothing hanger
- A sample of men's cologne
- An employment application
- A shopping bag
- A store's catalog
- A gift box
- A piece of gift wrapping paper
If you want to make things a bit harder for older kids, you can add things to the list that have a specific color, touch, smell, sound, or any other characteristic; for example "a blue shopping bag", "a yellow price tag", "something furry", "an old receipt that someone paid 50 dollars or more", etc.
To spice things up, you can add things to the list the kids will need to either photograph or video-tape. Here are a few examples of photographs and/or video scenes the kids need to come back with:
- The entire team sharing one soda (each teammate has their own straw)
- Entire team reading books at a book or magazine store
- An item that costs 99 cents
- The whole team on an escalator and/or in an elevator
- A mother pushing a baby stroller
- A group photo of everyone posing like the doll display of a retail window
- Someone on your team getting a drink from a water fountain while someone else is riding piggyback on their back
The following examples are only for video-taping:
- Go to a toy store and someone on your team yells "OH MY GOSH IT'S A BARBIE!!" really loud
- Get a store manager to sing your country's national anthem
- Do a dramatic earthquake scene in public (extra points if on the video the scene really looks like an earthquake)
- Everyone playing duck duck goose at the mall
- In public, a teammate puts a tiara or crown on their head and says "Hello, I'm the Queen of England" in an English accent
- The whole team singing a song together in front of a music store
When planning a scavenger hunt - create your own list, one that might be closer to the way your mall looks like and the stores that are in it. There are so many different kinds of malls, create your mall scavenger hunt list to suite your particular mall.
Here are two kinds of blank mall scavenger hunt printables to make your own list:
| Click here to access the username and password for these free printables | |
The above list can be changed and altered for more of a challenge by adding scavenger hunt clues and riddles. Check out these two whole pages full of scavenger hunt clues and scavenger hunt riddles.
When the hunt is over, a great keepsake is to make a scrapbook full of pictures that were taken on the scavenger hunt or a small video showing a few fun scenes that were filmed during the scavenger hunt. You can also send out a picture to each guest with thank-you cards. Here are some great mall scavenger hunt thank-you cards to print and send out:
| Click here to access the username and password for these free printables | |
Don't forget to read and make sure the kids know the scavenger hunt rules before going on the scavenger hunt.
You'll find lots more scavenger hunt ideas on our main Planning a Scavenger Hunt Page.
The mall scavenger hunt is only one of many cool scavenger hunts. Don't forget to check out all of our other scavenger hunts:
- Neighborhood & Park Scavenger Hunt
- Beach Scavenger Hunt
- Nature Scavenger Hunt
- Photo Scavenger Hunt
- Video Camera Scavenger Hunt
Your Scavenger Hunt Ideas
Lots of visitors from around the world have contributed to this site their ideas for planning a scavenger hunt! Click here to see another page full with lots more visitor-submitted Scavenger Hunt ideas.
We'd love for you to take a moment and submit your own Scavenger Hunt ideas.
If you'd like share your complete Scavenger Hunt party with us, then once your party is over, send us your own PARTY TALE and we'll create your very own theme party page and photo gallery that's hosted on our site! (Family, friends and just about anybody will be able to find inspiration from your child's birthday party and comment on YOUR ideas!)
Top Tip! Before you buy anything online, make sure to check out scavenger hunt supplies being offered on eBay. Often, you'll find new supplies at a fraction of what they cost at the stores:
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