Motivating Children through Scavenger Hunts

I had two experiences with Scavenger Hunts this week that convinced me that they are great learning tools. Both of them involved my own children, and I saw them excited about learning. Neither one thought they were working.

In the first case, my son asked if he could get a pet. He had done this a while ago and I never had time to research the options. This weekend, I created a scavenger hunt for him, in which he had a series of questions to answer about several pet choices from guinea pigs to geckos. I bookmarked several pet sites and helped him create a graphic organizer (a simple chart) to record his information. The combined motivation of animals and the computer sent him into cyberspace with gusto. He spent an afternoon totally engrossed in the process. By the time he finished, he was able to tell us that he wanted a guinea pig, the reasons why and information about its care. I got a glimpse of how well this activity can focus students’ attention as they learn research skills.

The second scavenger hunt was one that my first grade daughter brought home as homework. I asked her about students who may not have access to the internet at home. Apparently, those students will be given the opportunity to complete it at school. Her hunt seemed simple—it was a series of questions about nursery rhymes. The process did three things, and did them well. First she practiced her computer skills by navigating from the school website to her teacher’s page, and onto a linked site. To complete the assignment, she then had to read each of twenty nursery rhymes for comprehension. Finally, she had to write a sentence in response to each question. It was a long assignment, but I have never seen her complete her homework so willingly or thoroughly.

The hunts mentioned above were very simple, and easy to create. Yet, they were good learning tools for my children. Moreover, they felt empowered and excited about learning. My lesson in this was how simple it is to create scavenger hunts and to incorporate them into the curriculum.