Digital Photo Mall Scavenger Hunt

We had a great homeschool event today! We joined 30 other kids from our group and several of their moms and had a big scavenger hunt in the mall. For us living in the Twin Cities we were able to conduct this event at the Mall of America which gave us many opportunities and fun things to find.

While we have done scavenger hunts in malls before this one was the most fun. We had two divisions based on age (we had participants from pk-8th grade!) within each division we had three teams. Each team received the same list and the same amount of time to complete it in. We chose 1 hour for a time limit and truthfully it was the perfect amount of time. The kids found nearly everything on their list and their attention (especially the younger ones) was starting to wander, plus everyone was getting hungry and tired from all the running around.

Our rules were simple. Each team received a digital camera and all members of the team (just the kids not the moms) must be in every picture for it to count. That also forced them to stay close to their group and be more manageable :) In one category (our 30 point group) they were in direct competition with the others in their division as each item would have only one winner. Lastly, time limits were to be strictly enforced (docking 10 points per minute late). No team was late I might add!

Below you can find the list - you can easily adapt it for your own group or mall. The kids loved this activity, especially the older kids but even the younger kids had a lot of fun, though they required more help.

One last comment. We had 32 kids and 10 moms. At lunch an elderly woman came up to one of our group leaders and asked what group we were? She commented that she had never in her life seen a group of kids so well behaved. We realized at that moment just how good our kids really had been through the day and at that moment there were around 30 kids sitting at a very long table with a few moms scattered and they were eating and talking quielty to one another and even when they finished eating were still well behaved. A good testimony to homeschoolers today!

Enjoy,
Tenn

Mall of America Scavenger Hunt List
10 points
___feather
___tree
___recycling can
___jango fett
___harry potter
___all on an escalator
___in front of a fountain
___a big fish tank
___an alligator
___all stuffed into a photo booth
___a bird

20 points
__up on a stage doing a funny pose
__some people you do not know waving with you
__wearing funny hats
__darth vader
__a janitor doing his/her job
__live animal
__Aslan (a poster counts)
__playing guitar (only one person needs to)
__a store clerk
__a big shark

30 points - only one winner each category per division
__Biggest choc chip cookie
__the biggest ice cream cone
__the biggest dinosaur you can find
__with the funniest sign you can find
__the biggest box of cereal (try to be creative here)
__the tallest lego tower you can build
__the tallest structure you see in the mall
__the largest stuffed animal you can find
__the biggest car you can find
__largest photo/painting of a movie star
__store with the longest name
__store with the shortest name
50 points
__each child touching the brass replica of Met Stadium's home plate

Extra Notes - to be used by judges only but you should read!
+2 points for every picture you are in height order.
+10 points for really special creativity (as determined by judges) - only 1 per team
-10 points every minute late!!!!!