Ice Treasure Hunt

Brave the frigid frost and head out on an Icy Treasure Hunt! Outdoor activities like this are a great way to get kids up and moving during the winter months.

The hunt is made up of individual clues which are a letter scramble of the words that will be their next destination. In the picture, you can see that the clue is for the word “swing.” The treasure hunt is conducted like a traditional treasure hunt, but the twist is that the clues are frozen in ice.  Once the kids free the clues, they can spell the word and make way to their next destination.

Plan the destinations for your treasure hunt.

Gather plastic alphabet tiles to spell out the clues or I have drawn a destination (like a flowerpot) and then, the children have to find this drawn clue (flower pot.) You do not have to write out words – pictograms work well, too! If you do use a pictogram, just place this clue in a smaller zip-able bag and freeze this zipped pictogram that is sealed up in the larger Ziplock!

Find the letters for and spell out each of your locations.

(In the photos, you can see that this clue is for ” swing;” which could be followed by: table,   chair, sled, for example — things that are outside in  which you can hide the next clue

Seal these letter groups in individual plastic “Ziplocks.”

Fill the plastic Ziplocks 1/2-2/3 way with water.

Zip closed.

Freeze all of the clues.  By enclosing the letters in the bags, the letters re-assemble themselves into beautiful scrambles

When you are ready to do your treasure hunt, take the frozen clues out of the freezer; I run them under warm water to loosen the ice from the plastic; and then, go out to quickly mark the hunt.

Let the hunt begin.

(*NOTE. GUIDELINE: “The smaller the children, the less water needed” — meaning: barely cover the clues with water so that these will easily snap apart with only bare hands — no equipment necessary. These will easily break apart and your children can re-assemble the clues — the fun is just having such an unusual find and having to work just that much harder to get to these clues.)