Indoor Scavenger Hunt Challenge

Virtual CampCamper Experience & Program Design

Apr 4

By Mike O’Brien, Camp AJ

Hey friends. I hope y’all are hanging in there as best you can, whatever that means for you. I’m doing passably all things considered, thanks for asking! I realize a lot of us are wracking our brains trying to come up with new ways to stay engaged with our families, campers, and staff in this uncertain time. Like many of you, we’re trying to make some virtual camp-y content to 1) stave off our own boredom and 2) hopefully help them with the same. Three weeks in, here’s the best thing we’ve done:

This game is a mashup of a scavenger hunt and Let’s Make a Deal, conducted on a video chat. – players work together on teams to locate an item around their home and bring it back to show the group the fastest. Whoever is able to bring back the correct item the fastest scores a point for their team. The first team to score the predetermined number of points wins! We tried to come up with a good list of items that most people would have around their home, but that might not be within an arms’ reach during the game. It was so fun as the game leader to watch our whole group disappear from their screens at once, only to straggle back one at a time holding a Snicker’s bar or mom’s sunglasses up to the camera, laughing the whole time. Here’s how we ran it!

Things you’ll need:

An online video conference platform (Zoom, Teams, that’s the extent of my knowledge)
A list of items that can usually be found in someone’s home, at least 5 more items than possible points. We did 2 teams and first to 10 wins, so we used these 25 things:
- A shoe
- A matching pair of socks
- A hat
- A family picture
- Something very soft
- A stuffed animal
- A piece of candy
- A can of pop/soda/whatever they call it where you live
- Something from camp
- A piece of mail
- A book with the first letter of your name in the title
- Something that’s a circle
- Something blue
- A rubber band
- A pet
- A parent
- A toy that fits in your hand
- A pencil
- A toothbrush
- A pair of sunglasses
- A TV remote
- A spoon
- A plate
- A piece of fruit
- A towel
Something visual for the facilitator to use to keep score: You could write points on a white board, place marbles in a jar, or build a pyramid out of plastic cups.
Some type of online random item picker thingy that you can type your items into – we used this one because it has the option to remove an item once it’s been picked.

How to Play:

Once you have enough participants on the call to assign at least 2 people per team, split them up using whatever method you like the most – I suggest if you’re on Zoom, use the Breakout Room function. Before sending them to their team/breakout rooms, give the instruction that they have 2 minutes to come up with a fun team name before calling them back to begin the game. If people join late, let them watch a round or two and then assign them a team. For safety reasons, you might want to make sure there are 1-2 staff members/volunteers on each team/in each breakout room (editor’s note: make sure you talk with your insurer and/or lawyer before starting a virtual camp program to double-check your internet safety protocols!)

The Rules:

The game leader will spin the random picker and read out the item that the teams need to retrieve
Players will try to locate the item in their house and bring it back to show the rest of the group first – whoever comes back first wins a point for their team!
In the event of a tie, both teams will score a point
The game leader will keep track of team points for everyone

First team to 5/10/whatever wins!

Optional rules for fun, hilarity, and maybe extra safety:

Maybe mention something about not running around the house like a kookie person so parents still like you
Offer the option to take their video device to the item rather than the item to the camera
Give teams the option of choosing between scoring a point for themselves or taking a point away from another team (you should probably double your list of items if you allow this one)
To add some extra incentive to the game, come up with some silly/gross things that teams can choose to make the camp representative do (teams choose which 3 foods they have to mix and then eat a bite on camera, or something less gross but still fun)

Camp for me is at its best when we connect with each other. Preferably, that comes with laughter, encouragement, and something that to a casual outside observer seems quite ludicrous. This game completely satisfies all those requirements. We have only played this once but will definitely do it again soon. For an hour on a Thursday afternoon last week, nothing mattered more than finding a banana and bringing it back to the camera as fast as possible. We laughed, smiled, hyped each other up, and built a small pyramid of plastic cups on the floor of my kids’ playroom together.

Y’know, even from far away and in our own homes, that felt like camp.