What makes the best teen birthday ever? Plan an epic photo scavenger hunt that will never be forgotten! Print this photo scavenger hunt for teens for a fun mall, city, Target, Walmart or public location treasure hunt. This makes an awesome ice breaker for team building, youth groups. or just a teen party!
Nothing stumps me more than trying to create an activity my teens will actually enjoy. If you have one you know teenagers seem impossible to plan for, especially when it comes to someting that might involve their friends and reputation. In an effort to solve my own dilemma, I have found a low-cost easy solution. If you want to put together an easy teen party which evokes a lot of fun, this unique scavenger hunt is your answer!
When it’s time to plan an entertaining activity for teenagers, a photo scavenger hunt for teens is a great idea to break the ice and get the party started. With a little creativity, you can tailor the hunt to any theme or location. In addition, this isolates your teens to one location and fills a lot of the party time. Once you say “go” you will find yourself mostly hands off and enjoying watching the fun. Since they all will be eager to win, they will be running back and forth to you for treasure hunt reports.
Get ready to sit back and enjoy the fun. Here are all the tips and ideas you need to help you plan the perfect photo scavenger hunt for your teen party (or even youth group and team building events!)
Teenage Scavenger Hunt Ideas
The are a few steps needed to plan the ultimate scavenger hunt for teens. First pick up a teen birthday invitation (digital ones are great!) Second, plan your guest list. Third, choose your location. Finally, acquire your printable photo scavenger hunt checklist.
Take a look a these fun photo scavenger hunt ideas when preparing for the next celebration
Teen Party Invitations
When it comes to planning a birthday party for teens, snail mail is a thing of the past. You might find your child using a text chain to get the word out for their party but if you want something special, digital teen party invitations are a better way to go. They can be sent via text message or email.
There are a few places you can get digital teen party invites that are sent electronically.
Guest List
Since this is a team scavenger hunt, you will want a good amount of kiddos on your birthday party guest list. Plan to have at least 4 to 10 kids on a team to execute this photo treasure hunt. I personally think, the more the merrier but you do want to be able to control your party guests in a public location.
Planning the teen guest list is rather important. Consider you guest list as your location is going to be in a public setting. Do you know the child, do you trust the child? These are all good questions to ask yourself before your send out the teen party invites.
Consider adding a few adults to the guest list that way you have power in numbers of controlling the wild teens.
Scavenger Hunt Location
The first step is to pick a location that you want the hunt to take place in. This can be anything from a local park to a shopping mall. Popular places to host a tween scavenger hunt include Target, the mall, an outdoor shopping center or Walmart. You could even take a photography scavenger hunt to an amusement park.
Consider how crowded the area is. how much can you control the space. Are the busy highways or roads, is security available, etc. You will be the adult in charge, so the location is very important.
Once you have the location, you need to come up with a list of items that the tweens and teens will need to find during the hunt.
Checklist of Scavenger Hunt Items
Next, come up with a list of items for the scavenger hunt. The items should reflect interests, popular themes and trends among teenagers.
Some ideas for items to include on the scavenger hunt list are:
- A picture of the entire team with a sales associate
- A picture of a group member wearing a funny hat
- A picture of a item that you can’t live without
- A picture of something that starts with each letter of your teen’s name
- A group selfie with all participants
- A shot of a team member doing a silly pose
- Find a celebrity look-alike and take a picture with them
- Go to a famous landmarks and take selfies in front of it
These are just a few suggestions of items that would be perfect for a picture scavenger hunt for teens. Don’t be afraid to get silly- that’s the whole point of a photograph scavenger hunt.
Customize the list of photo scavenger hunt ideas for your group and the kids are sure to have a blast!
Photo Scavenger Hunt List
Whatever you do, don’t stress. This is a fun and crazy game meant to lighten the mood at any party. To help you put the fun back in your party plan, we’ve put together a printable scavenger hunt list that will help you if you’re feeling stuck or you’re short on time.
This checklist is meant to be generic for any location. However, go through it. If you find there is a scavenger hunt clues/items that does not fit your chosen location, have the kids cross it off before the treasure hunt begins.
Get a copy of the Photo Scavenger Hunt for Teens PDF
How to Play
Begin the scavenger hunt birthday party with a starting location. This can be the food court of your public setting. It gives parents a place for drop off and pickup. It also creates a meeting and emergency spot as needed during the treasure hunt. Your food court typically has bathrooms and and it will provide you seating to talk through the game instructions.
Once you have a photo scavenger hunt list of items, it’s time to start the adventure! Go over the scavenger hunt rules and give each team a list of things they need to find and take photos of. Make sure the teams fill in their start time before they head out to search for items.
On the start of go, teams will be set free in the wild like a bunch of animals. As they find items they will take a photograph (using their smartphones or cameras) and place a checkmark by the item on their fun photo scavenger hunt list of ideas. There is no order to the clues, they can find their next clue in any order.
Plan a meeting place for everyone to check in and set a time limit for the hunt. Anywhere from 1 to 1.5 hours is usually plenty of time to complete the hunt. When it’s time to check in, have each team present their photos to mom and the fellow group members on the other team.
Finally, scoring. Victory is only declared when you have winners. The teammates that finish first, with all the items correctly, win. If no one finishes before times up, the team with the most points (or items completed on their checklist) wins the scavenger hunt! Deduct points for every minute the team goes over the timer.
For a variation, you can make this a photo challenge too. Take a look at the pics and vote for winners based best photos.
If you need prizes for a teenage scavenger hunt, consider $5 gift cards to perhaps a few of the stores in the mall. Other fun scavenger hunt teen game prizes can be giant candy bars, cash, small trophies, food, iTunes gift cards or even fidget toys.
Pro Tip: Run through the scavenger hunt yourself the day before. If something is not available, tell the kids to go ahead and scratch off the freebie. This will also give you an estimate of the time needed for the scavenger hunt at this location.
The point of mall scavenger hunts is to have fun, so the photos don’t have to be perfect. Just make sure everyone gets involved and has a good time.
Once everyone is done, head to the food court to sing happy birthday and enjoy some cake, cupcakes or even cookies!
Have you ever done a photo scavenger hunt before? What were some of your favorite items on the list? Let us know in the comments below or on Pinterest.
More Scavenger Hunt Ideas
There are creative ways to bring the fun to your home. If home scavenger hunt riddles are more your thing, how about going on a Birthday Scavenger Hunt? With 20 rhyming riddles, your child can race around the home until they find their final treasure. It’s a fun way for your tween to get their gifts. You can have a present with each clue or all the presents at the end.
There are other ways to incorporate treasure hunts into a teen party. Take a look at these other scavenger hunt ideas…
- Outdoor Scavenger Hunt
- Camping Scavenger Hunt
- Back to School Scavenger Hunt
- Flashlight Scavenger Hunt
The best thing about many of these scavenger hunt ideas, is they are at home. That makes this not only perfect for older kids but younger kids too.
Find a full list of holiday scavenger hunts and ideas including Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving and so many more!
More Teen Party Ideas
Planning birthday parties between kids and adulthood can be challenge. What is the best theme for a teenager. There are plenty of ways to make a tween party awesome. Try some of these other teen party ideas.
- Glow in the Dark Party
- Sleepover Party
- Beach Party
- Pool Party
- Fortnite Gamer Party Ideas
- Camo Party Ideas
- LEGO Party Ideas
- Surprise Party Ideas
- Graduation Party Ideas
The fun things don’t have to stop with treasure hunts. For each of these parties, we have fun games. Find more teen party ideas and a collection of fun party games in our store!
Free Party Printables
Not ready to buy our teen party printables – no worry! Take a look at some of these freebies. Visit our free printable library. Subscribe and look for a link and password in your inbox. The password allows you to access and download all of our free printables.
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How to Print at Staples
Don’t have a printer? You can print at your local print shop or your Staples Printing Center. Watch this video for how I print my PDF documents at Staples.
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