Whether sending little ones on a treasure hunt indoors or letting older children collect items from neighbors, you can send your youngster on a quest to find the leprechaun's gold with a lucky scavenger hunt for kids!
12 Lucky quests
for kids
From finding shamrocks to camera challenges, check out these easy St. Patrick's Day scavenger hunt ideas, from toddlers to teens.
Treasure hunt ideas for little kids
When planning a St. Patrick's Day scavenger hunt for preschoolers and toddlers, keep things straightforward by hiding items related to this lucky day, like:
- Sending little ones on a scavenger hunt for shamrocks by taping foam sheet shamrocks indoors around the house. You can even throw in a "pot of gold" in exchange for all the finds!
- Hiding shiny new pennies around the house for your little leprechaun to find. Remember to craft up a little pot in which to collect the coins.
- Scattering bits of gold candy around the house for the younger seekers to find; just keep the candy age-appropriate to avoid choking hazards.
- Concealing prizes under colored shamrocks made of each color of the rainbow, labeled with the next color of shamrock your youngster will have to find.
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St. Patrick's Day scavenger hunt for grade school kids
Depending on the age of your youngsters, you can make St. Patty's Day quests as simple or complicated as you'd like, so long as you're careful not to lose them on either end of the scale. Some fun scavenger hunt ideas for grade school-aged kids include:
- Giving kids lists of items related to St. Patrick's Day, like clover, lucky penny, blarney stone, etc., either around your house, inside your backyard or around your neighborhood with supervision.
- "Growing" a four leaf clover hunt for your kiddos by cutting out tons of three leaf clovers out of construction paper and just a few four leaf clovers, spreading them around the house around the floors and letting them hunt for those four-leafed gems for a prize!
- Presenting kids with a list of themed items that represent this lucky holiday, such as something with the rainbow on it, a gold item, something lucky, an item with four parts, etc. and supervise them as they scout the neighborhood.
- Splitting kids up into teams and see who can collect the most items of their team color, i.e. gold, green, red, etc., either around the house or around the neighborhood with supervision.
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Scavenger hunt ideas for tweens and teens
Older kids crave a little more challenge when it comes to St. Patrick's Day fun, so organizing scavenger hunts that require a little more thinking or a few extra steps will keep them interested and happy, such as:
- Leading tween and teenagers on a St. Patrick's Day scavenger hunt guided by clues that require more brain power than luck. They don't have to be complicated, but don't make it too easy either. Hints like "What color do you wear on St. Patrick's Day?' (a green item) or "Where does a leprechaun hide his treasure?" (something with a rainbow on it) will lead them to figure out what type of item to collect around your house, yard or neighborhood.
- Guiding older kids on a digital scavenger hunt takes this tradition to another level of fun when they are required to bring a camera along! Send tweens and teens out to snap photos of items around the designated area that form each letter of a designated word or phrase, like 'lucky.' They can use sign posts, funky tree branches, manhole covers, etc. that look like letters. You can then print out the photos to assemble as a St. Patrick's Day scavenger hunt keepsake!
- Making it a St. Patty's Day night they'll remember by hiding green plastic Easter eggs filled with glow sticks around the yard. You can also add a little more challenge to this feat by labeling eggs with each tween or teen's name, a certain designated number or a team name to gain some length out of this nighttime activity.
- Concealing "lucky" items around your yard like gold coins, rabbits foot, horseshoe, four-leaf clover, etc. for older kids to discover, but when you wait until nighttime to and send kids out to search for these lucky treasures using only a flashlight.
We hope these St. Patrick's Day scavenger hunt ideas for kids help make this the best St. Patty's Day ever!
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