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When you’re headed on a road trip with your family, finding ways to keep your kids entertained in the car is essential. And one of our favourite ways to pass the time as we’re driving is by playing games. Car games are fun and educational because they keep your kids thinking on their toes, allowing them to use their critical thinking skills while having fun.
As you’re planning your next road trip and finding activities for the car ride, don’t forget to grab this free printable road trip scavenger hunt for your kids to play while you drive.
Road Trip Scavenger Hunt Ideas
With this road trip scavenger hunt, you can create a fun game to keep your kids entertained during a car ride. In addition to providing your little ones with a fun way to pass the time, they’ll be learning as they play!
Since it features both words and pictures, this cute printable is great for kids of any age. Young children can check the boxes next to the pictures when they see something along the road. And older kids can practice reading as they look for items on their scavenger hunt list.
The list includes a variety of different things your kids will see as you travel. Whether you’re on a long road trip or just taking a drive to the grocery store, your little ones will love looking for different things along the road as they’re riding in the car.
This printed scavenger hunt is also great for including in a road trip gift basket. My brother and his family gave us a special gift basket before we went on our 22 day road trip across part of Canada and the United States with 6 of our kids in two. After that adventure, I would say that we are definitely road trip veterans!
The scavenger hunt printable includes 16 different common roadside elements for your kids to search for, including:
- Road sign
- License plates from three places
- Cow
- Bumper sticker
- Bus
- Billboard with a phone number
- Barn
- Tunnel
- Bridge
- Construction
- Train
- Fast Food Sign
- Gas Station
- Rest stop
- Roof rack
- Park
On top of keeping your kids off their screens for a little while, the best part about this fun car ride activity is that you can easily turn the game into a learning experience. Using the road trip scavenger hunt printable, you can help your kids practice their:
- Observation skills. As your kids play, they’ll each be forced to look more closely at the world around them to find exactly what they’re looking for on their list. That can give your kids a chance to be more observant and aware of the things around them as you’re driving along the road.
- Teamwork. Instead of playing individually, why not ask your kids to play together to find each item on the list? When your kids work together to find the items on the hunt, they can practice working as a team to accomplish a goal.
- Memory skills. To quickly finish the game, your kids will need to remember a list of things to look for. As they mark items off their list, they will use their memory to recall other items they need to look for as you’re driving.
- Reading and matching. Young readers will get a chance to practice their reading skills as they read through the clues on the list. But even if your kids aren’t old enough to read, they can practice their matching skills by matching the pictures on the list to the things they see out in the real world.
How Do You Do a Driving Scavenger Hunt?
A scavenger hunt is a fun adventure wherever you are. But if you’re driving in a car, you may be wondering how a scavenger hunt would work. When on a traditional scavenger hunt, you typically look around in different areas to find the items on your list. But when you’re doing a driving scavenger hunt, you simply stay in your car and mark things off your list as you see them.
One great way to play this fun game with your kids while you’re on a road trip is to print out a list of things to find, then let your kids check each item off as you’re driving. The game can be a competition among everyone playing to see who fills out all their check boxes first. Or it could be a group effort, allowing all your kids to work together to find everything on the list.
Road Trip Scavenger Hunt
Supplies Needed:
- Printable scavenger hunt for each child (download here)
- Laminator or page protector
- Dry erase markers
Instructions:
- Print out one scavenger hunt sheet for each child that will be riding in the car.
- Laminate each page or put each piece of paper in a plastic page protector so it can be used more than once.
- Pass out dry erase markers to each child in the car.
- As you’re driving, let the kids search for items on the list. When someone finds something on their page, they can place an X or checkmark in the box next to it.
- The first person to mark off everything on their list wins.
- If no one is able to finish their list by the time you reach your destination, the person with the most checkmarks on their page is the winner.
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