I sometimes feel as if my teaching experience is one big reenactment of my childhood. I used to love treasure hunts. I would even make them for myself. But now I have students. YAY!
They received their invitations a few days before. They were four different colors designating their teams, the Purple Pilots, the Yellow Yodelers, the Magenta Minstrels, and the Blue Balladeers, and other than the date, time, and place, all they read was, “Take me to your leader”. On their desks, the leaders had a list of what they were supposed to bring: a compass, a shovel, a hat, paper and pen, a camera, a maritime flag code, and four quarters.
They went all over our little metropolis of Rosebud-Lott. They visited church member’s houses, climbed trees, looked inside newspaper machines, dug through the rubble of old storefronts, and performed a variety of other strange tasks. After three hours, no one was done, the dinner was getting cold, and the cooks said we had to stop. We should have done a trial run. We were a little disappointed, but it was getting late. We headed back to the grain bin and enjoyed barbeque chicken, rolls, potatoes, and apple pie. The next day everyone who had made honor roll got to go up to the grain bin on the property in back of the school and find a treasure chest full of cold drinks and peanut M&Ms.
Here are the clues; feel free to use whatever you want if you would like to try this with your group. Many of them we gleaned from other sources.
CLUE #1 Welcome to the Honor Roll Treasure Hunt. Follow all the clues correctly, and you will find a little treasure at the end. First, Draw a funny picture and go hang it on the “Lott Mennonite School” bulletin board. You will find your next clue there.
Clue #2 : job 3
(They had to all look inside their Bibles; one team member had a clue in their Bibles at Job 3.)
Clue #3
Potty stops will slow you down, so make sure that everyone in your group goes to the bathroom before you leave.
(Clues were in the bathroom.)
Clue #4
Your driver is ________________________ .
Go and get in the car.
Ask your driver for your next clue.
Clue #5
Some of the words here are misspelled. Fill in the correct letters and you will find your next clue.
But first, you nead to find a fire hydrant. Then dresh it in cloahes like a person. Take a pfoto of your lovaly fire hydnant percon. Then go to
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ‘ ___ .
(ESTHER'S)
(When they got to Esther's house they got this clue.)
Clue #6
Iron me on this side.
(The clue was written in lemon juice. When they ironed it, light brown letters and numbers appeared. Esther had an iron and ironing board all ready IF they asked. If they didn't and ran off with their clue, then they had to go find someone and ask them to use their iron. This happened, of course.)
Clue #7 YY
a z w i n g l i n y t c o
d j u b v p q r e m o a r
i t b y a r p i w o y t r
d n o t m h j t r p v h y
w y b c u b u t x s u o b
y t m x u p r w c s r l p
r n l l i t s u n b y i m
x d o h j r d c p y f c m
a i y b f g d c p y r s n
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ , __ __ __
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ .
(This one was a word find, but it didn't come out right when I pasted it here. When all the blanks were filled in it read: "Zwingli did not pray to me, but the Catholics still do." A little information from our Anabaptist history class here. By one of the statues at the Catholic church were the clues. My group was the first one there. I was horrified to find a lady out trimming the bushes by our clues. I kindly explained what we were doing and she said that was fine. I didn't tell her that her forefathers killed mine. I didn't figure that would go over too well with her, and I wanted to keep doing the treasure hunt.)
Clue # 9 YY
Look at your shirts and dig.
(There were stakes in the yard with the team colors on them. All they had to do was to find their team's color and dig. I got a phone call on this one. It was dark and my husband's team could not figure it out, nor could they find their stake. I had to explain it all to him. He complained about this one the next day. Then I remembered this clue and the digging thing was HIS idea. We all had a good laugh about it the next morning at devotions.
Clue #10 YY
Go to the
ecnmxi lija repekes.
_____________ _________ ______________
(Mexican jail keepers)
(One of our school board parents who had dressed up in Mexican outfits for all four honor roll parties this year did it again and made a Mexican obstacle course. It was a blast. At the end she gave them a pitcher of cold water. They had to figure out that their clue was frozen in the ice inside the pitcher. Be careful if you try this one. Use heavy-duty freezer bags. Two of the clues worked, but two were all wet and unreadable.)
Clue #11
This clue was a Google map to Miller's Country Market
Clue #12
La madre y el padre de un Tio Juan.
(The mother and father of "Uncle John" -- the church brother who dressed up as "Uncle John" at an honor roll party last year and rowed us across the Ohio River in his canoe at the Underground Railroad Honor Roll Party.)
Clue #13 (Given to them by Uncle John)
Look up.
(There was a Medieval money pouch in their team's color up in a tree.)
Clue #14
Within one tenth of a mile of your present location you will find your next clue under a picnic table.
(A few groups went to the picnic tables next door at school where they found the next clue: )
Fail. Try again.
(Then they had to figure out that it was at the rest area picnic tables across the street. When we got there two ladies were having dinner at the picnic table, so we had to ask them if they minded if we got a treasure hunt clue from under their table. They laughed and let us.)
Clue #15
Forester is Mrs. Swanson’s maiden name.
Uncle Heman rests here, just the same.
(My long lost Uncle Heman was found buried within a tenth of a mile of the school where I've been teaching for three years. No joke. The clues were on his grave.)
Clue #16
was a picture of a rosebud and a donut-
Clue #17
Rosebud.
Oink, oink.
Main Street.
Clue #18
Here you can pay your water bill,
Here you watch a cop sit still,
Here you can sit and rest a spell,
Here find your clue if you think it out well.
(This clue was behind the benches in front of the Rosebud City Hall. One student was all excited and ran in to "pay a water bill". The problem was that the door was actually unlocked [at 7:00 at night] and there was an official meeting going on. I apologized to the council members while one of them ran to the window and pointed to the bench where the clues were.)
Clue #19
This clue had a $1 bill taped to it and then a picture of General George Washington and a picture of a roll of toilet paper. (Dollar General -- the clue was in between the packages of toilet paper.)
Clue #20
While you are here (at the Dollar Store), buy a little present for the newlyweds and take it to them.
(There is a newly married couple from our church which lives nearby.)
Clue #21
This clue had a logo of our school newspaper, the Cotton Caboose, and a picture of an ice cream cone. The clue was at the local Dairy Queen behind the issues of the Cotton Caboose.
Clue #23
Pony truss bowstring from the 1880s.
(This clue was under the bridge at the park. There was an article on this bridge, a pony truss bowstring bridge, in the last issue of the Cotton Caboose.)
Clue #24
Burgers, but not any more.
Close to Mexican food.
(The clues were taped under chairs in front of a defunct burger joint next to Los Camales Mexican Food restaurant.)
Clue #25
75 cents will buy me.
SOREDUB WENS
(ROSEBUD NEWS)
(This was one of the funniest clues of the night because not one of the students knew how to put the money in the machine and then pull the lever to get the clue out. They kept pushing the coin return and getting their coins back, or pulling on the lever at the wrong time. We laughed about this one the next few days too.)
Clue #26
Claang Claang
Whooo Whooo
Neeeaarrrrrr
Nobody uses me anymore.
Clue #27 YY
Go to the Cefco.
Face SW
Go exactly .3 of a mile.
(CHECK YOUR DECIMALS!!!!)
Find Paul.
(The clues were behind the sign at St. Paul's church.)
Clue #28
Money.
Deposit.
Alley. (Um-hm, ALLEY - you know who you are :-)
(They had to find the deposit drive-thru in the alley behind the bank.)
Clue #29
The last message was written in maritime flag code, and they had to use the code they'd been instructed to bring along to decipher the code.
Translation: You’ve reached the last clue.
Congratulations.
Now go get your prize.
Slaves hid here once and sang.
(They were to go to the grain bin behind the school where we hid and sang at the Underground Railroad Honor Roll Party.)