Looking for clues

All New Gallery

First I’ll show you the game we played when my daughter Maya was your age.  It’s a bit like a scavenger hunt or letterboxing if you have done that.  This is how you do it…
– Think of a trail you would like to lead someone on around your house or yard.
– Draw picture clues of things they can see along the trail.
– Keep the clue for the first object at the start of the trail, hide the second clue at the first object, the third clue at the second object and so on, until you get to the end.
Watch below to see how to play…

The second game I played when I was a kid.  We called it arrow tracking, I think other people may have different names for it but that’s what we called it where I lived.  We always played outside but you could use items in your house.   If you wanted to make a trail around the house, just be sure to pick everything up when you are done.  This is how we played…
– There were two groups. The first group set the course, the second group followed their trail
– Group 1 would leave the base and making arrows when it was time to make a turn.  We could only use natural materials already on the ground so it didn’t matter if no one picked them up.  There was one exception and that was we could use chalk on hard surfaces as it washes away in the rain, or wears away as people walk on it.
– After a few minutes the second group set off to follow the trail and tried to catch the first group as soon as they could.

Here are some ways to make arrows… sticks, moss, chalk, pinecones…what else could you use? Some things are harder to see than others – that means the following group has to look closely or they may miss a clue!

If you play in your yard or neighborhood what materials might you use?   Maybe you could invent some new signs that mean different things?  Studio Purple, you looked a lot at signs this year I remember, and Studio Blue, you had arrows pointing to different areas in your studio right?   I think it would be fun to do this at deCordova one day, around the park or in the woods; until we can do that – have fun at home and in your neighborhood.

Before you go – here’s a story we listen to at rest time in Extended Day.  The story of Secret Agent Splat, a cat who follows some clues to find out what is happening to his toy ducks…