This printable winter scavenger hunt is a fun outdoor family activity. It’s an easy way to go on an adventure within your neighborhood or even in your backyard.
I love creating free family printables to help parents enjoy happy, healthy families. And this snow day scavenger hunt is one of our favorite winter activities.
How to Use the Winter Scavenger Hunt
The winter scavenger hunt is easy to use. Just attach the printable to a clipboard and grab a pencil (or crayons if you prefer) to mark off items as you spot them. Then head out into the great outdoors!
You simply search for the items on the list and check them off as you find them. There are several ways to make the hunt more fun though. Here are a few winter scavenger hunt ideas:
Take Photos of Found Items
Kids love to take pictures. Arm them with an inexpensive camera. Or, better yet, accompany them and take pictures of them WITH the items with your own camera or smartphone.
Make it a Contest
Give each person or team their own list and have them compete to find the most items in a set time period. The winner gets a prize and everyone enjoys a hot cup of cocoa together after the game.
Have Tiered Prizes
If you don’t want to have players compete against one another, you can instead create tiered prizes.
- Find 1-5 items, we’ll build a fire in the fireplace after the hunt.
- Find 5-10 items, we’ll enjoy hot cocoa in front of the fire.
- Find 11-15 items, we’ll have a pizza party movie night.
- Find 16-21 items, we’ll have a sleepover in the family room after movie night.
- Find all 22 items, we’ll go ice skating or bowling on the weekend.
Obviously, you could use whatever prizes you wanted. The prizes above are simply suggestions to get you started.
Use it as a Road Trip Activity
If you’re taking a winter road trip, give each child a winter scavenger hunt to keep them occupied during the ride.
Winter Scavenger Hunt Items
Here’s what you’ll be searching for:
- Icicles
- Pinecones
- Snow
- Animal Tracks
- Sled
- Snowman
- Frost
- Thermos
- Insect
- Berries
- Feather
- Squirrel
- Evergreen Tree
- Snow Shovel
- Scarf
- Firewood
- Nest
- Pom Pom Hat
- Chimney Smoke
- Footprint
- Bird
- Snow Plow
Download the Free Printable Winter Scavenger Hunt
Now that you have some ideas of how to have fun with the scavenger hunt, here it is. Just fill in the form below the image for immediate access.
Printable FAQs
Fill in the form above. After you submit the form, you’ll receive an email from “Wondermom Wannabe” with a direct link to the printable. If you do not see the email in your inbox within a few minutes, check your spam folder.
The most likely place will be in your computer’s Downloads folder. You can also select “Downloads” in your browser menu to see a list of your downloads, then simply select “Show in folder” below the file name to see where it is stored on your computer.
You’ll need a program that supports PDFS, like Adobe Acrobat (which is free). Open the program, click File > Print. Select your printer and set the number of copies you want to print. Double check your print preview, then click print.
More Family Fun
If you enjoy the winter scavenger hunt, you might also enjoy some of these other scavenger hunt and treasure hunt ideas.
If you really love scavenger hunts, check out this collection of 20 scavenger hunt games from Organized 31!
Each theme contains at least 3 different game boards (most have more). For just $9.99 you’ll have fun activities that will last you all year long.
And if the cold weather didn’t keep you from participating, you might be open to some of these Family Winter Bucket List activities.
What a fun idea, especially since it’s so bone chilly 🥶 outside. This is a nice way to get of the sofa, and get your blood going. Thanks our family need this fir something to do on Friday nights.
love this
That’s great. Thanks for letting me know.
Thanks so much…I’m sure we will be using your scavenger hunt soon!
What a fun activity to do on the weekend during the winter months. Of course we would have to make it competitive! Thanks for sharing with us at Merry Monday. Pinning.
What a wonderful Idea! We did one for 12 days of Christmas as our advent calendar and the kids loved it! Thanks for sharing with us over at #OMHGWW
Love these types of things to have on had to do with the kids during the cold winter months. Happy New Year & Thanks for sharing!