Everyone loves a good, old-fashioned scavenger hunt game but it’s just so much trouble, isn’t it? Sure, if there are adults playing, it’s not that bad but, if kids are involved, well, need I say more? While digging through everything in sight to try to find the items on the list there can be all sorts of accidents – some with your belongings and even some with the kids. Try a different take on the old scavenger hunt game and little kids – or anyone playing – won’t even have to leave their seats. When you make a soda bottle scavenger hunt you have all the fun without any damage to person or property.
Use a soda bottle, water bottle, or similar, 20oz plastic bottle to make the unusual scavenger hunt game. When you fill the bottle with rice you’ll see that it can be quite challenging to locate items inside. You can use white rice or you can dye the rice to make the game even more challenging. To dye the rice, pour 2 cups of rice in a zipper-lock bag. Add a capful of rubbing alcohol and 3 drops of food coloring. Mix it inside the bag, shaking and working it, until it all turns the same color. Pour the rice on newspaper to dry.
Remove any label the bottle might have. Using a funnel, begin pouring rice into a 20oz bottle. If you have no funnel, cut the top off of another 20oz bottle, and use it as a funnel. Pour just a couple of inches of rice in the bottle and then drop a couple of items inside. Pour in another inch or so of rice, and another item or two. Continue doing this until the rice is near the top. Make sure you leave at least a couple of inches of space at the top so that the rice can be moved around.
Things you can put in the bottle include a large bead, a marble, a small bell, a straw, a gum ball, a tiny toy, a nail or screw, an emery board, or nearly anything else that will fit through the hole. When you’re finished, glue the lid on it.
To play the soda bottle scavenger hunt game use a timer. Set it for 30 seconds (more or less; you decide) and allow each person to view the bottle for that length of time. The player can shake and twist the bottle to catch small glimpses of the things tumbling around with the rice. Each player can write down the items they see. The person who guesses the most objects is the winner. For a tie, you can make a second bottle, and allow the tied players to guess the contents in a much smaller amount of time.