Hidden Story Hunt

My son’s reading has come a long way but getting him to read more than 5 pages is still a bit of a struggle. To give him some extra motivation, I used a Scooby-Doo easy reader book to create a fun activity that would make him WANT to read.

This activity is a hybrid of the Treasure Hunt and Scrambled Story activities we’ve done in the past. First, I retyped the book's text, making one “card” per each page of the book. There were 11 cards in all. Then I printed and cut them out.

Hiding small pieces of paper all over our house would have most certainly been frustrating. To make it easier, I limited the hunt to our living room, kitchen, and dining area. I also attached some gift-wrap bows (left over from Christmas) to the backs of the cards. Now all that was left to do was hide them.

My son was excited for the hunt. I told him to look for 11 bows. As he found each of them, I took the opportunity to ask him, “How many do you have left to find?” (I couldn’t resist sneaking in a little subtraction practice!)

When my son found all 11, he pulled the bows off and read the cards. 

Now came the hard part: put them in the right order. We read several cards multiple times, making sure the sequence was right. This was hard and a lot of reading but my son never complained. 

I wish I had a video camera to show you his happy dance when the story was put back in order; He was so proud of himself!

Personalize this activity to match your child's reading proficiency and interests. Ten (10) minutes at the computer and 5 minutes hiding the cards is all the preparation needed for this great activity!!