If you want to plan an activity that makes math even more fun, here’s a set of math scavenger hunt questions you can use.
This idea could be used in the classroom at school if you’re a math teacher or at home with your own kids if they’re home-schooled (or even if they’re not!)
It also includes a free printable worksheet for you to use – keep reading to get your copy.
Here’s how to plan this math scavenger hunt:
Resources
- List of questions (see below)
- Pens
- Can of soup (if using the worksheet)
Preparation
If you’re going to be doing this activity at home and will be using the sums we’ve provided, there’s no preparation needed.
If you’re going to be playing this at school or want to choose a different location and/or item to use, you’ll need to create your own set of scavenger hunt questions.
Instructions
Give your kids a copy of the worksheet and pen. Explain that there’s an item they need to find, but they’ll have to answer some sums in order to find it.
First of all, they should calculate the answers to all the sums – not using a calculator – and write the answers in the answer column.
Once they’ve done that, they need to convert the numbers into letters. A = 1, B = 2, etc, so they should write down the letters in the letter column.
These letters will then spell out two sets of words – the first set states where the item is hidden and the second set states the item they’re looking for.
Difficulty Level
For older kids, rearrange the order of the sums for each word. This will therefore add an anagram element to the game, increasing the difficulty level.
Math Scavenger Hunt Questions
Here’s a list of questions you can use for this game. As you can see below, the location will be ‘Kitchen Cupboard’ and the item they’ll need to find is ‘Can Of Soup’.
Beneath this list is a link for a worksheet containing these same sums – please feel free to print as many copies as you need based on how many kids you’re organizing this for.
Where To Look
- K: 48 ÷ 3 – 6 + 1 = 11
- I: 6 x 4 ÷ 3 + 1 = 9
- T: (80 – 20) ÷ 4 – 2 + 7 = 20
- C: Cube root of 27 = 3
- H: 3 x 9 x 2 x 0 + 8 = 8
- E: (17 – 2) ÷ 5 + 2 = 5
- N: 1 x 7 x 3 – 7 = 14
- C: (17 + 21 + 13) ÷ 17 = 3
- U: 2 x 4 x 2 + 5 = 21
- P: 44 – 7 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 = 16
- B: (23 – 5) ÷ 3 – 4 = 2
- O: 9 – 2 + 4 – 1 + 5 = 15
- A: 16 ÷ 4 x 2 – 7 = 1
- R: 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 – 3 – 2 – 1 = 18
- D: 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 ÷ 30 = 4
What To Look For
- C: 42 ÷ 7 ÷ 2 = 3
- A: 16 – 12 + 5 – 8 + 7 – 3 – 4 = 1
- N: Square root of 196 = 14
- O: 1 x 2 x 3 x 2 x 1 + 3 = 15
- F: 14 – 3 – 2 – 1 – 4 + 2 = 6
- S: 3 x 7 x 3 ÷ 9 + 12 = 19
- O: (1 + 2) x 3 + 6 = 15
- U: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 = 21
- P: (7 + 3 – 1 + 2 – 3) x 2 = 16
Printable Math Scavenger Hunt Questions
Other Ideas
If you liked this idea, make sure you check out all our other math scavenger hunt ideas.