CREATING A CHRISTMAS IDIOMS SCAVENGER HUNT

It’s that time of the year again – the time to prepare and engage in festive activities, and extend warm wishes for a joyous Holiday season. This year, I’ve planned a Christmas idioms scavenger hunt. I’ve already shared an online demo game for remote classes and thought it would be a good idea to provide the steps and resources for adapting the game to play in an offline environment.

While creating a scavenger hunt activity can be time-consuming, there are a few shortcuts that may help you save precious time and prepare a festive adventure for your students.

Check out a quick summary of the key steps in the video below

First, create a festive atmosphere. Decorate your classroom with Christmas lights and ornaments. Make it feel magical! Consider adding some music; you can find beautiful pieces such as Brahms – Lullaby / Wiegenlied – Op.49, No.4 (Arr. for Music Box) on freesound.org.

Choose Christmas-themed idioms suitable for your students’ language level and prepare objects and clues. Associate each idiom with a specific object or image in the room. For example, ‘break the ice’ could be represented by a small ice sculpture, while a pile of scarves and gloves could be associated with ‘bundle up’. You can create specific images with the help of an AI image generator. I’ve used Leonardo AI and Canva to craft visuals for my game (see links to other generators in /IMAGINE: 5 ACTIVITIES FOR LANGUAGE STUDENTS).

Here is the full list of idioms and clues I used in the online Christmas Idioms Scavenger Hunt game.

Break the ice: A small ice sculpture of a conversation bubble.
Snowed under: A miniature snow shovel buried in a pile of cotton snow.
On thin ice: A pair of ice skates.
The icing on the cake: A cake with a small decoration of icing.
Have a white Christmas: A snow globe with a winter scene inside.
Reindeer games: A small board game with reindeer characters.
Bundle up: A pile of scarves, hats, and gloves.
Stocking stuffer: A stocking with small gifts inside.
Jingle all the way: A bell with the word ‘jingle’.
Deck the halls: A deck of cards with festive decorations.

Design a simple scavenger hunt map or checklist that includes the idioms and space for students to jot down their guesses. Here’s the Canva template that I used for the game.

Place clues throughout the room and let the adventure begin!

Explore additional ideas for a scavenger hunt here. You can also incorporate riddles (ChatGPT will come in handy here) and special challenges that need to be solved during the hunt.

If you’d like to try the online Christmas Idioms Scavenger Hunt, please follow this link.

If you’d like to play it offline with your students, here are the resources on Canva that you may need: