QR Code Hunt with a Valentine's Day Theme

Last year around Easter I did an activity with my students in which they had to solve riddles that would lead them to an activity they had to complete.  The riddles would bring them to another part of the school (usually another teacher) and they would receive a plastic egg that would either contain the activity or would contain the name of the activity and they would get the sheet they needed from me when they returned.  Once they complete it and I checked it over, I would give them another riddle and off they would go.  The winning team was that who solved all the riddles first and completed all the activities correctly.

Multi-colored QR Codes

My students absolutely LOVED it!  However, since this year I'll actually be on maternity leave during Easter (only 3 more weeks before my due date!!!) I wanted to do something similar with my current class.  And of course, since we are addicted to QR Codes in my classroom right now, I knew I wanted to involve those as well.  So, in honor of Valentine's Day my students completed The Valentine's Day QR Code Hunt.

First, I created eight sets of QR codes using QRStuff.com so I could make them in different colors.  Each QR Code was encrypted with a riddle that would lead the students to another teacher or faculty member at the school.  After I created the QR Codes, I printed out enough of each one for my students and visited each staff member to give them a copy of the QR code and the activity they would give my student.  It was important that I gave the other teachers a copy of the QR Code that would lead the students to them so they could make sure it was the correct color.  If a student arrived with a QR Code with a different color, the teacher would send them on their way because they solved the riddle wrong.  (It did happen a few times.) 

I started the hunt out by giving my students the following sheet.  It explained what they would be doing, gave them a hint as to what the activities were and finally a place to put the QR Codes after they had solved each riddle.  This also helped me because when a student completed an activity, they would bring it up to me, I would QUICKLY check it and if all was done to my expectations, I would give them a new QR Code.  I could easily scan what QR Codes they had already been given because they were all in different colors. 

 

This allowed me to randomly hand out the QR Codes so my students weren't all going to the same teacher at the same time.   Now regarding the activities that the students were completing they all contained the same theme of Valentine's Day.  I mixed together puzzles with math and language arts.  And the best part about all of them - they were FREE!!  (Not signed up for TpT??? - what are you waiting for - click here to do so now and find out what you've been missing!) I was able to download all the activities off Teachers Pay Teachers without spending a dime.  However, I did make sure that I went back and left feedback thanking each of the teachers for putting in their time and effort in creating the products and listing them for free.  Here is a list of the activities I used. 

1. Valentine Mystery Word Search
2. Hink Pink - Valentine's Day Themed
3. Valentine's Day Tangram
4. Valentine's Day Wordplay Activities
5. Valentine's Day Multiplication Math with QR Codes (this one is my own creation) :-)
6. Valentine's Day Wordsearch
7. Valentine's Day Acrostic Poem
8. Valentine's Day Budget Activity

This type of hunt could be done at anytime of the year or for any holiday.  It took me less than 20 minutes to get it all set-up (as a matter of fact I did it that morning).   It kept the students engaged for a couple of hours while still having them learn.  A win-win for us all in my book!

What did you do for Valentine's Day? Have you ever done a hunt like this before with your kids?

Check out more QR Code activities here - my collection of Task Cards.