At Home

• Work with your Girl Scout to set up a scavenger hunt for your family using different clues.
• Help you Girl Scout find letterboxes in the area. Clues are available online if you do an internet search letterboxes.

From: Girl Scouts River Valleys 

Letterboxing

Snack

Snack Discussion

While enjoying snack, here are some things for girls to talk about.

Where are the best places to look for a letterbox?

How many letterboxes do you think are out there?

Where would you hide a letterbox?

From: Girl Scouts River Valleys

Letterboxing

Hiding Places Map

Find out about good places to hide letterboxes. Then draw a map of 10 great hiding spots in your area, or mark them on a map.

From: Girl Scouts USA

paper

utensils

Game (10 min)

Practice Your “Seeking” Skills

Hide small objects or candy around your meeting location.

Prepare some clues for the girls to use to find the objects/candy.

1. Introduce letterboxing to the girls. Letterboxing is essentially a real-life hidden treasure hunt. To participate, look online for clues or set up your own letterboxes.

2. Split girls into pairs and give each pair a clue.

3. Have the girls practice their seeking skills using the clues to find the hidden objects/candy.

From: Girl Scouts River Valleys

Objects/candy

Clues written on slips of paper

Letterboxing 1

Letterboxing language match up

Learn what these terms mean by creating a match up for the girls

• hitchhiker

• parasite

• cuckoo clue

• microbox

From: Girl Scouts USA

Craft (20 min)

Creating Your Own Stamp

1. Explain to the girls that stamps are an important part of letterboxing and represent the person who made the letterbox. Anyone who finds your letterbox will have your stamp in their own notebook of stamps.

2. Have the girls create their own stamp by cutting a shape from craft foam or use pre-cut shapes and

let girls pick their favorite.3. Have the girls glue the foam to a jar lid or piece of wood to make the stamp sturdy.

4. Have the girls test out their stamp by pressing it onto an inkpad and then firmly pressing it on paper.

5. Give each girl a notepad or make one by folding paper together. Girls can use these notepads to collect images from the stamps they find on their letterboxing adventures.

6. After girls have created their own stamps, have them work together to make a troop stamp that they will use in the troop’s letterbox. Save the stamp for a future meeting, where you will create your troop’s letterbox.

From: Girl Scouts River Valleys

Craft foam or pre-cut foam shapes

Jar lids or small pieces of wood

Glue (if foam is not self-adhesive)

Scissors

Ink Pad

Paper

Small notepads or paper to make notepads

Letterboxing 2

Create a fill-in-the-blank clue.

Write a hint, then replace a word with a blank. Then write a question that will help the letter box seeker figure out the missing word. Example: Look __ the slide at the park.

Question: What is the opposite of over?

The seeker answers under, and the clue is done:

Look under the slide at the park.

From: Girl Scouts USA

paper

writing utensils

Create a number code clue.

Each number in the hint becomes a letter! Use the code in the box to the right to help you write - and solve your clue. Each letter of the alphabet is a number.

From: Girl Scouts USA

paper

writing utensils

letter code printout

Letter code.pdf

Do the elf number code search

elf number code search printout

writing utensi

lElf number code search.pdf

Game (15 min)

Create a Scramble

1. Give the girls some examples of word scrambles.

For example: The last letter of every word becomes the first and the first becomes the last.

Kool rndeu eht elids ta eht karp = Look under the slide at the park

2. Have the girls create their own word scramble and ask others to try and solve their clue.

3. Ask the girls to brainstorm other ways to write clues.

From: Girl Scouts River Valleys

Paper

Writing utensils

Letterboxing 3

Hide a letterbox

• Hide a letterbox in your yard. The next time someone new is visiting, test their searching skills by asking them to find your letter box. Make sure you write clues on how they can find it.
• Hide a letterbox along a nearby trail. With the help of an adult, post the letterbox clues to an online site so others can search for it.
• Hide a letterbox using compass clues. Post the letter box to an online site so others can search for it.

Tips on Making and Hiding Your Letterbox

Choose a waterproof box, like a plastic freezer container.

The smaller your box, the easier it is to hide!

Label your box and include information about what it is.

Put your stamp in the box, also inside the plastic bag. Visitors will stamp their own notebooks with it.

Find the hiding place first.

Then write the clue. Hide the box in a place without a lot of

people. Make it somewhere fun to visit! Decorate a log book and put it in the box. Visitors will stamp your book with their own stamps when they find the letterbox. Keep the book dry in a resealable plastic bag.

From: Girl Scouts USA