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.

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?

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.

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.

Steps:

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. Maldn.g and Hiding

You.r Letterbo~

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.