QR Code Easter Egg Hunt

photo © 2008 Mallory Odam | more info (via: Wylio)
This week I created a QR code Easter Egg Hunt for my sixth grade students. I wanted to share this early enough for others to have time to do something similar if they wanted even though the students will not come in for a few more days. This activity could be adapted for any subject but we are doing the activity in English/Language Arts. The specific concepts that the teachers wanted included were hyperbole, idioms, main idea, denotation, connotation and some of the prefixes and roots that were recently covered. With state testing coming up I'm sure you could convince at least one teacher to do something like this for a review activity.

Once I had the concepts I set to work creating the activity. I decided that I would kidnap the Easter Bunny. I used a ransom note generator site to give the students before we begin explaining their challenge. Students have to solve the clues on the scavenger hunt to discover my hiding place. Letters from the correct answers tell where the bunny is hidden. I have a small end table in the library that looks like a stack of books. Most students do not know this, but it has a lid so this is where he will be stashed away. The answer they are filling in is "table made of books" which is sixteen letters so I created sixteen questions using the concepts provided by the teachers. I found websites that I could use for the student research and created questions.

I would be happy to share the entire document but for the sake of space I'll give a few examples here.

Scan the code and complete the hyperboles found on the page: My teacher is so old she _ _ _ _ _ _ cavemen to start a fire. (1^st letter)

Students with then find the egg with that question # on it and scan the QR code with the school iPods I preloaded with a free QR code reader. On the site they will find the missing word and get the first letter of the hiding place.

Another example:

Scan the code and look under question #3. What word has the same denotation as chef but a less favorable connotation? _ _ _ _ (2^nd letter)

This QR code links to a webpage explaining these concepts.

The questions continue until they have all 16 letters to solve the mystery. The first pair from each class with all the correct answers and the bunny wins Easter candy.

I created the eggs by pasting the QR codes on clip art of eggs and printing them out for display around the library. I used this site to generate the QR codes, but there are many options.

Some of the questions are just from memory and some of the QR codes will answer two of the questions. You could just use a few QR codes or one for each question depending on how much time you have.

If you would like to try this and I didn't answer your question about the activity here please email me and I'll be happy to help. tamara_cox1@yahoo.com For more great ideas on using QR codes visit The Daring Librarian's blog and her QR Codes At a Glance Tutorial.

I'll post a reflection on the activity next week after the students come in.

Happy Hunting!

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