Make Your Own Find It Game

It's not easy to think of ideas for class parties. There's only so many DIY games one can create! Once again I needed to find a fun activity to do in The Jersey Momma's Boy's classroom for the latest class party (which just so happened to be a Dr. Seuss Read Across America Party.  You can read about the Yertle the Turtle Stacking Game we made for that party here). I was trying to think outside the box and I came up with a DIY Find It Game!

I needed something easy to make, inexpensive, fun and 'clean.'  (no messes, please!).  So once again, I went on my Pinterest hunt, and found lots of ideas for making my own Find It Game.

Have you heard of Find It?  Made by Identity Games, it's basically a clear tube filled with little trinkets and colorful beads, which hide the trinkets.  You can shake the tube up and pass it around, and you only have a few minutes to find all of the items on the checklist.  Find It makes lots of different themed tubes, and they are even portable for travel.  Be sure to check out my affiliate links at the end of this entry if you are interested in purchasing your own Find It Game instead of making one!  Anyway, making a Find It game was fairly easy.  Here's what you need to do.

You Will Need

-clear plastic container (think recyclables!  Tennis ball containers, snack bottles, funky water bottles, etc.)
-uncooked, dry white rice
-small trinkets, no bigger than 1 inch (I'd recommend at least 15 items)
-hot glue gun or packing tape to seal your container

Step 1.  We were fortunate to have some rainbow rice that was ready to be retired, so that's what we used for our game. I cleaned and dried a large, cylinder-shaped clear container that once held Archer Farms chocolate drizzled popcorn (yum).

Step 2.  This was the fun part. I opted not to involve The Jersey Momma's Boy in this process because I thought he wouldn't let me put anything in the bottle.  So I dove into the playroom by myself in search of tiny trinkets (about an inch in size or smaller- anything too big becomes too easy to find in the bottle).  Depending on the size of your bottle, I'd recommend trying to find at least 15 items. My bottle had about 25 items in it because it was over 12 inches high and fairly large.  I found things like erasers, mini cars, craft supplies, colored stones, etc.

Step 3.  Spread your items out on a white piece of paper and take a picture of them.

Step 4.  Hide your items in the rice!  I alternated pouring in the rice and adding items, mixing up each time.

Step 5.  Don't fill the rice to the tippy top of your container.  Be sure to leave some space at the top so that your bottle can be picked up and mixed around when shaken.

Step 6.  Many of the Pinterest sites say to seal your bottle with a hot glue gun, but my container was kind of heavy once it was filled, so I didn't trust the hot glue to hold it on.  Although unsightly and not at all Martha Stewart standard, I went with the old reliable, clear packing tape.  This way, I figured we could open up the bottle again in the future if we needed to.

Step 7.  I printed out the photo I took of the trinkets 17 times so that each child in The Jersey Momma's Boy's class could have their own card when they got to the Find It center.  I gave them a minute timer and a pencil to mark off the items as they found them.  They took turns shaking up the bottle and passing it around.

Step 8.  The elusive Chuck E. Cheese coin was everyone's favorite.  Because of the size and shape of it, it was very difficult to find in the bottle.  Many of the kids were convinced it wasn't there!  So when we got home, we had a lot of fun dumping the bottle out to prove that the coin was in there after all.  Ta da!

This game was way more fun than I thought it would be!  The kids had a blast trying to spot the items, and the little printed picture cards were a hit.

You can make smaller versions of this game for traveling, or you can make theme bottles, too.  Many thanks to Live, Laugh and Learn for the posting this idea on Pinterest, which helped me create mine!

Check out some of my affiliate links from Amazon below, and you'll see all of the different Find It games that are out on the market! (Disclaimer:  I do not work for Find It and I am not being compensated by them.  I just like their games so I am sharing these links with you.  I do, however, receive a percentage of purchase if you happen to buy through one of my Amazon links).