Description: Many RA’s on other floors did their first floor program as a scavenger hunt – they gave lists of items to their residents with requirements such as “Find someone who has blue sheets on their bed” or “Has read 3 Harry Potter books”, etc. I liked the idea, but I wanted to have an end product that would be much more cherished than tons of papers with signatures. I decided to take it a step further: a picture scavenger hunt!
All the guys on my floor were required to bring their own digital cameras to the program (we had a couple extra in case a team didn’t have one.) They divided up into teams of 3-4 and were given a list of rules and picture requirements. The required items started out easy, such as this:
1. Picture of a fire extinguisher
2. Picture of your team members with a member of a different sport (I live in an all-athlete hall)
3. Picture of your team members by…
The picture requirements got progressively more intricate, and emphasized rules we RA’s had gone over in our mandatory meetings (such as location of emergency fire extinguishers, emergency exits, other RA’s rooms, etc.). The program got other residents on other floors to interact! (All my guys loved this because they had reason to go up to the girl’s floors and knock on doors, etc)
The final picture was something very fun like:
1. “Picture of you and your team members forming a human pyramid with one wearing a hat, one holding a coat hanger, and one holding their student ID card all making funny faces!”
The guys had a great time with it and the winning teams (fastest time completing all pictures, and most creative pictures) won pizza! I will have our next program be an ice cream social in which we review the pictures in our lounge and relax! I will make a bulletin board with all the pictures on it as well.
Have fun!
Submitted by Andrew Burden, Resident Assistant, Lewis Clark State University