Type your topic, check every station on screen, and print the whole hunt. You get one puzzle card for every station — a quiz, an anagram, a riddle, a secret cipher, a mini crossword — each carrying a QR code that tells the finders where the next card is hidden. Alongside the station cards come cuttable start cards, a group answer sheet, and a teacher answer key listing every hiding spot and every answer.
Hide the cards before the lesson, hand each group a start card, and let them loose. Each group starts at a different station and the hunt loops, so every group visits every station without queueing behind each other.
Groups solve the puzzle, record their answer, then move on. At each station the group works the puzzle on the card, writes their answer on the group answer sheet, and scans the QR code — it reveals where the next station is hidden. When their sheet is full they have been round every station, and they bring it back to you. The answer key marks the lot in a minute.
Hiding spots are optional. Tap from a list of classroom favourites — book corner, cloakroom pegs, under the whiteboard — type your own, or leave them blank and the cards simply send finders after the next station number.
It earns its place at the start or end of a topic. A hunt at the start surfaces what the class already knows; the same topic at the end is retrieval practice they will run for. It is especially strong on vocabulary, and because the stations are worked in groups, EAL and SEND children get the support of the group rather than a worksheet of their own.
UK teachers tend to say treasure hunt; American teachers say scavenger hunt. Strictly, a scavenger hunt is a list of things to find in any order, while a treasure hunt is a chain of clues where each one leads to the next — which is exactly what this makes. Whichever you call it, the result is the same: a printable, curriculum-linked hunt for your classroom, corridor, hall or playground.
Every station is a different kind of thinking. Quick quizzes, true or false, anagrams, riddles, fill-in-the-blanks, matching pairs, odd one out, sequencing, a Caesar cipher to crack, word scrambles, multiple choice, a mini word search and a mini crossword — all written about your topic, at the age level you choose. A tick list on the setup page decides which types can appear, so a hunt can lean on the ones your class knows.
And they are checked before they reach the page. The app does the letter work itself — scrambling the anagrams, encoding the cipher, shuffling the sequences — so a child can never be handed a puzzle that doesn't unscramble. Every station is validated, anything faulty is quietly rewritten, and the answer key is built from the puzzles themselves so it always matches. If you don't like a puzzle, one press of Redo rewrites just that station.
Nothing prints until you have seen it. The preview walks the stations one at a time with the real printout alongside, open at the exact page you are editing. Every question, answer and clue sits in an editable box, and the sheet updates as you type — so a teacher who wants to get properly granular can rewrite half a station, and one who doesn't can just press Print.
Press Launch and each station fills the board. Before the hunt starts, step through the stations with the whole class: show what the cipher looks like, reveal the answer when you are ready, and draw over the board with the built-in pen tools.
Half puzzles, half map skills, on a real map of your school. Search for your school on the satellite map, lay a grid square over the grounds, and mark where each station will be hidden. Half the stations become orienteering challenges: plot a grid reference, face north and turn to a bearing, count your paces. Pupils carry a printed map sheet with the grid overlay; you carry a master map with every station marked. It is a full grid-references lesson — the KS2 geography staple — that happens to feel like a game.
| Subject | Topic you type | A station from the hunt |
|---|---|---|
| History | The Romans in Britain | A cipher to crack: the message HADRIAN BUILT A WALL, shifted four letters |
| Science | Animals and their habitats | Odd one out: dog · cat · cow · shark — and say why |
| Maths | Fractions — halves, quarters and thirds | Sequencing: put these five fractions in order from smallest to largest |
| English | Prefixes and suffixes | Anagrams of five key words to unscramble against the clock |
| Geography | Rivers and the water cycle | A mini crossword: six clues, every answer a water-cycle word |
The last time I ran one of these was on a school trip - I set the stations up around our local park. Laminate the cards if you're heading outside; the weather got nowhere near them and they came home ready to use again.
The real lesson was that I didn't trust the children enough. I underestimated how well they could run it themselves - hand out the start cards, stand back, and watch them go station to station.
— Rob, the teacher behind Sage
Is there a free treasure hunt generator for teachers?
Yes. Type your topic, choose how many stations and the age range, tick which puzzle types can appear, and press Preview. You get a printable pack: one puzzle card per station, cuttable start cards, a group answer sheet and a teacher answer key. It is free to try.
Do pupils need phones or tablets?
No. The hunt works on paper alone, because groups move round the stations in number order. The QR codes are a bonus: any camera app reads them, they contain plain text rather than a website, and there is nothing to install or log into.
How long does it take to set up?
About five minutes to generate, check and print — hunts like this used to take an evening to prepare by hand. Hiding the cards is the longest part, and the teacher answer key lists every hiding spot so you can check your setup at a glance.
Are the puzzles checked for mistakes?
Yes, twice. The app does all the letter work itself — scrambling anagrams, encoding the secret cipher, shuffling the sequences — so those can never be wrong, and every station is validated before it reaches the page. The answer key is built from the puzzles themselves, so it always matches. If one puzzle isn't quite right, a Redo button rewrites just that one.
What ages does it work for?
Any age range from 5 to 18. Pick the age band and the puzzles are pitched at that level — the same topic comes out very differently for ages 5–7 and ages 9–11.
Can I edit the puzzles before printing?
Yes. The preview walks the stations one at a time next to the actual printout, open at that station's page. Every question, answer and clue is an editable box and the sheet updates as you type. If a whole station misses the mark, Redo rewrites just that one.
Can I show the class how the puzzles work before the hunt?
Yes. Press Launch and each station card fills the whiteboard. Step through them with the class, reveal the answer when you are ready, and draw over the board with the built-in pen. Then hand out the start cards and set them off.
What is the orienteering mode?
A hybrid hunt built on a satellite map of your own school grounds. You mark where each station is hidden, and half the clues become map challenges: grid references to plot, compass directions to follow, paces to count. It prints a pupil map sheet with a grid overlay and a teacher master map showing every station.
More printable puzzle makers: Loop Cards makes the classic follow-me card chain, Crossword Maker builds a full crossword on any word list, and Word Search does the same for word searches. For more map-skills work on the whiteboard, try GeoSpotter.