Imam Mahdi (AS) Scavenger Hunt

Every year we do an Imam Mahdi (AS) day to celebrate his birth. Our age group is usually 5-11. Each year we have a real birthday party with cake, balloons, games, piñata (beat the shaytaan) and a talk about Imam. This year we decided to have it at an outdoor park. Our theme was 313 - how to get to be a part of team 313. Our activites began with Quran - Arabic and English, munajaat in English about the Imam, a talk, Pinatta (beat the Shaytaan for whispering your ears) and our first ever scavenger hunt and we ended standing around 313 shaped cupcakes reading our Imam Mahdi Anthem (downloadable here). For goody bags - in past years we have given a book on Imam, a cd with rhymes about him recited by Ummi Merali – and this year we made Team 313 t-shirts for the kids. Team 313 on the back and on the front we had a picture of the Kaaba and the words "Here I am O my Imam!"

The scavenger hunt was a hit! It's very simple- we used things we got from our dollar store and decorated it with answers from the clues. It's important to be as organized as possible, have enough copies of the scavenger hunt, pens, clip boards and make sure the children are listening to the talk. Placing the clues in unique fun places is also important. Below is what we did. We also put some things hanging in the park to throw the children off- so they had to think!!! If you have any questions email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . We are happy to help!

The Scavenger Hunt questions are downloadable here.

Family Tree - the coconuts have names of his family members. To download the file for the cocounts, please click here.

Streamer with different images, e.g. Kaaba, map of Iraq, etc.

313 disguised within the decorations

"Sun behind the cloud"

Dua Ahad

Dajaal/Shaytan

Hitting dajaal/shaytan with the water balloons

Streamers with the names of Imam's messengers during his Ghaybah

Hadith from the Imam, decorated on a parrot

Ariza

Team 313 Cupcakes

T-Shirt everyone got. This is the front. The back says "Team 313"

"Guess How Many" Game. This year's question was something like this: Guess how many crayons in the box - it's the same number of companions the Imam needs to reappear...

Previous years we did it at home and had a wall of information. We played games based on the lecture and the wall...this picture shows the blue clock in the middle. Each child made their own clock depicting what one can do while waiting for the Imam...