NEWCASTLE East Public School's Book Week Scavenger Hunt across the city is keeping children of all ages - and their families - entertained during lockdown.
Relieving assistant principal and year one and two teacher Megan Thompson said the school's Book Week parade and the activities leading up to it were an annual highlight. "Everybody goes all out and above and beyond," she said.
"When we could not do that this year I saw another scavenger hunt on Facebook and I started talking with another teacher about how we could adapt that and all of a sudden we started talking about book characters.
"One thing lead to another and I spent the weekend coming up with clues. It grew from there and I hid them all over the city."
The clues are laminated pictures of book characters, including Harry Potter, Hairy Maclary and Willy Wonka.
Ms Thompson has written on the back of each one the first line of a well-known children's book as well as a location clue, which leads participants to the next book character and location.
The first clue was published in last Tuesday's newsletter and some students had completed the hunt by Wednesday, although most were doing the hunt as part of their exercise over several days.
"Another teacher even sent me photos of sisters in his class and all the photos they're in the dark with torches, it was great," she said.
"They seem to have cracked it all on one night."
Ms Thompson said some of the clues have gone missing along the way and she has had to replace them overnight.
"There was a clue at Bar Beach that's gone missing twice now, I replaced it the third time, and people were ringing the school," she said.
The hunt has been more popular than she expected, she said, and she has received text messages from families thanking her for an activity to do together and the fun it has added to their days and amid a "motivation slump".
"It just lifted their spirits a little bit," she said. "Families worked together and it ended up being much bigger than I first anticipated, but really good to see the kids finish it and really just looking for something where they can in a safe way get out of the house as a family.
"There was actually no prize at the end, it was just a QR code which was to a video of me saying 'Congratulations, you're finished'. It was just the thrill of the chase.
"I get a real kick out of it, I just think people need something at the moment that's a bit different. It's really rewarding and fulfilling to see people having fun with it."
