Help the Leprechaun Find His Gold! Day 5: Outdoor Treasure Dig

(X marks the spot!)

Older Toddler+

You can read the Leprechaun's Letter here

Day One's challenge here

Day Two's challenge here

Day Three's challenge here
Day Four's challenge here

Just seeing gold coins always makes me think of pirate treasure maps and X marks the spot!  So I decided to sneak out and bury the final two gold coins in our backyard.  

S was super excited to search outside (thankfully the weather cooperated - though honestly she doesn't really mind if it's windy or pouring rain!).  We talked about the saying "X marks the spot" and how sometimes when someone buries treasure they mark it that way to be able to find it again.  Since S is so young, I felt like a treasure map would have been too challenging for her to follow, but for an older child it might be a fun element to add in.

I decided to make "X"s from fallen tree twigs and they actually stayed overnight despite some pretty intense wind and rain.  The X's were a little subtle, but S spotted them straightaway.

The leprechauns had left a little shovel for her to use to dig!

Though the first X was a trick and there wasn't any gold - it did yield a different kind of treasure!  S loooooves worms and bugs so she was delighted to find this guy.

Aha!  Spotted a gold coin!

After finding the two gold coins, she told me "and now I am going to play in the dirt".  She spent quite a while "digging homes for the worms" before her hands ultimately got too cold and she decided to come inside to warm up.

To conclude the search, now that she's got all 10 coins, she's going to leave them outside her room in the envelope the leprechaun left for her.  In appreciation he's going to leave her a treat tonight.   We had so much fun with our Leprechaun Gold Search!

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

Help the Leprechaun Find His Gold! Day 4: Melting an Ice Block

Older Toddler+

You can read the Leprechaun's Letter here

Day One's challenge here

Day Two's challenge here

Day Three's challenge here

I thought we'd go with a different sensation here - freezing cold!  S found this giant ice block sitting on the kitchen counter after breakfast this morning.

Green sequins, green pompoms, green glitter, green washable paint, green liquid watercolors, green feathers, and two gold coins were all encapsulated in the ice block.

S could see the gold coins near the surface, just below a layer of ice.  She tried picking them out with her fingers, but it didn't work.  I asked her what people put on the sidewalks in winter to keep them from being icy (she needed a little hint - it starts with "s") - and she remembered salt!

We talked about how adding salt would make the ice melt (I felt that that was about as much explanation as a 3.5 year old could handle - talking about it changing the melting point seemed like it would be a bit over her head).  She excitedly began pouring and spreading salt.  In particular, she added two big piles over the two gold coins.

It was crazy to watch the salt making the ice bubble and we could hear it audibly crackling.

After waiting a minute, she cleared the salt piles from the gold coins and used a spoon to pry the coins loose.

Voila!  Two more rescued coins!

The ice block looks super cool!  She's currently using it as a giant iceburg with, you guessed it, dinosaurs.  She's also enjoying using piles of salt to create little "lakes" of icy water for the dinos to jump in, and as the ice melts, she's rescuing all the little feathers and sequins and pompoms that were embedded in the ice.

Day Five

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

Help the Leprechaun Find His Gold! Day 3: Plaster Excavation

Older Toddler+

You can read the Leprechaun's Letter here
Day One's challenge here
Day Two's challenge here

I thought we'd try something a bit more challenging for Day Three of S's search for the leprechaun's gold.  I used the plaster I'd bought from Michael's for $4 that we've been using for our Dinosaur Fossils and mixed in some green liquid watercolors, some green glitter, and some green sequins.  I split it into three Solo cups - just to make it a bit more tricky (since there were only two gold coins, one cup just held plaster).

All the items were waiting for S on our front porch after breakfast.  If you have a coordinated preschooler (you are the best judge of your child's abilities), you can have them use a child sized hammer to chip away at the plaster with close supervision.  I found S's hammer and goggles for a few dollars each (I think they're around $2) at Lowe's through their Build and Grow series.  Make sure to use eye protection - not just to keep their eyes safe, but also because kid safety goggles are crazy cute.  S started by hammering the bottoms of the cups to make the plaster discs pop out.

Then she chipped away at them by hammering for quite some time.  The plaster is very hard, so it does take some patience.  Despite offers to help, S was perfectly happy to work for long periods by herself.  Afterwards, I asked if it was frustrating because it took so long.  She happily chirped that it was so much fun she didn't mind.

After a while, she decided to try throwing the discs as well.  This part seems like something an older toddler could do (the hammering might be a bit too much for them - though you could always hammer together with their hand over yours).

Progress!  Once she could see the gold coin, we used the back of the hammer to pry the gold coin loose (she needed some help with this part).

Got it!

She loved the cool impression the coin left behind.  It's a leprechaun coin fossil!

See?  Safety goggles = immense cuteness.

Check out that form!

Once both coins were freed, she wanted to clean them in warm soapy water inside and play with the plaster discs.  We talked about how hard and dense they were, and she's using them as little islands for her plastic guys to play on in an ocean.  

Day Four

Day Five

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

Help the Leprechaun Find His Gold! Day 2: Fizzing Treasure Rocks

Older Toddler+

You can read about the Leprechaun's letter here
Day One here

When I saw these Magic Treasure Rocks, I knew they'd be perfect to add into the gold recovery tasks - and they did not disappoint!  

They are also super easy to make!  I made four balls (though you can make different shapes using cookie cutters or just molding by hand) using a box of baking soda.  I added some green liquid watercolors, green glitter, and green sequins for effect.  Mix all that up and sllllowly add water.  Add just enough that the "dough" barely sticks together.  It should look crumbly and a bit dry.  I then took the coins and molded the dough around them.  It does crack a little so just keep compacting it and eventually it will hold together.  I let them dry overnight before using them - that seemed to be enough time to get them ready.

S thought they felt really cool.

We started with a spray bottle full of vinegar, but S was having trouble aiming and spraying a good amount onto the treasure rocks.

So we switched to a squeeze bottle (though a spoon and vinegar, an eyedropper and vinegar, or even just pouring vinegar from a cup would also work) and then we were really cooking!

The treasure rock soon split and revealed the first gold coin!

Got it!

Having SO MUCH fun!

Squishing the two balls that didn't have coins for fun.

And now...the dinosaurs are playing in the leftover green sparkly mush.  :)

Day Three

Day Four

Day Five

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

Help the Leprechaun Find His Gold!

Older Toddler +

So if I'm being honest, St. Patrick's Day has nearly always been a bit of a boring holiday for me.  As a kid, I never really got that into it.  Wearing green was sort of fun, I suppose, but the lack of other excitement (and probably treats, hahaha) always made it a bit of a bummer for me.

Once, though, when I was in 7th grade, my super amazing science teacher had set up a crazy scene for us.  He'd tipped over some tables and chairs, left green glitter, tiny green footprints, and gold chocolate coins for us.  Of course, we were old enough to know it was him...but it was still so much fun.  I still fondly remember it every St. Patrick's Day!  So I set out to create something fun that we could repeat each year for S (and eventually X) to make St. Patrick's Day a bit more of a holiday to look forward to.

I prefaced this whole thing by talking a little about leprechauns off-handedly last night with S.  I told her that their job was to keep pots of gold at the ends of rainbows safe.  But sometimes, I said, they are a bit forgetful.  They can lose gold as they travel around leading up to St. Patrick's Day.  

When she woke up this morning, a green envelope with her name on it was waiting outside her bedroom door.  

"S--, did you drop something?" I asked.

 "Oh!" she exclaimed - "This has my name on it...it must be for me?"

Then Dada offered to help read the message to her.

The set-up is five days of activities to locate gold coins - ten coins in all.  On the fifth night she's supposed to leave the envelope full of rescued coins outside her bedroom.  I have a feeling that when she wakes up the following morning there will be a thank you note from the leprechaun...and probably a little St. Patrick's Day treat!  ;)

Follow along with our activities to rescue the coins each day here:

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

Day Five

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

Help the Leprechaun Find His Gold Day 1: Shaving Cream Search!

Older Toddler+

You can read the story behind S's Leprechaun Gold search here, if you haven't already.

As per the leprechaun's instructions, after a good breakfast, S asked me if I knew where she would look.  I mentioned that I thought I'd heard a commotion out on our front porch - she might want to start by looking there.  Lo and behold, she found a big bin full of shaving cream on our front bench!  

She searched and searched for the two gold coins.  She found one early on, but had to really look for that second coin.  Mixed into the shaving cream were green pom poms, green paint streaks, green glitter, green sequins, and green bingo chips.  Lots of interesting textures!

Eureka!  I had a small Gladware of water and a hand towel for cleaning off anything she found in there (she called the bingo chips "green coins" and had fun finding all those as well).

Once the coins were located and cleaned, she hid them again a few times...and some time later, things ended here as they usually do - with dinosaurs.  :)

I have the envelope clipped to our fridge, down low, with the gold coins in it.  S has periodically checked on them throughout the day and shown several of her stuffed animal friends and X the gold coins many times.  :)

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

Day Five

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

Fizzing Gelatin

Young Toddler+

S and I are both HUGE fans of baking soda and vinegar.  I was trying to think up a new way to play with it, and decided to see what it would do if I threw gelatin into the mix.  Turns out, it's really fun (at least we think so!).

To make fizzing gelatin, you'll need:

Gelatin (I bet you could use Jello, too)

Baking Soda

Vinegar

Food Coloring/Liquid Watercolors (optional)

When you are making the gelatin, just make sure to dissolve a hearty amount of baking soda in the hot water step (for the gelatin pictured, I dissolved somewhere between 1/2 to 3/4 cup).  Not all of it will dissolve - that's OK.

Refrigerate as normal, remove from whatever mold you've used (we used plastic Solo cups) and you're ready to add vinegar!

We added about a cup of vinegar all at once.

If you press your hands down, it feels like Pop Rocks!  It's so fizzy.  The gelatin slowly releases the baking soda, so it kept on fizzing for a long time (for more than 5 minutes!)

If you squeeze a handful of the gelatin, little pieces hop out of your hands.

It's such a bubbly, fizzy sensory experience, we really enjoyed it as a variant on our traditional baking soda and vinegar play.

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.