I read on a message board that had posted my link that one mom was disappointed that I don’t have more non art activities, so here you go ! This is mess free, fun and so easy to make more challenging for older children , or easy as pie for the little guys. My son and I played this from the time he got up from nap until dinner was on the table . I have a feeling we’ll be playing it tomorrow too! Oh and if there is something specific you would like to see us try- let me know I am always open to new things .
- Gather your materials. You will need some play coins, a marker and a green piece of paper. * For really little guys instead of the paper you can just use a change purse and simply have them hunt for the coins.
- Trace the coins on the paper
- Fill in the numbers, we are doing 10 coins but customize this for your child, more or less whatever works. Make it challenging but not impossible. Having the numbers offers up different options for how to play , you can simply hunt for the coins, and place them on the numbers. You can hunt for them then have your child specifically put them on the number you designate. I tried both and my son liked to choose which numbers to pop the coin on then count them and start over.
- Hide the gold. Can you see it in my picture? Make it obvious at first, with little guys make sure it’s in plain view, the goal isn’t to be a better hider than they are a finder, it’s for them to find them feel pride in it, then tag on a little math too !
- Go searching for the lucky gold .
- Count your gold , and start again !
I can see this being a non stop game in this house.
Such a good idea!
Love it! I can’t wait to try it with my daughter!
So fun! I’m going to try this one!
Thanks so much for all your inspirational ideas! Your son is lucky to have a Mom like you! I don’t comment very often, but I look at your blog every day and use your ideas with my kiddos often. Keep em coming! Ü THANKS!
What a fun idea! We’ll try this ASAP! And I have NO complaints about your craft ideas. I’m grateful that you manage to think of so many great ones because I can barely come up with a single mediocre one! Thanks!
Cute activity! Since you asked, I would love to see more large- and small-motor activities (not necessarily craft oriented on the small-group…things like searching for buttons in clay, etc). I teach preschool and these are the areas that I struggle with the most to come up with new & challenging ideas for my 3s & 4s 🙂
As usual a great idea!! Can’t wait to try it with Emily. Thanks for sharing
Teri – Thanks so much for the input! I do a lot pincher and tweezer type activities with my son but don’t often document them. I will get one together soon!
Such a fun hide-n-seek game. Thanks.
Love this idea! At Easter time last year, we must have done about 50 egg hunts a day for about a week – so I think this would be right up my daughter’s alley!
My little guy loves “coins” right now. We’ll have a great time playing this. Thanks!!
That’s great, I love it!
Thanks for this idea! I could only find large money, so this also turned into a lesson about the value of a quarter, dime, nickle, and penny. My four year old son loved it and my two year old daughter is always game to do whatever he does. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful blog! Keep it up 🙂
What a great idea!! How fun!
What a great game! I love that it is so quick to put together. My son is very much into ‘coins’ right now so he is going to LOVE this!
I love this one. I homeschool my 2 little ones, and we’re working on coin values right now. I’m gonna tie this right into our lesson plan for tomorrow, St. Patrick’s Day!
The hide and seek aspect of this game will certainly make this more interesting for my son!
I love this…..we’ve also done this with painting little pebbles or small rocks gold (sometimes I can’t find gold coins) and we call them gold nuggets!!
Write/tape/glue a number on the coin (or use a number sticker) and then turn it into a matching game!
We had so much fun with this today – thanks for sharing!
I’m the Editorial Assistant for Fun Family Crafts and I wanted to let you know that we have featured your project! You can see it here:
http://funfamilycrafts.com/lucky-gold-hunt/
If you have other kid friendly crafts, we’d love it if you would submit them. If you would like to display a featured button on your site, you can grab one from the right side bar of your post above. Thanks for a wonderful project idea!