Kids love treasure. They love hunting for treasure, mining for treasure, and mostly finding their treasure. Use these instructions to teach kids about mining. Or you can have a treasure hunt, maybe make a map or give clues. Use your imagination, the kids will follow along and use theirs!
Take this opportunity to explain how everything we use starts out as raw materials that then go through different processes to become what we see. You can start with something as simple as table salt and the mines they come from.
2 1/2 cups of Flour
2 1/2 cups of Dirt
1 cup of Sand
1 1/2 cups of Salt
Water as needed
Small Toys, Gemstones or other Treasure
Hammer
Make a dough by mix all the dry ingredients together and then gradually
stir in enough water so that the mix holds together like a dough.
Shape handfuls of dough around the treasure into rock shapes. Let the rocks dry
for 4-5 days.
Hide the rocks and let the kids search for the treasure. Once found, let the kids smash open the rocks with a hammer to discover their treasure.