Pirates usually bury their treasure in sand or dirt but for an exciting change and even more kindergarten readiness fun and learning, try burying it in ice! This is especially good activity for a hot day. To make the treasure cubes, let your child find some small items to be treasures and arrange them in an ice cube tray. Fill with water and slide them into the fridge. Once the ice cubes are frozen, pop them out and kids can find various ways to melt the ice and recapture the treasure.
Young children do not have the same awareness of time and sequence that seems so obvious to us. Particularly when adults ask children questions to figure out the order of conflict, it’s almost impossible to find out who did something first because kids do not understand what happened first and then second and then third. This activity gives kids an opportunity to practice sequencing. Before finding the treasure, it has to get buried. What has to happen first? (gathering some treasure) Next comes putting it into the tray. Then what needs to be done next? (filling the tray with water) Something very important needs to happen after that. (putting the tray in the freezer)
Kids will likely ask several times if the ice cubes are frozen yet, but this is part of the learning about time as well. Although little ice cubes freeze faster, they melt much faster too. Next time, I think we’ll put the treasure in a big container of water but so the items are not all at the bottom that needs to be done in layers. Certainly, this is more steps in the sequence. All that takes much longer, but digging in a big chunk of ice with some spoons will also take more time, as in all afternoon? Isn’t this a cool pirate fun activity?
