Fizzing Pirate Treasure Adventure!

Arr Mateys!! Today be Talk Like A Pirate Day!! To celebrate, we're going on a Fizzing Pirate Treasure Adventure! (Okay, actually the 19th is Talk Like a Pirate Day, but you can celebrate whenever it's convenient!)

First, we had to make our pirate treasure. I had my toddlers help with this because they love painting rocks! We used some little white rocks, painted them "gold," and sprinkled on some glitter.

I prepared the pirate treasures while the kids were asleep. Instructions are below. My plan was to take them on a pirate adventure (complete with a map and pirate-y clues!), and then have them dig the treasures out of a sandy dirt pile. Then it rained. A lot. My pregnant self wasn't ready to clean up a bunch of muddy, sandy kids, so I re-routed our map to end in the garage in a sand bucket. The sand was, of course, gathered by their pirate-y friends who were hoping the kids might be able to find the buried treasures inside.

Once the pirate treasures were gathered, everyone got right down to business! Armed with some vinegar, pipettes, and pans, the kids quickly fizzed away the "sand and soil" to find their treasures!

This one totally made me think of an igloo! Maybe an arctic pirate?

I also hid a color layer inside each treasure to make the fizzing even more exciting! See below for the easy how-to!

It was a fantastic pirate treasure adventure...perfect for our Friday Fun Day morning!!

Here's how to make your own fizzing pirate treasures! First, you'll need these

Simple Supplies:

* baking soda
* water
* food coloring
* pirate treasures

Easy How To:

1- First, mix your "soda dough." This is our simplest recipe: 6 tablespoons baking soda and 1 1/2 tablespoons water. Mix it until it holds together, adding either more baking soda or water if needed. It makes enough to cover two small rocks.

2- Add food coloring to half of it. This is totally optional, but I wanted a surprise stream of color to come out during the process.

3- First, cover your pirate treasure in the colored soda dough. Again, optional, but fun!

4- Cover the colored soda dough with white soda dough:

5- Optionally, I covered all of our treasures with plastic wrap so they didn't break during the digging!

That's it! Easy sneezy!

Once all the treasures have been found, enjoy a little vinegar bath! We used pipettes to make the fun last longer AND because it's a great fine motor exercise!!

Ta da!! When it's all done, play with your pirate treasure!

Did you know that long ago, many groups of people used metals and rocks to represent money?! What would you do with pirate gold treasure?!