Beachcombing Treasure Tile (100 Days Of Play)

One of activities on the old '50 Things To Do Before You're 11&¾' list was 'hunt for treasure on a beach'. That may no longer be valid for the 2013 list, but it is still an excellent activity to do with children and even more so for us as we live in a coastal town. It also seemed the ideal play activity to do with The Boy for the exciting blog hop I'm taking part in (organised by Sun Scholars & Life at the Zoo) called '100 Days of Play'. The idea of the blog hop is to feature 100 different play based activities from bloggers all over the world; one a day, every day, for a 100 days.

Beachcombing Treasure Tile

We like popping down to the beach, and go every Thursday once I get home from school. On our predominantly pebble beach there is always a plethora of treasure to be scavenged; eagle eyes are definitely needed to 'comb' the grey pebbles for the different and occasional glints of seaglass or shells. This time I decided to make a relief tile of the treasure that we found, by using airdry clay and pushing the discoveries into the tile to hold them firmly in place.

I used a takeaway (tupperware) container to hold the airdry clay, this was also useful to clip the lid into place to prevent damage while transporting it home. I also made two holes near the top to tie the string through once it had dried.

We spent a good amount of time looking for fossils in the stones (not many in our area), interesting rocks with patterns in the composition, shells (both barnacle and snail type shells), and seaglass. There's a fair amount of seaglass around our way from the times when Britain was not so caring of the environment. Eroded by time, waves and rocks; the seaglass has an opaque appearance with all rough edges worn away. Occasionally you can find a piece with lettering or numbers on it, as The Boy did, and we came up with a great story of it belonging to a pirate.

Beach Treasure Tile

This is the type of activity that doesn't have to be limited to a beach, it would be just as good in a woodland for example. The only issue there is that over time the items found in a woodland will rot, but for the short term it would work just as well. It could even work for a box of magic buttons or trinkets collected over time and from different generations.

It's also an excellent resource for storytelling, as mentioned above; the reasons and back-stories to the different treasures could be fascinating and an excellent form of oracy development.

100 Days Of Play Blog Hop

Sharing simple ideas on how to connect with your children through play!

New ideas shared each day from 1st April – 20th July 2013.

100 Days of Play is brought to you by these wonderful bloggers:

SunScholars . Frogs, Snails & Puppy Dog Tails . Playful Learners . Train Up a Child . Fantastic Fun & Learning . Scribble, Doodle & Draw . Learn. Create. Love. . Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas . Nothing if Not Intentional . My Little 3 & Me . Buggy & Buddy . Sun Hats & Wellie Boots . Twodaloo . True Aim . The Educators' Spin On It . Blog Me Mom . Life At The Zoo . Putti's World . Kitchen Counter Chronicles . Triple T Mum . Busy Kids Happy Mom . Crystal's Tiny Treasures . Rainy Day Mum . Momma's Fun World . My Little Bookcase . Craftulate . One Perfect Day . MumCentral . Artchoo! . Creative World Of Varya . Simple. Home. Blessings. . JDaniel4's Mom . NurtureStore . Me & Marie Learning . Child Central Station . Mamas Like Me . Mama MissMaking Boys Men . Powerful Mothering . Craft to Art . 3 Dinosaurs . Domestic Goddesque . Lessons Learnt Journal . Royal Baloo . Smiling Like Sunshine . Adventures at Home with Mum . B-Inspired Mama . PragmaticMom . Eazy Peazy Mealz . Gluesticks . TheBoy&Me . Learning is Messy . My Nearest & Dearest . Growing Book by Book . How to Run a Home Daycare . Here Come the Girls . Think Magnet . Dandelions Picked . 123 Homeschool 4 Me . Our Ordinary Life . Parenting with Professor Poppins . 2 Little Hooligans . Fun-a-Day! . The Non-Martha Mamma . Angelique Felix . My Very Educated Mother . Creative Playhouse . Go Explore Nature . Zing Zing Tree . Sense of Wonder . Childhood 101 . Crayon Freckles . KZ & Me . Serenity You . This Mumma's Life . Leapfrog & Ladybugs . Blue Bear Wood . Growing Together . KC EDventures . Mommy Lessons 101 . Nature & Play . Like Mama Like Daughter . Mums Make Lists . From Wine to Whine . Messy Kids . Babble Dabble Do . Sugar Aunts . Teaching @ Home . Preschool Powol Packets . Clothed in Love . Curiosity Creates . The Magnolia Barn . Strong Start . Stay-at-Home Mom Survival GuideLearn with Play at Home . Mummy… Mummy… MUM! . Science SparksToddler Approved . Thrive 360 Living . Rockabye Butterfly . Mud Hut Mama . Coffee Cups & Crayons . Playing with Words 365 . My Lil Love Bugs . Creative Connections for Kids . LalyMom . Love, Play, Learn . Kindergarten & Preschool for Parents & Teachers . The Pleasantest Thing . Teach Beside Me 

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Comments

  1. says

    You know when you put this pic on Instagram I wondered how the stuff was staying in there – I thought that was white sand! Great idea and he looks proud as punch with his treasure trove x

  2. says

    I love the way you have displayed your treasure. We have some clay, I wonder if we could do something similar with that? A lovely craft and I personally thing hunting for treasure on the beach should still be on the 50 things list. It's a classic childhood past time. Thanks for linking up to Country Kids.

    • TheBoyAndMe says

      I think it would. I've got another activity lined up with a bag of clay I bought, which would go down a treat at Coombe Mill. In fact it could be something that the children who stay could do, hmmm I'll get on to blogging it really soon!

      I agree that I think it should still be on the list, but hey-ho!

    • TheBoyAndMe says

      Thank you, we collect so many shells I wanted him to see them in a way he could touch and remember the times we go to the beach.

  3. says

    I don't think anything beats a good play on the beach. The shells look amazing and since we are lucky enough to live so close to a few beaches, it's a sin we don't go more often. I must make more time for that.

    • TheBoyAndMe says

      It's really easy to ignore what's on your doorstep! It's only now we've got The Boy that we're visiting things we've never been to, or I haven't been to since I was a child myself.

  4. dimples says

    I live right next to the beach and I am disgusted with myself that I have never thought about this great idea before! Thanks so so so much for sharing!!

    • TheBoyAndMe says

      My absolute pleasure, it's a simple thing isn't it? But sometimes the simple things don't occur to us! Have fun.

    • TheBoyAndMe says

      Thanks so much for featuring my craft item, really appreciate it. Hope you manage to make one and have fun with it!

    • TheBoyAndMe says

      Thanks! I think it could work well with organic items like pinecones etc as well, although they may not keep as well.

    • TheBoyAndMe says

      Oh yes! I remember doing something very similar, so this must have been in the back of my mind!

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