Gross Motor Treasure Hunt

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This month for our Book Club Play Date, we read one of our FAVORITES: Way Down Deep in the Deep Blue Sea by Jan Peck !  We are constantly reading this delightful ocean themed rhyming book at our house, and it is the perfect jumping off point for a themed play date. 

At the end of the story, the little boy finds a treasure chest filled with treasure. On the last page, he brings the treasure up for his Mama. It's a gold coin! We have tons of gold coins laying around from various St. Patrick's Day activities, so I thought it would be fun to do a treasure hunt outside. I had originally wanted to do the gold coin hunt in our small little kid pool, BUT Mr. Grumpy Gills had a rough nap wakeup and had other plans. So, instead I hid the gold coins in the yard, and we recited the story as we found them. 

We turned the treasure hunt into an imaginative play activity, and pretended we were seeing the various sea creatures beside each gold coin we spotted. K got his gross motor workout in galloping with a seahorse, do-si-doing with a starfish, and "swimming" (running) away from a big shark!

When Kingston had found all of his coins, he came and showed off his treasure to Mama, just like the little boy in the story! 

Don't forget to head over to my fellow Book Club Play Date bloggers pages to check out their crafts and activities! 

Snack: The Deep Blue Sea Veggie Snack from Craftulate

Sensory: Deep Blue Sea Sensory Bin from Sugar Aunts

Craft: Color Collage Art Project for Kids from Fun-A-Day

Game: Gross Motor Treasure Hunt from House of Burke (That's US!)

Stay tuned for next month's Book Club Play Date! We will be reading the Margaret Wise Brown classic Big Red Barn !

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