I LOVE a good adventurous STEAM Activity! What do I mean by adventurous? Well…when I was a child, all I wanted to do was be a secret spy, or a pirate or a secret spy pirate! I would have LOVED to create my own secret pirate map to hidden treasure! At the tender age of 7, my friend and I set off on a journey to find a hidden treasure. Had my mother known that my friend and I had wondered off to look for imaginary treasure a mile away from our homes, I probably would have never left our house again. If we are all being honest, I probably wasn’t the only one, was I?
Children long for adventure! Children seek to discover new and exciting things! What could be more exciting than looking for a lost treasure? This is something that I like to do in my classroom frequently! On rainy days we go on a fairy hunt! We will walk up and down the hall searching for those fairies! We will search high and low for clues in the classroom, and every now and then, one student will see one! The magic of these adventures and treasure hunts creates moments that are exciting for children.
An easy STEAM activity
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You ONLY Need THREE Things!
- Crayons
- Paper
- Watercolors
Crayons
You know those white crayons that never get used because they are white, and they don’t work on white paper? The ones that probably look just as new as they did on the day the box was opened. Those are the crayons we need for this STEAM activity! If you are an artist and you have oil pastels on hand, the white one would work perfectly too!
Paper
For this STEAM activity, I used plain old computer paper! Any kind of paper will do. You do not need to go get any special paper for this activity if you don’t want to! I will say my recommendation is white paper. This makes it seem more magical when the letters appear during the painting process. One thing to consider is how much mess you want to clean up. From my experience, children are never as neat with projects as I think they are going to be. Watercolor projects will typically a completely soaked sheet of paper. If you want to invest in thicker paper, I think it would be a wise investment, especially if you are planning on making this a treasure hunt game! However, it isn’t need. Plain computer paper works just fine!
Watercolors
I just bought new watercolors not too long ago. I wanted to start introducing painting to Evie, so I have them on hand. She LOVES to draw and has her own sketchbook (yes…she stole mine and colored on every page, so now it is hers). If you don’t have watercolors on hand, that’s okay! You can make your own! Check out my post on ice painting to see how. It is just as simple as this activity!
Utilizing This STEAM Activity
When I first started this activity, it was only crayon on paper and watercolors. There wasn’t too much of a purpose behind it because the ‘oh hey! That’s cool’. My inspiration behind this activity came from a funny, engaging children’s book. In this book pirates were searching for their hidden treasure. When a baby sister wakes up, a wrench is thrown into their plans. Make sure you keep an eye on the map! Anyways, their pirate adventure inspired my own hidden treasure hunt! Using our secret parchments, we can create hidden messages, secret maps, and mysterious clues!
There are endless ways to utilize this activity. The only limit is your imagination. For my activity with a couple of my students, I created a secret map. When creating something detailed like this, just be mindful of where you are at. White crayon is very hard to see on white paper. I only had to start over twice! Once we used the secret map, we found another parchment with a letter search! My students were tasked with identifying how many uppercase and how many lowercase letters were on the secret clue! When they correctly counted all the letters, they unlocked our treasure box and were able to select a prize!
Suggested Age Adaptations
- 18-month-old: With Evie, I was working on shapes and colors. I would draw a picture of a large shape and as she would paint, I would talk about the colors she was using and the shapes she was seeing. For children who are still developing language skills, it is okay if they are not repeating the words you are saying! They are skill taking in the information and learning!
- 2 year old: Explore these colors! You can even start introducing the Spanish word for each color! You can ask them which colors they like to use, this helps develop their language skills! Give them a paint brush and show them how to hold it properly! This strengthens their hand muscles for writing later on! Introduce a shape search! Can we find all 10 shapes, lets count them together!
- 3 and 4 year old: I have noticed that my class can handle simple two to three step processes. They understand and remember that they must hop x many times, then sit down. You can create your map to work on these physical development skills. Hop three times and then walk to the tree, there you will find another parchment! At this age children should be developing their counting skills, work on going all the way to 20! They should start distinguishing between letters. Mix 5 different letters and ask them to identify all the ‘A’s.
- 5 + years old: Introducing a reading aspect! Have them create their own maps! Allow them to explore and take you on a treasure hunt!
STEAM Integration
Art
This activity is loaded with opportunities to emphasize art and creative thinking skills! First, allow your child to explore the watercolors. What happens when colors are mixed? One moment that will stick with me forever, is the look on a child’s face when they learn they can mix blue paint with yellow paint to get green paint. How can I make different patterns or textures with the paint brush? Can I create a map that shows oceans and land masses? Using your watercolors, pretend that you are pirates searching for lost treasure! You have discovered parchment that contains the secret location to hidden treasure!
Math
Create secret pattern codes! In my classroom, patterns are considered to be an important aspect of math! Pattern recognition is an important skill to work on them with. Patterns can occur with colors, letters, shapes. For this activity, I like to use shapes! I let the children determine which colors they want to use, and I control the secret code on the paper! Once they paint and expose the code, have them solve the next set of the pattern to unlock a prize!
Science
The concept behind this project is wax doesn’t mix with waters. Oil also doesn’t mix with water. Because of this physical characteristic, any marks made by your white crayon will look as if magic occurred when the watercolors brush over the crayon and it doesn’t take to it! I encourage you to show it to them! Have them make their own design! Show them that where they put their crayon marks, the watercolor won’t stick! The wax repels the water!
I LOVE this STEAM Activity!
What I love about this activity is that it can adapt! It can change to be whatever you want it to be. Your imagination is the key. Let your children be the inspiration! How did you use our Magic Letter activity! Did your children make their own treasure maps? I would love to hear your story, feel free to share in the comments!
