Monday, June 20, 2011

How to make Secret Message Rocks


The fake rocks we used in the Spy Party to hold a carrier pigeon puppet, candy, and secret message were easy to make from things we had around the house.  Start this project 2-3 days before you need them to allow drying time.

Of course, this activity would be fun any time.  No need to limit it to a party game!  Hide some dinosaurs or cars or dolls inside and set up a mission to find them.  Kids love treasure hunts!

Materials

1 cup of flour
1 cup of left over coffee grinds (your local barista can help with this!)
1/2 cup of salt
1/4 cup of sand
3/4 cup of water

large plastic Easter eggs (optional)



Stir together dry ingredients.  Then add water.  Try adding about 1/2 cup of the water first and see if the mixture comes together well with that.


Separate the mixture into balls.  If it the mucky mixture is still crumbly, add more water.  If it is too wet, add more flour.



If your "treasure" is made of plastic or glass, you can make a thumb print into a ball, put the treasure inside, and fold/mold the ball closed.  If your contents might not survive direct contact with wettish muck (paper messages!), then put the contents in a plastic Easter egg first. Mold the mucky mixture around the plastic egg instead.


Once your secret message rocks are filled, you'll need to let them dry for 2 days or so. I put mine on a cookie tray and transferred them to a sunny spot... really only took one day in the sun to dry.  However, the tricky part is that the muck doesn't dry evenly and it shrinks a bit in the process. Be sure to check on balls and rotate them as they dry!  I made them in the middle of the night (of course). Checked on them after breakfast, moved them to the sun for the day, checked/rotated after school, and once more after that.


Our party guests loved finding the rocks and opening them, even at 9 years.  These secret balls are a great game for any time you want to insert a surprise into a child's routine!

1 comment:

  1. I used this to hide superheroes for my son's superhero-rescue birthday party. The story was the superheroes (action figures) were placed in lava rock capsules by evil Dr. Flame and the kids had to go through different challenges to finally reach them and break them out of the rock. It worked out great. Thanks for posting this!

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