Sandbox Hunt
Episode # 156. Fido's Bone
In a small, cylindrical box, the children give the Storypeople a very large bone partially buried in the ground. Little Dog Fido tries to dig out the bone, but it is too big. Grandmamma tries to help, but she doesn't seem to be getting very far. So the children give her a spade. The spade helps her uncover the bone, but it is too big to lift. The children help by making the bone Fido-sized.

Directions
On bottle caps, write various numbers between one and five. On one cap, write "bonus" and make a star. You will need a set of approximately twenty caps for 2-3 players. Bury the bottle caps in the sandbox or at the beach in a small area with clearly defined boundaries.

You can have children hunt in two ways. One-way is to find as many caps as they can in a set amount of time (e.g., two minutes). The other is to let children continue hunting until all caps have been found. In either case, the game stops temporarily whenever someone finds the bonus cap. The finder shouts "bonus" and the value of the next cap they find is doubled. Once they have found their cap and the scorekeeper has recorded its doubled value, the game continues for everyone.

At the end of the game the children bring all of their caps to the scorekeeper. Together, everyone helps the scorekeeper add the value of each child's cap. The child with the highest total score (not necessarily the highest number of caps) wins.

Talk About It
While viewing the Fido's Bone episode, you might start a conversation by asking your child: "If you Grandmamma, how would you help Fido get the bone out of the ground?"

As you talk about the things on screen, you can help expand your child's vocabulary by alternating the words you use with their synonyms. In the Fido's Bone episode you might describe the tool used by Grandmamma as a spade, or shovel.