DIY Hide & Seek Jar
Have you seen the jars with hidden toys and prizes inside? Kids (and adults) love shaking the jar to find the tiny objects and see what they can discover hidden inside. It’s super simple to make your own DIY Hide & Seek Jar. You can customize these for a birthday surprise, Easter basket or use them as a travel distraction.
DIY Hide & Seek Jar
Materials
White Rice
Small Toys, coins, buttons, jingle bells or wrapped candies
Empty Jar
Glue (optional)
(You could use an empty water bottle as long as it is completely dry. You don’t want to take a chance on the rice getting soggy or sticking to the side of the bottle).
Directions
- Make sure jar is clean and dry.
- Find small toys and prizes. Anything that can fit inside the jar is a good option: small buttons, toys, LEGO figures, Littlest Pet Shop, jingle bells….
- Layer the rice and the toys till the jar is full.
- Glue the top closed if you don’t want to take a chance on the child unscrewing the top.
Ideas for How to Use the Hide & Seek Jar
The goal for the Hide & Seek Jar is to give kids the chance to search for hidden treasure. You could print out a list of all the little prizes, laminate the list and attach it with a ribbon.
Travel Game
This would be a great travel game to bring out after you’ve been on the road for a while and the kids are starting to get antsy. Make it a game to see who can find the bunny rabbit, squirrel or penny first!
Easter Basket or Birthday
Drop it in an Easter basket filled little prizes or mail to a family member for a birthday. I think this would be a fun way to send kids birthday money. Just hide quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies and have them guess how much is in the jar.
Decorate the bottle with stickers or leave it clear.
I have seen people use play sand, beach sand or dried mashed potato flakes instead of rice for the filler. But the rice just seems to work better than the other options.
Have you ever made Hide & Seek jars like this? What else could you hide for fun? I’d love to hear!
No time to make your own? Buy it on Amazon!
cute idea to use the rice! we have a few of these kicking around- they get pulled out and obsessed over for a few months, then put away, and then lather, rinse, repeat.