Treasure Hunt Tuesday
Who doesn’t like a pirate impression? I mean ARRGHH AVAST and AHOY MATEY. In honor of our earlier adventure in the year to see Treasure Island at the Children’s Theater Company, I decided to have a whole pirate themed day!
Treasure Hunt Tuesday Craft
In order to participate in the day, my little mateys had to be outfitted for the occasion. They HAD to have eyepatches and pirate hats. This meant we had a project to get to before our adventure could begin. Creating eye patches was relatively simple. I found templates of a patch that they could cut out and then decorate with their pirate symbol. I let them decide what that would be for each one of them. I also had previously cut some in black so they could choose between white or black, or even use both.
Thanks to www.PagingSuperMom.com for the free template – your name is accurate!
Michaels has Elastic Cord you can buy and cut to fit around each child’s head.
I have to say that I am probably one of the world’s worst paper folders, but this was the most obvious way to make pirate hats to be outfitted for the day. I turned to fellow creators to find a good pattern and was able to find one at CraftingJeannie.com
I printed out the blank version and let the boys design their own to match their eye patches.
You could also use the old standby of newspapers, if you have them. Wrapping paper also has a nice stiff feeling and can create well. Plus, if you can find black paper that makes the hats most authentic. Even craft paper, or for small enough heads construction paper. It depends on how you choose to print your pattern or fold.
I also had to find a pattern in case the boys wanted to fold pirate hats that way and so that the hats didn’t look like the hack jobs that I had done as a child as my father taught my siblings and I when we were kids.
The pattern looks like this:
Ultimately, we used the templates I had prepared and colored away, but the choice is always there to do some pirategami.
Treasure Hunt Tuesday Game
One of the games I remember playing in my elementary school phy ed days revolved around running from one end of the gym to another as our teacher yelled out parts of a ship: port, starboard, bow and stern. Deciding, despite the running that would inevitably ensue on the treasure hunt, that we needed get moving around, I figured the pirates needed to be trained on how to sail a ship. In order to simulate the ship in the yard, I stood on the bow (the porch of our resort unit) and used the lowest space as the stern. From there, they had to remember that from the stern, port was on the left, and starboard was on the right.
It was good for a few rounds of movement – and served for their preparation for the ultimate adventure – a Treasure Hunt!
Treasure Hunt Tuesday Activity
What else could one do but a treasure hunt as we were playing pirates? For some magical reason this summer, while walking by the evil section in Walmart with Back to School Supplies I noticed they had a teacher section that contained a plastic treasure chest for teachers to keep prizes in.
It was absolutely perfect to put the booty in, and at less than $5, a steal.
Inside the chest I had chocolate “doubloons” and a few other treats, including bouncy balls, glow sticks, and some bigger booty like hackey sacks, and because we were at a resort a treasure hunt styled diving kit they could use in the pool later.
I found my goodies on Amazon and at Walmart, but some of the Amazon treats were these:
In order to make the map I used a copy of the resort map where we were staying and created a document where I could crop the map for the space we were working in. I printed it on a parchment paper to appear a little older and then crumbled it and folded it a few times to make it appear old. To add to the effect, I also charred the edges so that it looked as though it had survived a few treasure hunts.
Treasure Hunt Tuesday Snack
It was hard to decide what to feed these hungry pirates. I obviously couldn’t feed them Grog…so that was out. The idea of buying a bag of Pirate’s Booty came to mind, but didn’t really feel very authentic, or very exciting
I turned to other creatives to see what they could come up with to feed their Pirate Crews. It was a little sparse, but I settled on sand dessert and had a buried treasure dig. There were “Gold Doubloons,” or wrapped chocolate coins, at the bottom.
Those are widely available at candy stores or, of course, Amazon. Michael’s also has some for their party planning supplies and
Sand dessert is a modified version of dirt desert.
I didn’t have little buckets, but clear plastic glasses were able to fill in. Basically, I filled the cups with premade cups of vanilla pudding. Then I sunk the coins into the pudding. To replicated the “sand” they would be digging into, I crushed Golden Oreos (Pro Tip: The Mini Ones crush easier). That’s it! Easy and quick and their “treasure hunt” in the sand could begin!
I had made a spin on this dessert for Wet ‘n’ Wild Wednesday a few years earlier make it ocean like and they were a hit and let’s face it, Oreos are always delicious.
Treasure Hunt Tuesday Book
For Christmas, I had given my oldest nephew a version of Treasure Island that was graded to his reading level. I wanted to give him the opportunity to actually read it – as I wasn’t sure he really had. We had seen the play, and my biggest beef with the interpretation was it was hard to follow if you didn’t know the story.
I hoped that it would clarify anything for them – if they even remembered seeing the show when I had given the book to him.
Although for the oldest this was good, for Cousin Camp, I decided to opt for true stories of pirates that would be more accessible to all three boys.
It was a fun way to end the day with a few giggles!
