We renewed it twice, and read it many many more times than that. It's no wonder he's been asking me lately "Mom, can we be pirates today?", "Mom, do pirates play at the park?", and when asking him for some snuggles,"Momma, do pirates give hugs?".
My answer, in all three cases, was yes. Absolutely, positively, Y-E-S! =]
So, when I found this free printable treasure map from Teaching Ideas... I knew I had to set up a little treasure hunt for my pirate munchkin, Kay.
Consequently, I went where any wise and experienced treasure hunter would go and stopped by our local Dollar Tree ;].
While they had plenty of pirate themed booty, and I could easily have made this activity much more elaborate than I did, I wanted to stick to my budget. So I settled on purchasing a magnifying glass (instead of a telescope) and some pirate 'treasure.' Or in this case, Rolos. Cause, you know, they're wrapped in gold...
Word. ;]
Not your average, or most common treasure hunting items, but I think it ended up being better that way. It encouraged Kay to use his imagination more. Which is never bad!
Look at those mad drawing skills! Best skull & bones, ever. ;]
Our pirate adventure began by making pirates hats out of scrap booking paper. I used this tutorial. And they turned out okay. The tutorial was great, my paper was just the wrong size. The kids' ended up too small, mine ended up being ginormous, and they didn't really stay on all that well. Next time I think I'll use this template. Super cute, and so simple!
True to form, however, Kay and Em didn't even seem to notice, or mind. Big boy thought he was the coolest kid on the block, wearing his dinky lil' pirate hat. And Em found her hat to be rather tasty, even if it was undersized!
After our pirate hat initiation ceremony, we had to start talking just like pirates. Of course! I did my best to try and sound just like Captain Barbosa. And Kay did his best to try and sound just like Momma, trying to sound just like Captain Barbosa ;]. It was awesome.
"Me pirate-matey, Momma! I want some more milk! Please!"
While Kay ate a hearty meal of PB&J, and Em went down for her beauty sleep, I set up our treasure hunt.
First, we had to crawl under the 'Table of Doom'...(didn't get a picture of that one! Woops!)
...travel through the 'Cave of Slumber'...
...cross over the narrow Shark Reef peninsula...
...jump from boulder to boulder (careful not to fall into the pit of despair)....
...battle the treacherous guardians of the vault...
...repeat the magic words, "Open Sesame!!!"...
...behold our bounteous treasure of gold doubloons...
...and last, but not least, enjoy the spoils of all our hard treasure huntin' work!
I'd say this activity was definitely worth the $2. Simple as it was, it ended up being such a hit with Kay that just a few days later he asked to do it again. We made spritz cookies for our 'Pirates Treasure' and, this time, Kay set up the treasure hunt all by himself.
Funny boy, he was determined to make sure we did it exactly like our first treasure hunt. Dinosaur guardians, and all!
I tried to encourage him to branch out, but I guess he liked it the way we did it the first time. If nothing else, recreating the treasure hunt was a great 'memory' developing activity. It really stretched and strengthened his ability to 'recall' information.
I love it how learning and playing go hand in hand.
What was your favorite book as a child? Mine was about this italian great-aunt who came to America and taught her family how to make pizza. I can't remember the name of it for the life of me, and I've had no luck searching for it on the internet. But I remember checking it out from the library, at least 3 to 4 different times as a child. Oh well, maybe someday I'll find it again!
In the meantime, Happy Pirating ya'll!
No comments:
Post a Comment