Pirates *make eyepatches (you could make a hat) have a picture treasure hunt (or we do one..find a square, find a circle, find somehting red, ect). We take paper towel rolls and decorate them to be telescopes. For movement activities we dance to pirate songs, pretend to be walking the plank on a balace beam or such. oh...and also do a play activity where we hide a ticking clock and see who can find it. *My kids and I talked about pirates while reading the Peter Pan fairy tale. It just so happened that Captain Hook himself left a note on the very last page (imagine that??). He said that he was at our school and left a treasure somewhere on the playground. He left us a map of the playground on the side of a brown grocery sack. There was a giant X over where the treasure was hidden. The children had to find the treasure by using the map. They were very surprised when they found Hershey's Choc. Nuggetts (silver) and Rolo's (gold). They decided that Captain Hook wasn't such a bad guy after all! :) *Have the children hunt for buried treasure! Beforehand decorate a box so that it looks like a treasure box. Fill it with goodies for the kids. Hide the box. Hand out clues to the children - depending on the size of your group you might want to divide them up. Give one clue to each group. Make the clues pictures so that the children don't have to be able to read. Each clue should take them to another spot where they find another clue until finally they find the clue that takes them to the treasure box. The kids really love the suspense! We did this one year during summer school at a local park and it was such fun that we had all of the children in the park following us to find the treasure! *TREASURE HUNT DAY Books: Make our own books with "The Trunk" rhyme from 1,2,3 Rhymes, Stories, ahd Songs by Jean Warren, Totline Books, Warren Publishing House, Inc., 1992, p. 7. Adapt to say "Treasure Chest" instead of "Trunk." Activities: *Make a Book. Go through the "Treasure Chest" story with the children and have them draw pictures and fill in words to go into the blanks. Staple to finish the books. *Do the Treasure Hunt. Start the treasure hunt inside or outside by giving each child a clue to lead to other clues. The last clue will lead to the treasure map which will show where the treasure chest is buried outside. *If the children want to play with the clues some more, they can hide them from each other and have them lead to a book which I will read once it is found. (Hint: They have to hide the book first and work backwards, hiding clues in a backwards order. Materials Needed: *Blank "Treasure Hunt" book for each child, markers, pencils or other writing utensils. *A box for each child--Treasure Chests. *Small objects--beads, pennies, gum machine toys, milk tops or other jar tops, buttons, bells, etc. *A treasure map for each child--depicting the back yard with an "X" to mark the spot where that child's treasure is hidden. *A large paper "X" to put on the ground for each of the younger children. *Small pieces of paper with clues to lead to the map. (make up clues like 'look under doormat' and 'look on a chair'--make clues to fit dcks abilities) <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< *Copy the following rhyme. Cut into different sections. Glue onto blank paper and copy to make as many books as needed. The Treasure Chest by _________________ While searching for treasures the other day, I found a treasure chest hidden far away. I opened the treasure trunk, and what did I find? Wonderful treasures of every kind. On top of the pile was a great big _______________. Then, I discovered two old ______________________. Next was a shiny black ________________________. My favorite was a ____________________________. The most beautiful treasure was a ________________. The bottom of the treasure chest was filled with_______. *Book: Pirate Soup, by Erica Farber and J.R. Sansevere (a Mercer Mayer book) *Make "Pirate Soup" with Peanut Butter, Chocolate, Marshmallows, and Cherry Soda. Combine in a bowl and microwave. Materials Needed: *Peanut Butter, Chocolate Candy Bar, Marshmallows, Cherry Soda. (Guess at what measurements will work best.) *You could have them make ther own pirate flags Apple wedges toothpicks and cheese slices make a pirate ship to eat Somewhere I saw where you could make a hook out of a paper cup with maybe a paper hook on the end!!!! * We have done a pirate unit at our center and one of the kid's favorite activities is to search for buried treasure. Collect lots of rocks, we use small ones that fit in their hands. The kids paint the rocks gold. (The teachers paint about 40 extra too). Then we hide the "gold" in the sand table or outside in the sandbox; letting each child find two buried treasures! * You could have them make ther own pirate flags Apple wedges toothpicks and cheese slices make a pirate ship to eat Somewhere I saw where you could make a hook out of a paper cup with maybe a paper hook on the end! * Some of the stuff we do...make eyepatches (you could make a hat) have a picture treasure hunt (or we do one..find a square, find a circle, find somehting red, ect). We take paper towel rolls and decorate them to be telescopes. For movement activities we dance to pirate songs, pretend to be walking the plank on a balace beam or such. oh...and also do a play activity where we hide a ticking clock and see who can find it. * My kids and I talked about pirates while reading the Peter Pan fairy tale. It just so happened that Captain Hook himself left a note on the very last page (imagine that??). He said that he was at our school and left a treasure somewhere on the playground. He left us a map of the playground on the side of a brown grocery sack. There was a giant X over where the treasure was hidden. The children had to find the treasure by using the map. They were very surprised when they found Hershey's Choc. Nuggetts (silver) and Rolo's (gold). They decided that Captain Hook wasn't such a bad guy after all! * We have done a pirate unit at our center and one of the kid's favorite activities is to search for buried treasure. Collect lots of rocks, we use small ones that fit in their hands. The kids paint the rocks gold. (The teachers paint about 40 extra too). Then we hide the "gold" in the sand table or outside in the sandbox; letting each child find two buried treasures! They realy have fun with this.