Kids Activities: Pirate Treasure Hunt

As I mentioned in our “Welcome”, I have 5 children. During the summer while we had them home full time, my husband got our oldest 4 involved in a Pirate Treasure Hunt. The kids loved this role play activity and we did it about 3 times the first day. Here’s what we did.

First, my husband drew a rough map of our house on a piece of paper. Then he labeled each room. He used names like: Ocean of Lost Souls, Waste Land, Land of Tomorrow, Land of Nightmares, Dungeon of Doom, Land of Milk and Honey, Cave of Night, Mountain of Gold.

Then he cut the map into four randomly shaped pieces. On each there was an arrow showing where to go next and a clue. These were, for example, “Search for 3 gold coins.” Then, he hid three of the map pieces in the rooms that the arrows pointed to, with the coins indicated on the previous map piece. The fourth map piece was given to the child who’d been appointed Captain of our Pirate Crew.

He also invented a series of scenarios to occur in each room. As we entered we rolled a dice to determine which scenario we would encounter. Here are the scenarios he came up with for each room:

Room #1:

1. A trip wire is crossed. Your crew has 5 minutes to finish the entire mission before you are all trapped forever.
2. Nothing happens.
3. A giant snake attacks. Roll 6 or you loose all crew members.
4. If anyone spoke when you entered the room, you woke up spiders. Roll a 6 and you will be trapped.
5. Nothing happens.
6. Nothing happens.

Room #2:

1. A sea monster takes a crew member captive. You choose which member.
2. Nothing happens.
3. A wart-faced hog creature sword fights your leader.
4. Nothing happens.
5. A pack of wolves will eat one of your crew members unless you can avoid rolling a 1.
6. A small squid-like creature attaches itself to a crew member. Roll once in all remaining rooms for a 6.

Room #3:

1. A crew member is attacked by a giant flesh eating vine and is rescued by your leader.
2. Nothing happens.
3. Big spiders attack your leader. He is rescued by anther crew member.
4. Nothing happens.
5. Walking skeletons attack. Roll a 6 and you never escape.
6. A talking frog shows you the way to your clue.

Each crew member was then given a weapon (make believe or toy) and a flashlight or lantern. We each dressed up in some way as a pirate. Then we drew the blinds, turned off the light and began our adventure. As we moved into the first room, my husband pulled out a dice and had the Pirate Captain roll it. We acted out the scenario indicated by the Captain’s roll of the dice, then continued on our adventure. At the end, we found a treasure chest of gold.

This pretend play idea can be improvised and adjusted to fit your children’s preferences, or you can use it just as listed above. Either way, I hope your kids love it as much as ours do.