Pirate Treasure Hunt – Kids Craft Inspiration

If you’re looking for a fun craft to do with your kids on a rainy day, look no further! A Pirate Treasure Hunt is so much fun and making treasure chests will keep kids entertained for hours.

As a stay at home mom, I’m always on the look out for free (or almost free) activities to keep my boys entertained. Of course there are the parks, picnics and plenty of outdoor activities but if you get a week of rain like we did one summer, you might want to keep this craft and activity in mind.

When my kids were younger they went through a whole Pirate phase. We even did the Pirate experience at Disney World with my oldest. If you’re heading to Disney I highly recommend signing up for their Pirate League Experience. Much like the princess experience (Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique), boys and girls can get a pirate makeover. After being fully transformed with makeup and new pirate duds they take the pirate oath and receive a special medallion to wear.

But back to treasure chest making. My kids really loved making their own treasure chests. We used a couple of medium size cardboard boxes to make them. Since my kids were young (6 and 11) I of course did most of the cutting and we used packing tape to hold it all together.

My youngest wanted to paint his treasure chest so I put down lots of newspaper and gave him Non-Toxic Tempra paints. Then I let him go to town painting his treasure chest inside and out.

The next day I printed out some Spongebob images and “Pirate Beware” art for them to decorate with. They did a great job cutting out the images that they wanted to use and my oldest helped his young brother 🙂 They were really proud of their treasure chests 🙂

At the end of the week we had a treasure hunt. The kids dressed up like pirates and I gave them maps with clues. I made the maps (shown above) out of a paper bags from the grocery store.

Each map clue led to a cardboard skeleton bone. As the kids put the Captain Blackbeard’s skeleton together they were given a new clue. Once they had the entire skeleton together they received their last clue leading to their treasure chests that were filled with beaded necklaces, dollar store toys and candy.

This was such a fun craft and it got us through what seemed like a week of rainy days! If you’re looking for more activities and crafts for kids, check out our Kids Corner and Crafts for Teens!