Celebrating Pirate Day with Pete the Cat and the Treasure Map by James Dean

It's August and we're in the midst of the pirate season.  All over the country, there are pirate festivals and celebrations.  Children enjoy dressing up as pirates, singing songs about pirates, and playing pirate games this time of year.  Are you looking for a fun activity to try with your children and students?  Try painting rocks to make pirate gold and going on a treasure hunt!

This is an updated version of a blog post I wrote in 2015.  Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.

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Author's Summary

New York Times bestselling author and artist James Dean brings us a fun, epic sea adventure with Captain Pete in Pete the Cat and the Treasure Map! When Captain Pete discovers a treasure map, he and his crew are ready to set out and sail the seas to find the buried gold and jewels. But they weren’t expecting to find a giant sea monster along the way!

🍎 Title: Pete the Cat and the Treasure Map

🍎 Author: James Dean

🍎 Illustrator: James and Kimberly Dean

🍎 Date: March 7, 2017

🍎 Publisher: Harper Festival

🍎 Number of Pages: 24

Painting Pirate Gold

Every pirate needs gold and one easy and fast way to get gold is to make it!  To make pirate gold, all you need are some:

• small to medium-sized rocks
• yellow acrylic paint
• glitter
• paintbrushes

Making pirate gold is easy.  There are only three steps:

1. Paint the rocks yellow.
2. Sprinkle glitter on the rocks while the paint is still wet.
3. Let the painted rocks dry.

Do these painted rocks look like gold nuggets or treasure to you?

Pete the Cat and the Treasure Map

While you are waiting for the paint to dry, how about reading a story?  One well-loved pirate adventure is Pete the Cat and the Treasure Map.  In this story, Pete sets out to find some treasure.  Along the way, he meets a monster and befriends him.  Together they learn an important lesson... treasure is no fun if you can't share it with your friends!

Searching for Gold

After the paint on the rocks has dried, have an adult hide them around the room, around the playground, in the backyard, or some other place. Then have the children go on a treasure hunt. They can work alone, in pairs, or in teams to find as many gold rocks as possible. Once all of the rocks are found, hide them again. Keep playing as time allows or until the children are ready for a snack.

Pirate Ship Snacks

Megan from Food and Whine came up with a creative pirate-themed snack.  She made pirate ships out of orange wedges and pirate flags and floated them on top of blue Jello.  How adorable are they?  They would be the perfect snack to eat after a treasure hunt!

(Next Article: F is for Flag)