Treasure maps

I'm sure a lot of us remember making treasure maps when we were younger. So when M was sat freely drawing her own treasure maps and drawing X marks the spot on her little green and blue "world", I knew now was a good time to share this classic craft activity with her. 

We had some paper plates in front of us so I thought we would use these as our base, I encouraged the children to draw their own maps on the paper plates with coloured pencils. We spoke about where the maps would lead to and they told me about how we need some water and some grass. We then discussed about how was need a big X to mark the spot of the treasure. 

Whilst they were all busy drawing their maps I set up a tray with a couple of tea bags and a few coffee grains I poured a little water over it to release the tea leafs. 

I then explained that we needed to use the tea bags to colour the "map" brown to make it look old as this is what treasure maps look like. 

I found it was easier to use the tea bag like a sponge to "paint" the map. Once the whole map with brown and finished we left them to dry. 

M later on found some pirate stickers in the craft box and stuck these on to give more detail to her map. The children have since been using their maps during their imaginative play and role playing pirates looking for treasure.