For my daughter's 5th birthday we had a pirate themed party. All of the children (and some of the adults) dressed up as pirates. One of the activities was a treasure hunt. To introduce the treasure hunt to them, I made up this story.
Most of you don't know this, but I am related to a real pirate: Sir John Hawkins. He was a famous pirate, but there is something about him you won't find in any books . Sir John Hawkins had a secret; a secret treasure that he didn't tell anyone about. He didn't even tell his own crew because he wanted to keep it all for himself. To keep anyone from finding the treasure, he buried it in a place that only he knew about. Unfortunately, he never got to enjoy his treasure. Shortly before his last voyage he made a map. But he didn't want just anyone to find the treasure and was afraid the map would fall into the wrong hands. So he tore the map into several pieces and hid each piece in a different place. Then he gave one piece to his son and told him about the treasure. He said that if he could find the rest of the map he could have the treasure. His son never found the rest of the map or the treasure, so he passed his piece of the map on to his children. And so it has passed from generation to generation and finally to me. Today I am passing it on to my daughter. Maybe with your help the long lost secret treasure of Sir John Hawkins will be found. You will know when you have found a piece of the map because he hid a gold nugget with each. Each piece of the map will lead you to the next. Once you have found all the pieces, put the map back together and it will lead you to the treasure.
The treasure hunt was a huge success. There was only one snag. About halfway through the hunt I realized that the treasure had driven off. We hid the treasure in the trunk of our car and my husband had gone home briefly to grill the hotdogs. My father-in-law came to the rescue. He went and fetched back the treasure and by the end of the hunt the pirates found the treasure in the trunk of his car. The treasure was a pinata.
