Ahoy there mateys! If you’re looking to celebrate pirates or how they talk, your toddler or young child love this Pirate Sensory Treasure Hunt.

Recently, Mila has been watching Jake and the Neverland Pirates. She loves all the adventure and when they find treasure. What little kid wouldn’t want to live on a boat and find coins buried in the sand?

I think she is still obsessed with mermaids too and the ocean reminds her of them!

Anyways, I thought it would be fun to bring the buried treasure to Mila… with some sensory elements mixed in too. Let’s just say this little activity was a hit.

Here’s all you’ll need:

• Rice
• Kinetic sand
• Sensory bin
• Seashells
• ‘Pearls’
• Coins
• Other little pirate/ocean toys or stickers

I actually used my resin seek and find from Beags and Bubs as Mila’s treasure map. So, some of the items in the seek and find, I put in the bin. It was another cute way to use it!

To assemble this bin you’ll first need to put the items in the bin.

I probably could have added more coins and probably will next time. It just depends on how long you want this play to last. By the way, the ‘pearls’ were under the seashell!

Then, add rice for the sand and blue kinetic sand as water. I put the fish and mermaid under the ‘water.’

Personally, I put the kinetic sand down first. It helped me cover the fish first. BUT, the rice is way easier to spread than the kinetic sand, so it was just easier to do it this way.

After it was set up, I got out some pirate accessories and resin letters to set it up for her.

She had fun finding all of the treasure. It was so cute to watch her just dive in there. I think the hardest thing to find were the coins. They moved around in the rice.

After she did find everything, she prepped it for me to find things!

It was fun to play along with her.

Then, she used the bin for some pretend play while she warched Jake! Anytime she extends play makes the work behind it well worth it!

I personally love this bin and can see us doing more treasure hunts in the future. Mila’s down every time she gets to put money in her piggy bank.

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Do your kids like pirates? What are some ways you’ve used them in your play? Let me know in the comments.