How to Make a Pirate Treasure Chest With a Recycled Cereal Box

Learn how to make a treasure chest out of a recycled cereal box. In this fun craft activity, your child will practice counting with a treasure chest like a true pirate!

Learning Goals

This activity will help your child:

• Practice counting from one to five
• Apply numeral, number and quantity correspondence in counting objects
• Use number words and write numerals to label quantities

Materials

• Empty cereal box
• Button
• Construction paper
• Pipe cleaner
• Scissors
• Markers
• Glue and tape
• Hole puncher
• Ruler (optional)

Vocabulary

• One-to-one correspondence means matching one and only one number word to each item being counted.
• Numerals represent a number, such as 1, 2, or 3. In this activity, your child will practice writing numerals 1 through 10.
• Number words are spoken, written, or signed words that represent a quantity, such as "one," "two," or "three." In this activity, your child will practice counting aloud from one through 10.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Build your treasure chest. Using a recycled cereal box, make a flap on one of the large sides of the box by cutting three sides off so the flap is hinged by one side.

2. Decorate your treasure chest. Cover the whole surface of the box with construction paper. Draw straight lines on all the outer sides with a brown or black marker (and a ruler if you have one). Then, make thin wiggly lines between the straight lines to create the wood texture of your chest.

3. Make a latch. Using a hole puncher, make two holes: one on the long side of the flap and one on the short side of the box directly connected to the flap.

4. Cut a pipe cleaner in half and use one half to make a loop. Insert the extremities of the loop in the hole on the flap and secure it with tape. You should now have a loop protruding from the flap. Make sure to have a loop long enough to reach the second hole.

5. Take the second half of the pipe cleaner and pass it through the hole of the button. Insert the extremities of the pipe cleaner in the hole on the short side of the box and attach them to the cereal box with tape. You should now have a button protruding from the side. Try to close your chest! The flap loop should tie around the button!

6. Make number cards. Write numerals 1-5 along with the corresponding number word on pieces of paper or flashcards. E.g., 1 One, 2 Two, 3 Three, 4 Four, 5 Five. Put the numbers in a hat or bowl. Bonus: Want a bilingual treasure box? Write the number words in Spanish! (Uno, Dos, Tres, Cuatro, Cinco)

7. Time for a number treasure hunt! Take one of the number cards and read the number written on it. Now, ask your child to get that number of objects that are the same and put them in your treasure chest! If you finish all the numbers, keep hunting for more treasures! Challenge your little one to find six, seven, eight, nine, and 10!

Keep the Conversation Going

• Continue the pirate theme with this fun video clip from "Peg + Cat." which will help your child practice counting and learn about fair sharing.
• Try this pirate-inspired fruit salad recipe to practice math skills while preparing a delicious snack at home.
• Learn how you can help your child learn to count and build their number sense in this Family Math video.

Book Suggestion

"10 Minutes till Bedtime" / "Faltan 10 minutos para dormir" (Ages 2-4) by Peggy Rathmann
In this bedtime story, your child will practice counting forward and backward from one to 10.

Corresponding Standards

California Preschool Learning Foundations

• Number Sense
  
  • 1.0 Understanding number and quantity

Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework

• Counting and Cardinality
  
  • Goal P-MATH 1. Child knows the number names and the count sequence.

California Common Core State Standards

• Counting and Cardinality
  
  • CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.CC.A.2 Count forward beginning from a given number within the known sequence (instead of having to begin at 1).
  • CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.CC.A.3 Write numbers from 0 to 20. Represent a number of objects with a written numeral 0-20 (with 0 representing a count of no objects).