Pirates EFL ESL Lesson plan for kids | An exciting treasure hunt!

Ahoy, me hearties! This is a Pirates EFL ESL Lesson plan for primary aged kids and younger teens. It will least about one hour although you can adapt this to your class time. We’re going to be learning about pirates and practicing directions vocabulary as we sing, play games and go on a fun treasure hunt. We’ll also be making our own treasure maps to show where the treasure is hidden. So scrub the decks, hoist the main sail and let’s set sail for adventures with this Pirates EFL ESL lesson plan.

You will need:

• Paper for drawing
• Coloring markers
• A scarf or blindfold
• A small picture or a flashcard of a pirate
• Sticky tack
• Any pirate accessories you can find: hat, telescope, eye patch, parrot

Songs and videos:

• Preschool Treasure Hunting Song by Nick Young
• Over the Deep Blue Sea by Super Simple Songs
• We’re Going on a Treasure Hunt by Lingokids

Introduction: Meet the Pirates

After you’ve done your Hello routine, get out your Pirate equipment and let the children guess what the lesson is about. Go through the names for the different accessories and talk about what they already know about pirates. Then learn and sing the Preschool Treasure Hunting Song. Use lots of TPR and sing the song and make the children repeat the lines after you.

Draw a Treasure Map on the board

We’re going to start introducing the ideas of looking for treasure and directions. Draw a very simple treasure map on the board. It doesn’t have to be anything very complicated. Make sure there are different directions (forwards, backwards, left, right, up and down) and some obstacles that we’ll have to deal with as we’re hunting for the treasure. As you can see in the picture, I’ve put in a desert, a lake and a jungle. Put whatever you think would be fun, let the kids give ideas and go through the vocabulary together.

Sing a song

Learn the directions vocabulary that you will need to hunt the treasure. Then learn the song, Over the Deep Blue Sea, and adapt it to the directions that you’ll be using. Sing the song together with lots of actions and when you sing the chorus, move in the direction that you’re singing.

Play a game

Now we’re going to play a game to practice giving directions. You’ll need your map on the board and your pirate flashcard with some sticky tack to attach it to the board. Blindfold one child and give him or her the flashcard. Ask the other kids to give directions to the treasure. Start at the bottom and let the kids say “go up”, “go forwards”, “turn left”, “turn right”, etc. Let them take turns to be the one who is blindfolded. To make it more difficult, change the map slightly between each child so they can’t remember where things are. You could also do this on the floor rather than on the board if you draw the map on a large piece of paper or card and let the kids walk on it.

We’re going on a Treasure Hunt!

We’re going to tell a treasure hunting story together. This is loosely based on the Lingokids song and on Michael Rosen’s We’re Going on a Bear Hunt but you can adapt it to your treasure map and your equipment. Tell the story one line at a time and get the kids to repeat each line. Do lots of actions and lots of sound effects for jungles, deserts etc. Move around the classroom as you tell the story until you find the treasure. If you’re really organized, hide some treasure somewhere before the class starts so the kids don’t see where it is. This is how I tell the story:

We’re going on a treasure hunt (we’re going on a treasure hunt)
We’ve got our treasure map (we’ve got our treasure map)
We’re not scared! (we’re not scared!)
Oh no! (oh no!)
It’s a desert! (it’s a desert!)
We can’t go over it (we can’t go over it)
We can’t go under it (we can’t go under it)
We’ll have to go through it! (we’ll have to go through it!)
(sand noises and lots of wiping sweat and panting)

And so on, like this. The kids will quickly get the hang of it and will be able to do it almost on their own . When you get to the treasure, make sure you ask questions: “Look, what’s that?”, “It’s treasure”, “We found it!”. Once you’ve found the treasure, you can come back in the other direction telling the story and making all the noises in reverse until you get back safe and sound to your pirate ship. This is such a fun story and you can make it as simple or as elaborate as you want depending on the age and level of your class.

Practical Activity: Make your own Treasure Map

It’s time to get creative. The kids can use their imagination and draw their own treasure map. Give them paper and coloring markers and get them to invent a map and label the different obstacles. When they’ve finished, put them in small groups to share their maps and practice giving directions to get to the treasure. If you’ve still got time when you’ve finished this, sing Over the Deep Blue Sea again together and then do your Goodbye routine.

I love doing this lesson. It’s such a good and fun way to practice directions. If you’ve enjoyed this EFL ESL Pirates lesson plan and you want to see any of my other lesson plans, you can find them all here. To stay up to date with new ideas for lesson plans, you can follow the GoogooEnglish Facebook page or sign up for email updates below.