felt pirate maps

Last Monday night I was in charge of the activity for FHE. Lots of times we skip that whole part in the FHE process, or we do something fun on a Saturday or Friday night when we'll have more time (and patience). But luckily we had something left at our house that belongs to a very talented and creative friend of mine. I'm actually not sure how it ended up at our house, but I'm sure glad it did. Years ago she had made a pirate map for her kids, from felt. I had noticed it a couple of times when at her house, and had thought that sometime that would be really fun to do with my kids, but had forgotten about it, until now. So we each got a piece of light blue felt for the water, and then proceeded to create our maps. The kids really had fun, and they did most of the cutting of felt, which isn't that easy. Shawn actually ran interference with Silas, while I worked on my own map, and did the gluing of the kids' maps. Here are the results.

Here's Isaac's map. I don't know if you can tell, but his pirate ship in the top left corner has some skeletons on it, and then he has another ship, (that one may have been a ghost ship?), and of course a Kraken to guard the gold that is sitting on the island.

Sadie's... her Kraken looks kind of like a red Octopus, but who says Kraken's don't look different to every sailor? She also added a cave with sparkling jewels, and of course a pom-pom tree on her island, next to her treasure chest. (We still need to get some glitter glue to really spruce up those treasures.

Phebe's is also sporting a Kracken. Isaac was trying to tell her that it looked kind of like a Lobster, her also wondered why it's in the middle of the ocean... but that's the beauty of being able to create your own. She also put a rock with glittering pink stones, or maybe they're diamonds?

And here's mine. While you're admiring this, remember to imagine some sparkling gold glitter coming out of the treasure chest, that's why it's open and unhinged... the gold will fill it in. It looks a lot like my friend's original map... although I would have to say that her items are better spaced.

So, if you're looking for a great FHE activity, pull out your felt and go to it.