A fortnight ago we took delivery of a new fridge-freezer and with that came a lot of packaging. I managed to rescue some of the cardboard packaging from Mr. TBaM before efficiency really kicked in, and as a result ended up with a large, square, shallow, cardboard box.

It took a while for its future use to come to mind, especially as The Boy kept sitting in it to play with beads or his letter formation tray, but eventually we decided to paint it and turn it into a role-play resource.

You'll need:

• cardboard box
• blue, white, green, yellow paint
• sand
• glitter
• a sponge
• glue, paintbrushes and scissors
• pictures of pirates, palm trees, parrots, pirate flag, and cocktail sticks

1. Cut up the sponge roughly and glue it down in the middle of the box to create an island;
2. Paint the inside of the box blue, we used a few different shades to add some definition;
3. Create some swirly white lines all over the blue paint to give the impression of waves. We also sprinkled some silver glitter on to add some sparkle to the waves;
4. Paint the island green, again we used a light and dark. We also created a sandy beach for the pirates to land on by painting a section yellow and sprinkling some sand on while it dried;
5. We then added some pirate items using themed foam stickers and cocktail sticks. You could easily draw the figures and cut them out, or print them from the Internet, but when life's quite frankly too short for that I've used these*.

When the sponge has completel dried, the stick figures can be really easily moved around the island for imaginative play, especially if there's a mutiny and one is chasing the other for the treasure!We also enlisted the help of some other pirates who rowed alongside to help out Captain PegLeg to sort out his motley crew.

A great activity for art development, fine motor skills, imaginative play and developing oracy.

I was sent the item marked * to see what I'd do with it.