Treasure Hunt: An English Reading Worksheet to Follow the Directions (Free PDF) 🗺️
Five numbered directions in simple English, one pirate map, and one mission: start at Dead Island, go between Crab Island and Little Rock, pick up the chest key on Turtle Island, land on the beach of the Great Island of Colors, and find the treasure at the foot of Blue Mountain. The student reads each instruction, then traces the route in red and marks the treasure with an X.
A reading task that ends with a pencil in the hand: comprehension becomes visible on the page. Two looks for the same adventure: a black and white version (Treasure Hunt!) and a color version (In Search of Treasure!). The black and white US Letter PDF with watermark is free for everybody; the clean PDFs and the answer key are for Premium members.
✨ What the students practise
Reading directions in English is a skill of its own: each sentence starts with a verb in the imperative (start, go, pick up, reach, land), and each verb moves the reader one step further across the sea. The student must understand the order, the place names and the colors, then show the result with a red line and an X.
Read the five numbered directions, one by one, in order.
Find each place on the map: the islands, the rock, the beach, the mountains.
Draw the route in red, from Dead Island to the beach of the Great Island.
Put an X where the treasure is buried: at the foot of Blue Mountain.
📜 The five directions, step by step
The full route as the worksheet gives it, with the key verb of each line:
🗺️ The map: nine places to know
Every label on the map is an English word the student meets while searching for the route:
🎯 What the page trains
Five imperative verbs in order: start, go, pick up, reach, land. The core of « following directions » in English.
Islands, rock, beach, mountains, and the colors that tell them apart: blue, red, yellow.
Reading a map with a compass rose, keeping the order of the steps, and showing the result with a line and an X.
🔑 Answer key
The corrected map, with the red route and the X at the foot of Blue Mountain, is available as a PDF and an image for Premium members, and it is also shown below for a quick check.
📖 Open the answer key
⚫ Download the black & white version
The ink-friendly version, titled Treasure Hunt!: free with watermark in US Letter, clean in A4 and US Letter for Premium members. It also doubles as a coloring page once the route is traced.
Preview: the pirate map in black and white
🎨 Download the color version
The full pirate map in color, titled In Search of Treasure!: the blue, red and yellow mountains are instantly visible, which makes the last direction easier to check. Both PDFs are included in the Premium membership.
Preview: the color map with the three mountains
🎯 Recommended level, and more English reading
❓ Frequently asked questions
🗂️ What does the worksheet contain?
Five numbered directions in English, a pirate map with named islands, mountains, a beach and a compass rose, and a final task: trace the route in red and mark the treasure with an X.
🎓 What level is it for?
A1-A2 in ESL classes: short imperative sentences and simple place names. It also works as following-directions practice for native readers in grades 2 to 4.
🔑 Where is the treasure?
At the foot of Blue Mountain, on the Great Island of Colors (the Big Island in the color version). Red Mountain and Yellow Mountain are decoys.
🎁 Which version is free?
The black and white US Letter PDF with watermark is free for everybody. The clean PDFs, in B&W and color, in A4 and US Letter, and the answer key are reserved for Premium members.
🎨 What is the difference between the two versions?
The same map and the same five directions. The color version shows the mountains in blue, red and yellow, which makes the last direction easier to check, and the B&W version doubles as a coloring page.
🗣️ Can it be used for speaking too?
Yes: after tracing, each student retells the route in the first person: « I start at Dead Island, then I go between… ». The imperative becomes a personal story.
