Fun Activities for Kids, Families, and Teachers

Kids love learning about and acting like pirates! My direct sales business, Story Time Felts, just came out with a new Pirates Beware Toggle Book to go with our Pirate Island Felt Board set. In honor of this exciting new product I thought I’d share some other fun activity ideas for kids I’ve collected over the years from teachers, homeschoolers, and childcare providers. HAVE FUN and please add your own ideas in the Comments area!
Karen

ARTS AND CRAFTS PROJECTS

PIRATE PROPS
A handkerchief around the head, a patch made out of felt over the eye, jeans, and a white shirt and they are ready to swashbuckle with the best of them.

Here are a few more props that can easily add to the joy of their play.

Pirate ship - Collect appliance boxes , a few old white sheets, paint, etc., and let the children make a big pirate ship. Once they are done they are ready for role playing.

Treasure chests - Get some small boxes, paint, gaudy trim, and fake jewels to make a treasure box. Ask them to fill it with something from home that they treasure. The next day have show and tell. Let them show off their work of art and tell why they chose the object they did.

Swords - These can be made from two paint sticks. One for a cross piece. Hot glue, paint, glitter, and bejewel.

Eye patches - make from felt and attach elastic string.

Hooks - use plastic hangers stuck through Styrofoam cups. Decorate.

Plume hats - use black construction paper and decorate with colored feathers.

Nets - use netting to decorate the wall near the pirate ship.

Anchors - cut out anchor shapes from cardboard and cover with foil. Attach a string or small rope.

WAVE JARS
Set out baby food jars, vegetable oil, water and food coloring. Let each of the children fill one of the baby food jars halfway with water and add two or three drops of food coloring. Fill each child’s jar to the top with the oil. Screw the lid on tightly. If necessary, seal the lid with hot glue and allow it to cool. Let the children shake their wave jars back and forth to create waves.

WALNUT SHIPS
Use half of a walnut shell for the ship. Place playdough in the bottom of the ship. Glue a triangular-shaped sail from paper or felt to a toothpick. Stick the toothpick into the playdough and float your boat.

TREASURE BAGS
Provide paper lunch bags for the children to decorate with glitter and gold paint. Help them write “______’s Treasures”. The children can use to store their pirate loot (projects).

PIRATE FLAGS
You will need: A sheet of plain white paper, tape, a stick, something to color with.

Let the children make their own pirate flags. First have them draw a picture onto the paper and color it. Then have them tape it to the stick. Ta Da! A quick and easy pirate flag that even the youngest children can make!

HOOK
You will need: Aluminum foil, paper cup, tape and a knife (for adult)

Give each child a sheet of foil. Show them how to roll it into a line (like when you make “snakes” out of play dough). Next, using the knife-you may want to do that ahead of time-cut a hole large enough to fit one end of the foil into. Bend the end inside the cup and tape securely. Show the children how to bend the foil “snake” into the shape of a hook. They can put their hand inside of the cup and now they have a hook for a hand. Cute project, but the children may need a lot of assistance from the teacher.

SANDBOX TREASURE
Collect lots of rocks, we use small ones that fit in their hands. The kids paint the rocks gold. (The teachers paint some extras also). Then we hide the “gold” in the sand table or outside in the sandbox; letting each child find buried treasure!

GAMES AND ACTIVITIES

PETER PAN
Read Peter Pan and then watch the movie. Compare the two. What is the same and what was different. Which did you like better? Why?

STORY EXTENDER
We talked about pirates while reading the Peter Pan fairy tale. It just so happened that Captain Hook himself left a note on the very last page (imagine that??). He said that he was at our school and left a treasure somewhere on the playground. He left us a map of the playground on the side of a brown grocery sack. There was a giant X over where the treasure was hidden. The children had to find the treasure by using the map. They were very surprised when they found Hershey’s Chocolate. Nuggets (silver) and Rolo’s (gold). They decided that Captain Hook wasn’t such a bad guy after all!

BURIED TREASURE
Have the children hunt for buried treasure! Beforehand decorate a box so that it looks like a treasure box. Fill it with goodies for the kids. Hide the box. Hand out clues to the children - depending on the size of your group you might want to divide them up. Give one clue to each group. Make the clues pictures so that the children don’t have to be able to read. Each clue should take them to another spot where they find another clue until finally they find the clue that takes them to the treasure box. The kids really love the suspense! We did this one year during summer school at a local park and it was such fun that we had all of the children in the park following us to find the treasure!

EXAMINE REAL OCEAN WATER
If you are near a beach, visit or have someone bring in a bucket of ocean water to examine what’s in it. How does it feel and smell? Does it look like tap water? Why not?

ISLAND HOPPING
Place several pillows around a large open area. Tell your children they are islands. Have the children hop from island to island without falling in the water. Make up stories about pirates and alligators while playing.

TREASURE GAME
Cut circles from cardboard. Wrap each circle in aluminum foil to represent coins. To Play - Hide the coins around the party area. To begin the game, announce that another group of Pirates snuck onto the ship and has stolen all of our treasure. We must all look for and rescue our treasure.

THE RACE
Race you walnut pirate ships at the water table. Sail the ship in a pan of water. Try to navigate the ship by blowing on the sail. Award “gold” coins.

FLOATING AND SINKING CHART
Collect items that float in water and items that do not. On a piece of paper, draw three columns. Title the first column “Float?” and list the names of the items under the title. Write “Yes” and “No” at the top of the second and third columns. Let the children place each item in a tub of water and record whether or not it floats by making a check mark in the appropriate column on the chart. Count together the number of check mark in each column and discuss with the children the results of their experiment.

PIRATE SOUP
Make “Pirate Soup” with Peanut Butter, Chocolate, Marshmallows, and Cherry Soda. Combine in a bowl and microwave.

SWASHBUCKLING BREADSTICKS
Have a sword fight with bread sticks! The object is to break down your opponent’s bread stick, without damaging their own, or as little as possible. When one player’s bread stick becomes so short that he or she can no longer use it, the player surrenders the stub and is forced to “walk the plank.”

PIRATE KNOTS
Knots: Pirates had to know how to tie all kinds of knots for securing sails and tying up prisoners. Get a book on knots (or an old boy scout handbook) and learn how to tie the following: figure of eight, clove hitch, bowtie, sheepshank, round turn and tow-half-hitches. Find out what each knot was used for.

TREASURE MAPPING
Teaching about maps is a great way to incorporate math into the fun! Most maps have latitude and longitude lines drawn. This is a way to teach them to plot x and y coordinates. Students can draw their own maps using their own versions of latitude and longitude lines. And they mark the treasure at (x,y) coordinates. You can also quiz them and ask them to tell you where on your map is the “tree”, for example. Great learning tool! They can map their room, and then their home, and then their neighborhood, and then you can provide maps to their city, and then state, and then country, and then earth (globes are the best). And then you can even begin to study planets and so on. Eventually a child realizes how big their world is, and how maps and x,y coordinates help us find where we are, and where we are going! For younger kids, modify the activity to help teach them basic directions of North South East and West. Everyone can have fun finding a treasuring using directions such as “Start at the xxxxx. Go east until you get to the xxxxx. Head north until you reach a xxxxx. Turn west and go forward until you get to the xxxxxx.” Have fun!

PIRATE COMPASS

You will need a magnet, a cork, a nail, a shallow dish approximately eight or nine inches in diameter, a twelve inch square piece of cardstock, and a ballpoint pen or permanent marker. Mark the four points of the compass along the edges of the cardstock square. Include NE, SE, NW, and SW if you choose. Magnetize the nail by rubbing it, in one direction only, with one pole of the magnet. Press nail through the length of the cork until the cork is centered on the nail. Fill the dish with water and place it in the center of the cardstock square. Place cork in the shallow dish of water. Line up the north mark on the cardstock square with the pointed end of nail.

READING AND WRITING

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
Use plastic bottles from ketchup or bottled water. Pour a small amount of play sand in the bottle. Add a few tiny seashells. Use faux parchment paper for the message. Roll the paper and tie with a length of green raffia. The green raffia is available at craft stores. It will look like seaweed. Insert the message into the bottle and allow the ends of the raffia to stick out at the top of the bottle to help remove the message. Use a cork or the original lid for the bottle to seal.

The message in the bottles could be used as party invitations, favors, or unusual letters to a friend, family member or even another classroom. Check with the post office if you would like to actually mail the bottle. Or, toss positive messages in the bottles out to sea! How about a pretend sea - the backyard swimming pool, a real pond or creek?

PIRATE WORDS
Research the origin of these words and phrases pirates used!
- heave ho
- pieces of eight
- aye aye captain
- hoist the mainsail
- Jolly Roger
- Avast there me hearties
- Shiver me timbers
- feed him to the fish
- Davy Jones’ locker
- Ahoy there
- batten down the hatches
- man overboard
- marooned
- scuttled
- sea-dog
- doubloons
- landlubbers.
- Belay that noise
- Tell it to the parrot!
- Surrender ye swabs!
- Scupper that ship
- Land ahoy
- This grog tastes like bilge water!

PIRATE BOOKS
Pirates: Fact and Fiction by Collins & Brown Ltd., 1992
Pirates by Karen McWilliams
Eyewitness Books: Pirates by Richard Platt
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Pirates by Rachel Wright.
Pirates in Petticoats by Jane Yolen
Pirate Chase by E. S .Miers
Blackbeard’s Ghost by Ben Stahl
Pirates of Spanish Main by Hamilton cochran
Under the Pirate Flag by Laurence Hyde
Famous Pirates of the New World by A .B. Whipple

TREASURE BOOK
The Treasure Chest
by: _________________
While searching for treasures the other day,
I found a treasure chest hidden far away.
I opened the treasure trunk, and what did I find?
Wonderful treasures of every kind.
On top of the pile was a great big _______________.
Then, I discovered two old ______________________.
Next was a shiny black ________________________.
My favorite was a ____________________________.
The most beautiful treasure was a ________________.
The bottom of the treasure chest was filled with_______.
The End!

INFAMOUS PIRATES
Research who they were and why they are famous!
- Long John
- Blackbeard
- Bartholomew Roberts
- Calico Jack
- Anne Bonny
- Mary Read

PIRATE SHANTIES (Songs)

THIS PIRATE
To the tune of: This Old Man

This pirate,
Has a hat,
Where a skull and cross bones sat,
With an ‘Ar, Ar, Ar’ and an ‘Aye Matey’,
This pirate sailed on the sea.

This pirate,
With a patch,
He sailed around without a scratch,
With an ‘Ar, Ar, Ar’ and an ‘Aye Matey’,
This pirate sailed on the sea.

This pirate,
Wears an earring,
Made with fishing hook and string,
With an ‘Ar, Ar, Ar’ and an ‘Aye Matey’,
This pirate sailed on the sea.

WALK WALK WALK THE PLANK
To the tune of Row, row, row your boat

Walk, walk, walk the plank
quickly as can be.
Plunging, plunging, plunging, plunging,
down into the sea.

Discuss other verses you can make up and sing…
hoisting sails, digging for treasure, etc.

What other ideas can you share with us? Post in the Comments! THANKS!