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PIRATES THEME

CRAFTS:

Eye Patch 
Supply black construction paper or craft foam, and some string or yarn. Trace the eye patch pattern onto the construction paper/foam. Cut it out. Use a paper punch to make the holes, and thread the string through. Position over the eye and tie around the back of the head. 

Sword
Each child needs a sheet of newspaper, pencil and scotch tape. Roll one corner of the newspaper over the pencil. Keep rolling the paper very tightly over the pencil until you come to the opposite corner. Let the pencil drop out. Tape down the corner. Bend the end of the roll over into a handle and tape in place.

Spy Glass
Each child will need a toilet paper (or paper towel) roll, construction paper, glue or tape, and string or yarn. Cover the cardboard roll with construction paper. Decorate with a skull and crossbones, if desired. Add string so the kids can hang them around their necks.

Pirate Ships
Build pirate ships from a variety of recycled materials. Use milk cartons or jugs for boat hulls; coffee stir sticks, popsicle sticks or straws for the masts; paper or material for the sails. Make sure every ship has a pirate flag!

Pirate Hats
Fold a sheet of newspaper in half along the middle fold. Place it with the long, open side toward you. Fold down the upper corners to meet in the middle; crease the folds well. Now you have a triangle with an extra strip at the bottom. Fold up the front strip to the front, and the back strip to the back. Open up the hat and fit it onto a child’s head. If it is too big, try smaller-sized paper or simply use staples to make a better fit.

Treasure Bags
Provide paper lunch bags for the children to decorate with glitter and gold paint. Help them write "Trevor's Treasures". The children can use them at the end of the week to take their loot home with them in or to store their gold rocks from the Sandbox Treasure art project.

GAMES & ACTIVITIES:

Find Your Captain
Each group requires crayons and one piece of cardboard. Working together, the kids draw and colour a picture of “their” pirate Captain. To play the game, spread the pictures of the Captains on the floor. Set the kids “sailing” (walking) around the room. On the command, “Find Your Captain”, Lodges quickly gather around their Captain. Do this a couple of times, then explain that a terrible storm sank one pirate ship, and the Captain is missing! Remove one of the Captain’s pictures. Tell the kids they will have to share their Captains with these the kids. Keep removing Captains until all the kids are gathered around one picture.

I Spy
Everyone sits in a circle. One child is asked to pick an object in the room and say, “I Spy with my pirate’s eye, something that is ....” (a colour or other appropriate clue). Go around the circle, giving each player a chance to guess. The one who correctly figures out the answer is the next child to choose an object.

Pirates Run 
Scatter the kids around the room, ready to obey certain actions in response to the pirate captain’s call. With the call, “Pirates coming”, the kids should run around waving imaginary pirate flags or swords. “Land Ho”, means stop, put hands over eyes and peer into the distance. “Walk the Plank”, means walk around the room with arms outstretched as if trying to balance on a narrow plank. “Scrub the Decks”, means get down on hands and knees with imagined scrub brushes to clean the ship. “Hit the Bunks”, means the kids lie on the floor quietly for a rest.

Pirate Scavenger Hunt
We hide the items in the area beforehand then the kids are given a list of what to find. 1 skull & cross bones (I make them out of white fun foam) 1 Jolly Roger Flag 4 golden doubloons (chocolate gold covered coins) 1 bottle of rum (I use those little liqueur chocolate bottles) 3 jewels (I use different coloured beads, red for rubies, green for emeralds and so on) 1 gold earring 2 parrot feathers 1 eye patch 1 treasure map 1 shell from Oak Island Give the kids an allotted time to find as many items on the list.

Pirate Treasure
Materials rocks white glue powder paint sequins glitter. Children paint their rocks with the paint (white glue mixed with powder paint). Then they stick on the sequins and glitter to make their pirate treasure.

Pirate Ship Relay
Break into lodges and form straight lines. Each child holds onto the waist of the child in front. They are now a pirate ship. Move the kids forward together in a group through obstacles set out on the floor.
Another form of this game: Sit the kids in two lines close together between the legs of the child behind them. They must wrap their legs around the waist of the person in front of them and hold onto the child’s waist. The pirate ships slide on their bottoms along the floor to a turning point, where they swing around and head back for the start.

Swashbuckling Bread sticks
We can 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"

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.

Who's Got the Gold
the children will sit in a circle One child sits in the middle with his/her eyes closed. The children in the circle pass around a gold coin while the child in the middle slowly counts to ten. All the children place their hands in their lap and pretend they have the coin. The child in the middle open his/her eyes and can guess up to three times, who has the gold. The child who had the coin gets to sit in the middle for the next game.

Walk the Plank
Each group should use a bench as an imitation plank. A leader stands at one end; the kids line up at the other. In turn, each child walks the plank. As he reaches the end, the leader asks a question about his child promise, law or motto. If he answers correctly, he can turn around and walk back to the ship. If not, he has to “swim” back to the ship through the sharks (older kids or adults).
 

SONGS:

Child Pirates
Tune:  My Bonnie
There's pirates all over the ocean
There's pirates all over the sea
There's pirates all over the ocean
Sail in for us Children to see.
We're having a party we're pirates
We're having a party you see
We're having a party we're pirates
But Children we always will be.
We don't loot and steal though we're pirates
We don't loot or steal you see
We don't loot and steal though we're pirates
Sharing is our motto at sea.
 

STORIES:

Have any good stories? Let us know!
 

FOOD SUGGESTIONS:

Pirate Ships
Make the boats from halved bread rolls covered with peanut butter, with paper sails on cocktail sticks.
 

TIPS/NOTES: