Tag: pirate

Juice Box Pirate Ship and Flags

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This is likely the last of the boats Travis and I will make for a while, but a few lemonade juice boxes in the fridge made us decide to construct one last version before we put our pirate games to rest!

First, enjoy a juice box of course.

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Once it’s empty, I recommend taping over the hole where the straw was, to avoid juice leaking out (or your boat filling with water in the tub).

Pierce two holes in the top of the juice box for the masts (grown-up step!).

You can use the juice box straw for the mast, but we found that thicker, regular plastic straws were sturdier. Snip these into thirds, and use two of the pieces for this project.

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Travis loved snipping the straws so much, I had to redirect him for the rest of the boat!

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Decorate a piece of paper with markers or stickers to make your sail, then cut into a triangle shape.

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Tape onto the two masts, and you’re ready to set sail on the seven seas.

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These are perfect little boats for bathtime, although they won’t hold up very long – the paper sails especially are only good for a short while.

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Travis decided the paper sail was too flimsy. We had leftover pirate stickers, so decorated a big piece of red foam instead.

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Although not attached to the ship, he loved doing this, and waving it around. You could even teach a bit of the history behind pirate flags, often flown to scare merchant ships so they could take them over without ever having to fight.

Pretty scary!

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Pirate Telescope Spotting Game

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Telescope Game (6).JPG

Travis and I can’t get enough of pirate games these days, and this fun activity engaged us on multiple levels – as an artistic craft to start, and then as a competitive game. If you have enough kids, it would be perfect to play at a pirate-themed birthday party!

First, we needed to set the scene. We originally intended to paint on a big piece of craft paper (a large piece of cardboard would work, too), but we were out of blue paint – you can’t have an ocean scene without blue!

Thinking quickly, we switched to markers and crayons. I drew Travis a basic scene: ocean, pirate ship, desert island. Big kids may want to take charge of this part themselves!

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Next we needed a couple of telescopes. Some decorative washi tape and an empty paper towel tube made one quite quickly.

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We tried to make a stacked telescope by layering cups together. This might have worked more easily with paper cups, since we had to tape two plastic ones together (and work carefully to snip out an eye hole), but the tape sort of ruined the look.

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This image is way more what we were going for.

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But there wasn’t time to be fussy! (We fit this game into baby sister’s nap), so now it was time to test our pirate spotting skills.

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Taking turns, one person added something to the ocean landscape, and the other pirate looked through the telescope to discover what was new.

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This was a great challenge for Travis’s budding art skills. He had fun drawing me a treasure chest, a starfish, and more.

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And he loved spotting the items that mommy pirate drew, like a whale and a parrot.

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As mentioned, you could have a whole group of kids play this at a party, and turn it into a competition for who spots the new item first!

Enjoy, landlubbers!

 

Pirate Crate

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Ahoy matey! With just a couple months left in our Koala subscription, Travis was eager to see what the Pirate Crate was all about, and dove right in to all 3 projects! As always, you can replicate these projects with materials from a craft store, more or less.

First up was Pirate Dress-Up – a paper hat to fold, and a felt eyepatch. The eyepatch was an instant hit – wow, he felt like a real pirate!

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Simply thread the provided patch onto a bit of black elastic, and tie a knot to secure it.

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Next we added the pirate hat, a large piece of black construction paper with dotted lines to fold. These were nicely labeled by both number and color, making it easy for kids.

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To decorate the hat, use the provided stencils and magic markers. Travis really enjoyed stenciling in shapes (“Look, I made a diamond!”).

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I helped show him some of the suggested overlapping shapes to make pirate-themed decorations (rectangle + heart = crossbones) but mostly he was content just to scribble and make his own designs.

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Avast, matey!

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He eagerly asked if we could make the Parrot Puppet immediately after. Color in the provided template with magic markers. There are also feather stickers to adhere.

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To make the puppet stand, thread elastic through a cardboard base and secure the elastic on with tape, letting the ends dangle down. Fold the cardboard in half and tape again – now the parrot figure slips right on.

When the parrot is not on the stand, the elastic can cleverly be tied around the wrist – a parrot pal just like every good pirate needs!

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The third project, a real floating Pirate Ship, was a big hit! Insert a craft stick into a brown foam base, and thread one of the 4 provided sails onto the stick.

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Kids can decorate the sails with stencils, too, but Travis only gave the decoration a cursory thought. He much preferred to see the sails on the masts, and was delighted he could raise and lower them like a real sail.

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A cardboard “rudder” inserted into a slit at the back of the foam base allows your boat to go straight, left, or right, depending which slot it’s in. So of course we had to test them in the bathtub!

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Have fun playing around with the rudder’s position, or racing the boats against one another. Travis also loved “flying” the boats in the air.

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To round out Travis’s costume, we also put together the suggested Pirate Hook. Roll a piece of aluminum foil tightly – Travis insisted on doing so himself!

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Adults, poke a hole in the bottom of a plastic cup. Insert the wrapped foil, curling the end into a hook shape. Pop the cup over your child’s hand and ahoy there – it’s Captain Hook!

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Shiver me timbers! Thanks for a great time, Koala Crate.