Ahoy me hearties!

The children at school began showing an interest in pirates, building pirate ships in the block corner, talking about pirates, pretending to be pirates... so that weekend I made some pirates for small world play (using the amazing "Forest Fairy Crafts" book, by Lenika Vodicka Paredes and Asia Curry).  I ran out of black felt for the pirate hats, so I used cotton for bandanas instead.  I love how individual you can make them - every pirate is unique. Whitcoulls were also having a clearance sale, and I found this cardboard pirate ship to colour and assemble for only $2, which was perfect! I also found a crocodile game in an op shop for only $2, so the crocodiles quickly became part of our new Neverland.

I found a little goblet at the local charity shop for 50c for putting treasure in; and some children's junk beaded jewellery which I used for the treasure.  

I gave the pirates sword shaped cocktail sticks which slotted nicely into their pipecleaner hands. However, when the children began to play with them, the swords were the first things to be removed!

Small world play is wonderful for developing the imagination; creative play; oral language; story telling; processing their ideas; making sense of things. So much learning happens through play, and children need to be given the time to delve deep into unhurried, unstructured play.

I painted a table to resemble a treasure island, and placed little cardboard treasure chests in various positions. There was a basket of gold coins (cut from gold card) and counters with numbers on. The idea was to turn over a counter, look at the number, and put that many gold coins into your treasure chest.

The treasure chests were made out of coorugated card, using the treasure chest that came with the pirate ship as a template.  Using corrugated card meant that the top of the chest rolled over easily without creasing the thick cardboard (when I tried making it using thick card, it cracked and creased.)

 A pirate treasure map board game I made.

I got this idea from the always amazing Stimulating Learning With Rachel's blog post on pirates.  Draw a trail on paper (I used A5 sized paper) and children peeled and stuck stickers along the trail. Great for fine motor skills, tracking, and being able to follow a given line. It was surprising to see who could do it and who just put stickers all over their paper.

Other things we made and did as part of our interest in Pirates...

Eye patches
Telescopes and binoculars using recycled materials, as well as pirate ships and boats to float in the water trough and watch as they disintegrate...
Folding paper boats
Made a large pirate ship out of a cardboard box
Skull & Crossbone flags
Treasure hunts
Walked the plank (one of our teachers drew a shark in chalk on the carpet, and children had to jump over the shark)
Cardboard swords
Treasure maps
Stained paper and ripped the edges while it was wet, to make it look old. Let dry and draw treasure maps on them.
Pirate stories

Game: Portside Pirates (otherwise known as Captain's Coming!)

The Pirates Arr Back in 2018!

Well the Pirates theme has come around again, and my centre manager (who is amazing and so inspiring and always pushes me to grow) was inspired by listening to Nigel Latta comparing children to pirates, and how a pirate mindset helps children to be resilient, and she wanted us to do a pirates theme for the month of June, to help build resiliency. So I began thinking. And I thought that this time around, it is so much more than just doing Pirate themed activities - we actually want to change children's mindsets.

So I did some research into the roles on board a pirate ship, and came up with positive attributes for each role, that were positive learning outcomes for children. I also created a pirate illustration, for each role. (Thanks to my niece for letting me use her felt pens!) The idea was that each week, we would focus on one role, and practice those attributes during that week. Then the next week, we would go up to the next role, until eventually becoming Captains.

The children have been super enthusiastic about being pirates, and they tell me about which pirate we are up to, and what they have to do, such as tidying up, being brave, using their words, and trying new things. They ask me, "Which pirate are we up to this week, Sally?" and they proudly show their parents which pirate role we are focusing on. They can't wait to be Captains! I have had super positive feedback from parents too, who say that their children are doing these things at home, too, and talking about pirates and being helpful at home. It was amazing to see a huge and immediate change in a particular child who would get upset easily and make a big scene about a little thing, to then going "Arr, shiver me timbers, I got me finger wet!" and going on with their day without any further fuss.

Children have been bringing in pirate books from home to share, and asking their parents to read their pirate books to them at bed time.

Pirates adhere to a Pirate Code (a code of conduct), so together we created our own Pirate Code, which the children all had input into, and then they helped to write it out.

They decided the consequence for not following the Pirate Code, was to "Walk the plank" - which meant the wayward Pirate would have to walk away, and go play somewhere else.

I created alphabet and numeracy pirate themed resources, to support children's literacy and number knowledge. The Comicstrip app on the iPad is fantastic, and comes with pirate stickers, which I used to create these with.

 Pirate ships and treasure chests to match up with each other (upper and lower case).

 Treasure chests and maps to be matched up with each other (numbers and corresponding dots).

Tens frames. I filled treasure chests with gold pieces (circles of yellow paper) which children put on the tens frames. I don't have to teach children how to use these - they can figure it out themselves. But it helps to build familiarity with them, so that they already know what to do, when they use them at Primary School.

Table set up using the treasure chests, tens frames, and gold and clear pebbles.

Book display. The tamariki absolutely loved "The Wreck of the Didley" and every day children sit in the book corner reading it, and saying "We die diddley die diddley die diddley die. And we died diddley died diddley died!" I love listening to them tell the story as they turn the pages, and make up their own story as they look at the pictures.

Sensory Play: Sand trays to create patterns, sand gardens, whatever they want. 

Treasure maps. Children painted the paper with teabags and watery brown paint first, and then the next day they were ready for map making.

Pirate ship, port holes, pirates and an anchor. The port holes were made by sticking a piece of tacky clear-seal over one side of a cardboard circle with a hole cut out of it. Children then ripped up blue paper (for the sea); blue paper (for the sky); and cotton balls for clouds, and put it on the sticky paper. I then covered it with another piece of tacky clear-seal to enclose it, and trimmed it to fit.  

We were very kindly given this fabulous pirate ship by a friend of my centre manager's (and myself). My pipecleaner and felt pirates are still going strong even 3 years later! I keep bringing them out when they pirate theme rolls around again, and then I take them back home until next time. It is definitely worth putting in the effort to create resources that can be re-used and re-used for years to come, and that provide hours of play.

I spent a happy Sunday at home making this game. It was one of those ideas that when you get them, you get super excited about and can't wait to get started making it. I had spent the Saturday at a craft market, which gives me time to think. And I began thinking about pirate matching games. But then I thought, rather than matching things that are the same, there is a real cognitive skill in being able to match up things that go together - and it is an important literacy skill that forms part of the foundation for learning to read. So I began talking to other market stall holders about pirate things that would go together, and I came home with a huge list. So on Sunday I began making that list. The parrot I made last because I didn't know how I was going to do it - I ended up looking in my photo albums for a photo of a macaw, and used that to create the parrot, and I am stoked with how it turned out.

Anyway, this is my list of things that I made to be matched up with each other....

canon and canon ball (both made from felt)

pirate ship and jolly roger (made from craft foam and cork)

feather and parrot (made from felt)

Compass and map (made from toilet roll; gold paper)

Telescope and stars (made from paper and craft foam)

Hat and eye patch (made from felt)

Ships wheel and Pirate (wheel made from curtain ring and pipecleaners)

Treasure chest and treasure 

Plank and skeleton

Anchor and chain (made from craft foam and paperclips)

Life buoy and island (made from small curtain ring and felt; island made from felt, with pipecleaners for the trees)

Of course, these items can be matched up to different items - there is no right or wrong answer, but children need to be able to articulate why it goes together. For example, the map could go with the island, because the map is a map of the island; or the map could go with the treasure chest, because it shows you the way to the treasure. The pirate could go with the pirate ship; or the pirate and pirate hat, because he wears it; or pirate and parrot, because the parrot sits on his shoulder. There are so many things that can be matched up with a variety of items. That's what makes this game so fun, because it requires thinking and discerning, comparing and classifying.

Click on the link for more of my teaching resources