Pirates

Children share thoughts about pirates and what pirates do for a living. They play pirate related games and make a pirate ship with a variety of materials.

FREE

Imaginative play. Children use materials in original ways, thinking about uses and purposes. They develop their play skills by creating imaginative settings for pirate activities.

Four buckets, two filled with water. A pot-washing sponge for each child. A collection of planks, tyres, sticks, tarpaulin and other ‘scrap store’ type materials. A selection of sound, traditional flooring planks.

  1. Bale out the sinking ship. “Get the water out of the bucket as quickly as you can using sponges – but save as much water as you can for pirates bath night.” Place two buckets full of water 4 metres apart and the other two buckets about 30 metres away and a similar distance apart. Create two teams and assign a pair of buckets (full & empty) to each team. The competitors load their sponges with water, run across the field and squeeze the water into the empty bucket. Team members continue until the water buckets are empty and the water transferred to the empty buckets. The winning team is the team that saves the most water.
  2. Walk the plank. Set up a plank using tyres, and traditional flooring planks. Children walk the plank with care so as not to fall in the water.
  3. Make a pirate ship. Use the available materials to create a ship that will enable all children to be above water and enjoy some shelter.
  4. Reflection. Who were the real pirates?

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