Pirate Crafts

Ahoy, ye seekers of pirate crafts! These fun activities channel your inner buccaneer and set the stage for a high seas adventure.

Brush up on your pirate speak and create your own pirate costume to get in the mood for pirate crafts. A costume that fits the theme is possible with a few simple items:

• A baggy, white shirt with buttons topped with a vest
• Baggy pants in red or black
• An eye patch for each child
• A sword cut out of cardboard

These ideas for pirate crafts provide inspiration to get you started. Encourage the kids to creatively interpret the crafts to fit their own personalities.

Every pirate needs a ship for sailing the high seas. An old refrigerator box creates the perfect base for hours of sailing fun.

1. Lay the box on the ground so its long side is down.
2. Cut off the opposite side to create the ship’s opening.
3. Cut the two sides of the box to resemble a ship, with a dip in the middle so the ship is higher at the front and back.
4. Set the kids loose on the ship with tempera paint.

They can enjoy hours of dramatic play using the pirate costumes and the ship.

Pirates and treasure maps go hand in hand. Little pirates can make a custom treasure map that looks authentic with brown paper bags and black markers. Help the kids tear a square from a large brown paper bag to create an old look. Crumpling the paper and smoothing it out a few times adds to the old world appearance. Encourage the kids to draw cliffs, oceans, islands, mountains and other land features along with the "X" to mark the location of the treasure.

For more fun, draw your own treasure map that represents the house and yard. Hide a treasure at the spot indicated on the map. Let the kids use the map to discover the treasure.

The hook hand serves as both a craft and part of the pirate costume. Aluminum foil creates a child-safe hook. Crumple a strip of foil to create a long snake shape. Curve the end into a hook shape. Use a large, sturdy paper cup for the base of the hook. A coat of paint or a piece of construction paper lets the kids personalize the cups. Punch a hole in the bottom of the cup and slide the end of the aluminum foil hook into it. A piece of tape on the inside of the cup secures the hook in place.

A solid-colored handkerchief makes the perfect background for a pirate’s flag. Provide the kids with scraps of fabric and fabric paint or fabric markers to add details to the flag. They can stick with traditional pirate symbols such as skulls and crossbones or create a friendlier flag. A wooden dowel glued to the edge of the flag completes the pirate craft.

Edible crafts are double the fun because the kids get a tasty snack once the creation process is over. These treats incorporate the pirate theme and allow the kids to use food creatively.

• Ice Cream Ship: Use a waffle cone bowl as the base of an edible pirate ship. Fill the waffle bowl with ice cream and add gummy bear pirates. A piece of fruit leather on a bamboo skewer makes a fun sail for the ship.
• Apple Ship: For a healthier version of the edible ship, use an apple wedge as the base. Pretzel sticks serve as the masts while cheese slices create the sails.
• Cake: Decorate a round cake as a pirate’s head. A chocolate cookie and a black licorice whip work well to create an eye patch. Other candies and tinted icing make the other facial features on the cake. Cupcakes work just as well for individual pirate heads.
• Treasure Chest: Cut a chocolate cake roll in half to create a simple treasure chest snack. Use small candies as the treasures, tucking a few pieces between the two halves of the cake roll to look like it’s spilling out of the chest.

Pirate crafts are fun for a themed birthday party, an extension activity for history lessons or a rainy day activity. Whatever the reason for your pirate craft adventure, embrace the theme for hours of swashbuckling fun!

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