Welcome to our “Shiver Me Timbers – Pirate Week” – an at home camp filled with days of relaxed learning and fun themed activities all themed to oh-so-fascinating Pirates! For this day, we took a closer look at spectacular pirate ships!
Like most of our days, we have a mix of activities to introduce the topic and keep the kids learning throughout the day. For this day, we read through a cool pirate ship book as well as some informative websites, watched a few videos, and created a few ships of our own! Read on to check out the fun.
A TYPICAL DAY
All kids are different and you can definitely vary your day with whatever works for you 🙂 But the gist of our day is having our kiddos focus on some work books or online learning tools in the early morning, an intro to the day’s theme after they were done, some videos around lunch time, and themed activities (reading time, writing time, crafts, food crafts/snacks, and games or experiments) in the afternoon. Feel free to pick and choose whatever works for you 🙂
INTRO
Most kids are likely familiar with pirates from popular cartoons or movies and so mixing in some hands-on fun and themed activities is a great way to get them engaged and learning throughout the summer! They might not even realize their learning!
For this day, we had a bit of fun debunking some myths and getting to the truth of what pirate ships looked like and what they actually carried. 🙂
WHAT TO WATCH
We find that mixing in a short video themed to our day is a great way to add some learning fun! We try to pick informative videos OR mix in a cartoon favorite (where they don’t even realize they’re learning). Below are some of the videos we picked from for the day:
The two videos are fairly short. They are more informative and some younger kids might lose interest, but they’re great at explaining different parts of a pirate ship!
- Sections, Directions and Parts of a Pirate Ship by Gold and Gunpowder (8m)
- The Scariest Ship to Ever Sail the Seven Seas by Smithsonian Channel (3m)
FOOD CRAFTS / SNACKS
What’s more fun than taking a break and having a simple snack??? Including the snack in your theme of the day! We find that our kiddos are more than happy to eat the snacks they create especially when they can arrange them into fun shapes and scenes!
For our snack of the day, we created simple pirate ships with fruit and a toothpick flag! You can use really any type of fruit you have around – apples, oranges – or even veggies – cucumbers or celery. The important piece is the “pirate flag” that the kiddos can add to their fruit or veggie ship with a toothpick.
READING
It’s no secret that reading helps prevent that summer slide. Some even say this is the most important. For our older ones, we have them fill out some worksheets (or let them create some of their own comics) to describe what they read and/or learned!
For our book of the day, we flipped through a cool looking pirate ship book. Like the history books from Day 1, it explained the parts of a pirate ship. This book has a cutout of a pirate ship that has an extra ‘cool’ factor to it.
- Inside Out Pirate Ship: Explore the Golden Age of Piracy! By Paul Beck
WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS
Just like reading, writing helps prevent that summer slide by both encouraging their creativity but also their motor skills and penmanship.
If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words related to the theme: PIRATE, SEA, SHIP, FLAG
If you’ve got older children, have them write a sentence or two up to a page or two (depending on their age). Encourage them to be creative AND give reasons for why they made certain choices. This was our writing prompt of the day (and we offered up some examples as well) but definitely pick something your kiddo might be interested in writing about!
- Imagine your lifelong dream was to become captain of a pirate ship and you’ve just managed enough money to buy one. What does yours look like? What will you name it?
- You’ve been running away from someone chasing you throughout the town and you manage to jump onto a pirate ship that is just leaving port. Do you hide in it? If so, where? Or do you convince the pirate captain to let you stay aboard? If so, how?
CREATE & CRAFT
If you’ve got a crafty little one, a simple craft is a great way to keep them interested in the topic. While their creative juices are flowing, you can also chat about what they’ve learned so far or ask them what else they’re excited about learning!
For this day, we only had one craft because it did take a bit of time to build. Although our kiddos decided the natural look was ‘cooler’, you could definitely add some paint or decorate the sails. The kit does come with a few stickers that you can add. If you want to skip the building and go straight to painting and decorating, you can purchase a larger pirate ship for a bit more.
STEM & STEAM ACTIVITIES
While crafting and writing get their creativity and imagination flowing, we also like to add in an activity that gets them thinking along the lines of science, technology, engineering, or math! These engaging activities or experiments are a great way to keep them learning!
For our STEM activity of the day, we purchased a 3D puzzle set. The instructions are really basic but the ship turns out quite nicely once assembled. It is geared toward 8-10 year olds, so it may be difficult for younger kids to put together by themselves. Otherwise, it’s a great puzzle to put together and a fun item to play with once it’s complete!
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for checking out our at home camp article! If you enjoyed this post, please let us know what you think in the comments below and/or follow us on Pinterest
Also, if you haven’t already, check out some of our other Pirate Ideas or DIY At Home Camps!
Happy Learning!
