Play Like a Pirate with These Fun Pirate Activities for Kids

September 13, 2023 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

Sept. 19 is National Talk Like a Pirate Day, a holiday I’ve never completely understood, but why not have a day devoted to pirates? Kids seem to love stories of daring and plunder and adventure on the high seas, so why not make a day of it with some fun pirate activities for kids?

Since pirates lived their lives on the ocean, Pirate Day is a great time for some water-related STEM activities. Why not try a pirate-themed version of a sink or float challenge, like this one from Science Sparks? Or you can have kids design a boat and see if it floats. This one from Red Ted Art is made from cork so it’s easy to make and will float every time.

Have kids make their own treasure maps with this idea from The Imagination Tree. Or they can map the playground or back yard and decide where they think treasure is likely to be buried.

Try some pirate-themed play dough activities with these printable play dough mats from PickleBums. Or hunt for sight word treasures by writing your words on “gold doubloons (this one is also from The Imagination Tree).

I Can Teach My Child has a printable pirate map for letter matching (and I love the wipe box painted gold being used as a treasure chest; brilliant!). Or add a writing component with the alphabet treasure maps from Powerful Mothering.

Practice number recognition with the count and cover pirate treasure activity from Fun Learning for Kids. This one has different options based on the numbers the kids need to work on, and it’s so fun to use gems as your treasure counted out to cover each number.

Powerful Mothering has a free printable pirate activity pack with a maze, I-spy, memory game, flag design sheet and more. And Miniature Masterminds has a 50-plus page activity pack with math, writing, coloring, games, cutting practice and more.

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Easy Lacing Cards to Make for Kids

Lacing is a great fine motor activity, and most kids go through a phase where they enjoy working with lacing cards. It helps promote focus and is a great quiet activity for kids to do in the car or to fill time in the classroom. And of course knowing how to lace is the beginning of knowing how to sew, which is great for all kids to learn (more on teaching kids to sew here).

There are lots of ways to make your own lacing cards. This one is just a pin but it’s easy to make lacing cards with any shape a child is into using cardboard and a nail to poke the holes. This could be fun for letter and number recognition or spelling the child’s name. Or try this version from Hey Azka, which uses a hole punch to make bigger holes so you can lace with shoe laces.

You can also just do lacing cards with paper, but it’s a great idea to print them on card stock and/or laminate them to make them sturdier for little hands. Homeschool Share has a set of alphabet lacing cards, which are free with email signup. Deceptively Educational has a set of number lacing cards with numbers 0 to 10.

Picklebums has some basic shape lacing cards, too.

Living Life and Learning has a bunch of cute printable lacing cards, including back to school designs, shoes kids can lace and learn to tie and ocean themed lacing cards. She also has tips for making your own lacing cards.

A Rose Tinted World made their lacing cards with craft foam, which makes them a little more durable than paper and you can cut it more easily than cardboard. They used a die cutting machine but you can also cut shapes by hand.

I also love the cat and mouse cards from Seam Whisperer. They also have some spring themed designs. So cute!

If you want to make lacing cards that are more open ended, check out this tutorial form Pretty Life Girls to make lacing cards that are more like geo boards. Theirs are made with wood but you can also do this with cardboard, craft foam or card stock.

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