The Pirates Are Coming

These fun and educational kids activities are inspired by the hilarious The Pirates Are Coming written by John Condon. These activities are about making memories and having fun together.

These activities are easy to try at home and perfect for any pirates loving kids. Let them get creative to build their own pirate ship, make their pirates and parrot, design a treasure map and hunt for treasure.

Two Pirates and a Parrot

This was the activity that my eldest was most excited for! She was so desperate to make the pirates. I was impressed at how my youngest carefully spread the glue on the paper, she didn’t want to miss any of it. Once they had created their pirates they had to of course name them! For our parrots we went for a walk outdoors to see what natural bits we could find. Their parrots were completely unique. Whilst they worked away and concentrated on their creations we chatted about their days and any worries they had on their minds.

Treasure Map

My son was super keen to do this activity and immediately drew his island. He was a bit unsure how to draw the other island features, so I drew them for him on a separate piece of paper and he copied.

My son was enthusiastic in painting in the map with the tea bag and did spilt the bag. But the grains of tea just added to the wonderful texture of his map.

Don’t forget to place an old tea towel or towel under the card - ours got very wet!!!

Hunting for treasure

This activity we headed to the garden and for my son who is 3.5 years old, I decided we would do the coin sorting activity first. He was quick to find all the coins in the sand and together we sat together and talked about their similarities and differences.

We will continue to build on this learning in the coming months and complete the other activity options to help him to recognise coins and their value.

pirate boat

This easy activity is perfect for the summer months. The hardest part for my two was waiting for the glue to dry. They were so desperate to test their boats on the water. I started by showing them how the two bottom lolly sticks would become the base onto which the other lolly sticks would be placed. Once I had showed them they understood and could get on with creating it independently. I did also move the lolly stick that was intended for the mast out of reach as they were both intent on gluing them all down initially!

They were so impressed that their boats floated and then enjoyed trying to blow them across the water. Before long they were creating waves and managed to sink their boats! We fished them out of the water and dried them off ready for another day.

Emotions in sand

This was an additional activity we did inspired by the book and using the resources we sent. We talked about how Tom, the main character may have felt when his Mum was at sea and then when she arrived home. We used the Colour Monster book to help us discuss and draw the different emotions that Tom felt throughout the book.

Name in Sand

For this activity, I used the sand, PVA glue from this box and the paintbrush from our Superhero box. I wrote the name into the crayon and then asked my little one to write over it with the PVA glue. We then sprinkled the sand over the top, shook the sand off and the name was left in the sand. This would be a great activity to do with any words that they are having problems spelling.

Japanese Zen Garden

This is a really simple mindfulness activity for kids and is perfect for times when anxieties and worries are high. For this activity we used the sand from our Pirates activity box, a plant pot saucer, some gravel, pebbles collected from various beach trips and a fork. I spoke to the girls before they got started that they should plan and create their gardens carefully. Decide on the exact placement of each pebble, each piece of gravel. By truly focussing on their gardens it is a great way to forget worries and destress. I was impressed how much thought they did both put into their garden. Even F was incredibly considerate as to which exact pebbles were allowed to come into her garden and where they would go. They rearranged over and over again.