Arg, Maties!

Today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

We went on a treasure hunt to find Buried Treasure Cups using treasure maps that I had made earlier (see below on how to make the maps). We wore pirate bandannas, colored some pirate themed coloring pages (see below for a Pirate Ship Coloring Page), read our favorite pirate book, made pirate boats out of pumpkins (see below for directions), and of course talked like pirates! Arg!

On the treasure hunt!

Pumpkin pirate boat.

Here are some other ideas on celebrating International Talk Like A Pirate: have a pirate speaking contest, serve chocolate gold coins at lunch, have pirate themed coloring pages, have a treasure hunt/map ending at the refrigerator and have Buried Treasure Cups in the fridge. If your floors need cleaning, you could always have a swab the deck contest! ;)  Check out the links section for books, games, and food ideas.

How To Make Aged Paper
You will need white printer paper, water, a bowl, and ground coffee.

1. Crumble up the paper.
2. Smooth the paper out and dip in a bowl of warm water.
3. Lay paper over a cooling rack.
4. Sprinkle with ground coffee. (I first used coffee grounds from the
    morning coffee. It worked ok. I next tried sprinkling on dry ground coffee,
    which seemed to work better.)

5. Let sit for several minutes.
6. Dip in bowl of water again.
7. Turn over and lay flat on cooling rack.
8. Sprinkle with ground coffee and let dry.
9. Once the paper is dry, you can brush off the coffee grounds.

Other tips:

• If you want a more ragged edge to the paper, pull off/tear off some of the edges while the paper is still wet.
• To get darker lines in the paper, wait until the paper is dry. Lightly wet only a few spots on the paper, but don't get the whole paper wet. Let dry.
• The coffee colored paper will be somewhat delicate, so be careful if using colored pencils to make your map.

ALTERNATIVE:

If you don't have time to make pirate paper, cut a piece from a brown paper bag, crumple up, smooth out, and create your map! Don't forget to tear around the edges!

PIRATE SHIP COLORING PAGE



PUMPKIN PIRATE BOAT
For these fun boats, you will need a small pumpkin (I used minis), dowel rod, black foam craft sheet or construction paper, twine. I used a nail and hammer to poke a hole through the pumpkin to tie the sail on.
Directions:
1. Cut top off of the pumpkin and clean out. If it is a thick pumpkin, you may want to scrape out the inside to make sure it is not too heavy to float. Make sure you don't puncture the skin!
2. Cut sail shape out of foam/paper. Cut two slits in the middle for the mast to go through.

  3. Cut dowel rod to make mast. I was able to use a 12" dowel rod to make two masts. Slide sail onto mast.
4. Poke a hole on either side of the pumpkin, towards the top. Insert twine.
5. Tie twine to pumpkin. Wrap twine around the mast, and tie to other side of pumpkin.










6. Optional:
                *Make pirates. I made pirates out of peanuts (in the shell). We found acorn tops while on a walk and glued those to the top of the peanut shell for a hat. I drew on a happy face with a permanent marker.
                *Fill with chocolate gold coins.
                *Sail in the bathtub!

LINKS:
http://www.talklikeapirate.com/

BOOK LINKS:
How I Became A Pirate
Pirates Don't Change Diapers
Shiver Me Letters: A Pirates ABC
The Pirate Cruncher

TOY & GAME LINKS:
Melissa & Doug Pirate Puzzle
Pirate Ship Toy
Pirate Tattoos
Wii Lego Pirates of the Caribbean
Tomy Pop-Up Pirate Game
Alex Toys Pirates of the Tub
Pirates Only Room Sign
Jake's Never Land Pirate School, free app for the iPhone or iPad

MOVIE LINKS:
Scooby Doo! Pirates Ahoy!
Pirates of the Caribbean
The Pirates

FOOD LINKS:
Chocolate gold coins
Pirate's Booty, White Cheddar Popcorn
Bubblegum gold coins
Chocolate silver coins
Chocolate penny coins