This was scheduled to be a one day deal, but the weather changed our plans (quite honestly, this happened halfway through the summer so I don't remember the specifics, but it was either rain or heat that drew this out to a three day event). It was pretty simple: a cardboard pirate ship was our art and craft AND our pretend play, our physical activity was a backyard pirate pools obstacle course, and our game was Find The Treasure. Overall, the big kids LOVED every one of these activities, while the younger kids only enjoyed the pirate ship.
Day 1 was coloring the pirate ship and playing pirates. All. Day. Long.
Harrison (the middle mini) let daycare "borrow" his treasure chest for the week. The kids loved discovering what was inside (and fighting over the rings).
On day 1 afternoon, we played Talk Like a Pirate. Anything the kids said had to be in pirate lingo. It was pretty entertaining!
Day 2 was the Pirate Pools Obstacle Course. The kids had to find the treasure (in this case pennies) in each pool/water table/bucket. They started at the pirate water table digging through the flour sand, then onto the bucket of cooked spaghetti, followed by running up the climbing wall and sliding down the shaving cream slide (and digging through the shaving cream), then into the water bead pool, and ending with a rinse and dive in the blow up pool.
The little kids wanted no part of this obstacle course (a few of them took part in swimming in the blow up pool), but happily watched the big kids do the course. No matter how much I explained to the big kids that the goal was to do the obstacle course quickly, they went as slow as they could. They were much happier when I let them loose and just let them play as they wanted to on the course.
The kids turned in their pennies for these smelly erasers.
I have never seen these kids dig so cautiously than I did during this activity. All of the kids were very concerned about losing the pennies they found (I'm informed this was one of the reasons they were moving so slowly).
Day 3 was a treasure hunt. I hid the treasure from the chest all around the house. The kids had to use their treasure maps to figure out where all of the pieces were. This kept the kids 3+ busy for over two hours.
Obviously some kids were more into the treasure hunt than others.
On days 3 and 4, these boys put together a Melissa and Doug Pirate Ship (that Max, the oldest mini, got for his birthday). This pirate ship is still being played with two months later!
Somehow this theme day was made into a theme week and it worked out well! I think the big kids loved it so much because it was more for them and their interests. I also have to laugh that the Find It game never gets old (even though the kids do)!