June 2015 – Patties Classroom

15 Pirate Party Activities

a PIRATE card art project we made turned out cute.

I always do a Pirate Party at the end of the year. It is a fun day we look forward to all year. I’ve done different things each year but these are 15 of the most fun things I’ve come up with in 21 years of teaching. Have kids all put their name on a brown bag and add a handle to it. Put some torn red/white fabric and tie a strip on the handle. Add a pirate sticker or skull crossbones printout to the bag. Then have the kids go to 6 stations of activities you choose and bring their bag with them for all the prizes and loot they will get! All stations should take about 8-10 minutes.

CRAFT TYPE ACTIVITIES
1. Whole Group Activity – Make a Pirate Hat (Do altogether on tables – directions and printable tutorial diagram are HERE at Birthday in a Box.
The skull and crossbones printables are all over the internet. HERE is a cute one, and it is free!

Pirate Hats – I used black butcher paper folded like a sailor hat. Kids added their pirate names to the back and skull and crossbones I copied and they glued them to the front.

2. Station 2 – Pirate Name (What is your pirate name?) Print out this freebie on a big poster on a table. Kids write their funny pirate names on the back of their hats with white crayon or chalk. Hats made with black butcher paper. Add a skull and crossbones free printout cutout to each hat. HERE is a freebie Find Your Pirate Name Game.

We’ve made black, red and white bracelets with pony beads in some of my past pirate parties.

3. Station 3 – Get some Pirate Bling (Make Fruit Loop necklaces with gold coins or use pony beads in black, red and white) glue gun a chenille stem loop to the gold coins before the party. Or make a mustache on a stick!

I used black poster board for the eye patches and we taped a piece of black yarn on top and tied them in a bow around our heads. It was easy. The mustache was construction paper taped on a skewer stick.

4. Station 4 – Get a Tatoo and an Eye Patch. (Face Paint a scar or put tatoos on arms) Put an eye patch on some string and tie it around forehead. HERE is a free printable. Get pirate tatoos at a party store or Oriental Trading. Some eye patches are HERE as well as a beard you can put on a stick.

5. Station 5 – Make a Pirate Hook Hand. Directions on how to do it using red plastic cups and tin foil are HERE. Decorate it with these doo dads HERE.

CARNIVAL ACTIVE TYPE CENTERS

6. Station 6 – Walk The Plank Obstacle Course. 2 games here. 1st is put a plank of wood between two crates and kids walk with one eye closed and hands behind back. 2nd obstacle is hop with a tennis ball (canon ball) between your knees and drop it in a bucket. Everybody gets a chance to do 1. Then watch others. Then do 2nd obstacle, then watch others.

For our Pirate Party all the kids dressed in black and white.

Have a fun photo station where kids have pirate hand hooks, eye patches, fun hats and take pics!

7. Station 7 and share Pirate Jokes Check out some at Enchanted Learning. and do a ring toss on water bottles. Use cut out black and red plastic plates (just cut the outside of the plate to make ring toss rings). Read a joke, throw a ring.
example: What’s orange and sounds like a parrot?
(A carrot!)

Another joke: What did the pirate say when his wooden leg got stuck in the freezer? Shiver me timbers! Check out this page for joke ideas HERE at Enchanted Learning. We did a pirate maze and jokes and pirate math on the back when the kids first arrived at school. It was a good ice breaker activity.

Some of the girls really dressed up for the Pirate Party! Super Cute!

8. Station 8. Pictures & Throw a sponge at the pirate. Take turns getting behind the cut out pirate face. Get an assortment of spongy balls and cut out some square sponges from the dollar store. Take turns seeing if you can hit the face. Take pictures at the end of each child in the pirate cut out. If it is an outside summer party on a hot day get the sponges wet.

They loved their pirate patches! They all wore them home on the bus ride.

9. Station 9. Pin the Patch on the Pirate Printable is HERE. I’ve done this with 1st and 2nd graders and it is lots of fun. I just blew up a pirate coloring page and backed it with red and white striped paper and bordered it with black. HERE is a link to eye patches you can print up or just cut them out of black construction paper and have kids tape them on. Cover their eyes with red bandanas and sing “Yo Ho, Yo Ho a Pirates Life for ME!” as you spin them around.

LEARNING CENTERS (EDUCATIONAL)

10. Station 10 – Pirate Bingo Game (using sight words- good for 1st grade or end of kinder) free printable games HERE. Or HERE is another cute Bingo game.

Here was my Pirate Bingo we called Buccaneer Bingo. Get free copies from Kinder Gater Gals at TPT HERE.

11. Station 11. Math Cardgame – Pirate War – get in groups of two partners. Both of you put down a card. Add up the numbers. The one with the highest sum gets both cards. Person with the most cards at the end of 10 minutes is the winner and gets a jewel to put in their sack. Check out THESE free printables. Or THESE that I used. Kids can cut them out and take them home in envelopes.

12. Station 12 – Pirate Go Fish – Use these 16 colorful pirate pictures and copy twice for each partnership. 2 kids cut out and then play go fish or concentration with the cards. The free printables I found are HERE. Also an ABC Maze Printable is HERE. or HERE is an ABC order Pirate game.

REFRESHMENT TABLE IDEAS

Here was my classroom Pirate Party Refreshment Table. We had 2 kinds of drinks too. I don’t know why that duct tape is there, we didn’t eat any duct tape. lol.

13. Station 13 –Refreshments

1. Pixie Stix (pixie dust) (add little black triangular pirate flags to the top).
2. Pirate Canon Balls (cheese balls or malt balls)

I just got cheese balls (generic) from the market and made up a cute sign.

3. Fish and Chips (orange goldfish crackers and potato or tortilla chips)

Next to this bowl is a bowl of cheese fish crackers. Get it? Fish and “chips”. lol.

Here are the goldfish that went with the “Fish and Chips” Signs. I just typed them out and pasted them on red paper then on black to border it nicely. Then I added stickers or pirate pictures I got off the internet.

4. cupcakes with pirate Cupcake Toppers HERE, or HERE.
5. Fruit Roll Ups wrapped with a pirate treasure map coloring page
6. Pirate Popcorn – use jello and make red popcorn balls, or just get some caramel corn or regular popcorn and call it “Pirate Popcorn”.

We had double stuffed Oreos and of course Chips Ahoy cookies.

7. Chips Ahoy or Pirate Os (oreo cookies).

Here are some “skeleton” brownies I made at Halloween that would also be great for a Pirate Party. The heads are candy melt discs, the bodies are yogurt covered pretzels. I used icing for arms and legs and faces.

8. Skeleton Brownies.

14. Take Home Gift Ideas
1. Goodie Bags with pirate items inside. I had jewels from the dollar store, rings, pirate bookmarks, chocolate coins, lollypops, and cute little chocolate pirates wrapped in gold foil with skulls and crossbones.

Aren’t these the CUTEST Chocolate Pirates wrapped in foil? A parent bought a whole class set of them. They went into my goodie bag. Another parent bought each of the kids 2 gold chocolate coins. Those went in too. In years past the kids have gotten pirate black balloons and pirate erasers.

2. ABC maze HERE and wrap it around a fruit roll up.
3. Lollypops or Tootsie Rolls taped to a small Pirate wordsearch HERE.
4. Pirate Playdough (make your own in purple or black) I have a recipe for Koolaid Playdough HERE on my blog. Put them in mini ziplock baggies.

Land Lubbers Licorice. haha.

5. Pirate Superballs and Balloons. I bought mine from Oriental Trading HERE. They are tiny but fun to play with. Wrap them together in a bag.
6. Landlubber Licorice – This is cute in a jar. The above one was for a different party but you could put pirate skull and crossbones on the jars. Make an assortment of “Pirate Loot” and put them in bags like this tied with black yarn.

I also had pirate superballs I had ordered from Oriental Trading a few years ago. They have lasted through several years of classroom parties.

PARTY ROTATIONS

I try to have 6 really good PARTY ROTATIONS (centers) and kids spend 10 minutes at each one. They go around in groups of 4 so the games can be played multiple times (like Bingo). I try to do 2 crafty type activities, 2 active play activities, and 2 learning games (educational).

For a home party you could fill cookie jars with candy or gumballs and let the kids do their own goodie bags.

If I do a bingo I try to have the words along with the pictures so they are reading. The first activity is making the hat and bag. They take the bag around with them. At each center is a fun token or giveaway (pixie stix, rings, bubbles, bead necklace etc.) so they have an assortment of take home prizes. Some are just prizes if they win.

I’ve used this party bucket for prizes, ice and cans of sodas and all sorts of things. Just add vinyl lettering to a red bucket from the craft store and then for each party add a decal, sticker or printable coloring page to the top on a theme for the party. Skull and crossbones work perfectly. I do this with small buckets to hold silverware, napkins, and craft supplies at the rotations too.

The whole party should last about 75 minutes. Have fun Mateys! Argggg! And have fun Walking the Plank!

Pirate Party Fun!

Insect Activities

We made some cute insect models of ants out of egg cartons a few years back when I taught 2nd grade. Then the kids wrote informational texts on insects and where they are found, what they eat and what they look like. I thought it might be fun to post it again since we are doing insects this week.

rts.We used insects after reading our Reading Streets Play on Ants. I had each student get an insect book out of the library, we wrote down facts in cooperative groups. Then we added those facts to our own “sloppy copies”. Everybody shared facts. Then I edited the reports.

Then we rewrote them on this nice insect stationery. I had 2 styles to choose from.

Then we illustrated them. I loved this dragonfly and all the beautiful background too…

Fabulous art here! I think Jack did this one. I gave them simple clip art insects to use as models.

Ant and Caterpillar poems in the pocket chart center….The kids had 5 poems to choose from.

There’s a ladybug poem and a cricket and one other.

We used egg cartons cut into 3 sections for the 3 body parts of the insects. They chose their own pip cleaners, wiggly eyes and made a tongue and antennaes. Some are very colorful!

We made our ant models out of egg cartons cut into 3 body parts and painted.

We painted the egg cartons red or brown or black then when they were dried we added the pipe cleaners and wigglyeyes. We sang the song THE ANTS GO MARCHING 1 BY 1
HURRAH too. Kididdles has the words
and click for the music too.

We made “ants” after reading our Reading Streets Literature play on the Ants and several other cute stories about the hard life of an ant. .

After we wrote our reports I had the kids draw pictures of their insects and color them.

Insect cards with facts on the back I got from the Dollar Store at the science center..

Insect Books at the Science Center

I like this one…its got character!

Gotta love a ladybug, right?

Dragonflies were very popular reports…..

Ladybug art….so beautiful! I have some really talented kiddos. This is really one of my favorite art products from one of the kids this year. It should be framed. Period.

Last year we made grasshopper life cycles. They were too easy. This year we did Insect reports.
The GRASSHOPPER Life Cycle wheel printable can be found at Lapbook Lessons. for a fun extension. A cute cricket craft is HERE at Jennwa’s blog.

Some did praying mantises and others did crickets or grasshoppers.

A cute Insect Bingo game I copied as well as fun vocab cards and other interesting life cycle wheels (ALL FREE!) is HERE at Bogglesworld.

Did you know there were 300,000 kinds of beetles in the world? Yeah, me neither!

Henry had a walkingstick and a buddy on his back!

I think we only had a few ladybugs in the bunch!

This insect was so nicely done, I was quite impressed by Kiera’s art talent!

We did a few worksheets too; a crossword puzzle and a cut and paste about insect vocabulary. The link for some great worksheets and crosswords is at Boggle Worlds.

Then we wrote reports on insects. They got into cooperative groups and had individual school library books on their insect of choice. Everybody shared facts with everybody else. They are very proud of their research reports.

I found some cute stationery in a Scholastic book Check it out HERE.

Insect reports – the kids did whatever insect they chose.

Here is a close up of the ants and the reports

We are all proud of our little ant creations….

Here are some of the Cooperative Group’s posters….everybody added facts to the posters of Ants, Grasshoppers,, Dragonflies and Fireflies, Beetles and Ladybugs, and Honeybees/Wasps/Yellowjackets.

Insect posters….we kept adding to all 5 of them the whole unit long….

Science Center microscope with metamorphosis of a caterpillar slides….

Insects hanging out at the Science Center of our classroom….

My SCIENCE CENTER has insect books, write and wipe off activities and these insects with viewers. It also includes the microscope with slides of insects morphing. It is a popular center.

Great job everybody. I loved teaching you all about INSECTS!

Father’s Day Pirate Cards from Handprints

We made some cute little Pirate Handprint Cards for Father’s Day on Friday.

Father’s Day Pirate Cards from Handprints.

We painted the palm of the kids’ hands peach colored (white with a little orange mixed in) and just the top of the palm by the wrist red, and all the 4 fingers black. We didn’t paint the thumb. Then we pressed them on folded 9 x 11 white cardstock. Inside we glued in our handwritten messages on cute stationery I found for free at Teacher Pay Teacher from Whitney Parlin HERE. The 2nd download has the Father’s Day Papers. I made 8 copies of each style and the kids chose their favorite to write on.

Sorry I forgot to take pics, but they wrote “Happy Father’s Day. I love you. You are good at….. and we brainstormed about 10 things dads are good at. The kids added a few that matched their dads. They were really cute. One little boy said his dad was good at shooting guns. Another boy said his dad is a good cook. Super cute!

My class with their Father’s Day Cards. These pirate handprints turned out cute and only took about 30 minutes to do the entire class.

Then we glued on black hats and I copied off some cute pirate printouts we glued on the hats. Then I gave each child a wiggly eye and an eye patch to glue on. They made the face with black crayon and added a black line for the eyepatch.

Father’s Day Pirate Cards from Handprints.

Then I typed up Dad You’re GRRRRREAT! and they glued those down at the bottom of the card. I was thinking of putting You’re a Grrrrrreat Matey, Dad! But it sounded kind of weird. Too Punn-y maybe?

If you can think of a fun one-liner for next year’s card, write it in the comments.
The link for the free PIRATE printable skull and crossbones is HERE at Lee Hansen.com. Thanks LEE! And HERE is a fun math match up Pirate game I downloaded as a fast finisher.

Arg! Mateys, Have a Happy Father’s Day!

Ladybug Art and Life Cycles

We are studying insects lifecycles this week and we finished Ladybug Life Cycles. It was a lot of fun to paint some giant ladybugs and write a few facts about them.

Ladybug Paintings and Informational Writing by Kindergarteners in my class. Good job guys!

Ladybug Painting and informational Writing.

We made life cycles and labeled them too.

I read the kids some non-fiction books about ladybugs and they loved hearing about how they hatch and eat their own eggshells! And they look like little spiders when they first hatch from eggs! They are called “Larva”. They eat like little pigs for weeks!

We wrote facts about Ladybugs.

We put on 2 curly antennae on top of each ladybug head. Then added wiggly eyes and a smile in white crayon.

Then they turn into pupa and make a little cacoon and stay inside of it until they have morphed into the flying insects they become as adults.

The Ladybug Art and Writing made a cool bulletin board out in the halls. This is our final bulletin board of the year. I love doing art with kids!

A Science Spin we read from Weekly REader (All About Ladybugs). I save the good ones.

Lots of good facts here! Great handwriting too!

Here are our cool “Informational Writings”. These are KINDERGARTENERS too! Didn’t they do a fantastic job? I gave them white paper and they painted their “oval” in red, orange or yellow. Then we glued on a head, 6 legs (1 x 4 inches) and 2 wiggly eyes. They drew on smiles with white crayon. Then they glued on black circles I had some mom helpers cut in different sizes. Next year I’ll add a black line down the back of the painted ladybug before adding the “spots”. It would have looked better. Live and learn!

Did you know ladybugs were cool AND cute? WE did.

Books we will read for insect week this week.

We brainstormed a list of facts about ladybugs, and some describing words on a giant piece of red butcher paper shaped like a ladybug. That is a great way to instill some background knowledge or schema before writing projects.

Ladybug painting by Mrs. Moss’ class of kindergarteners.

For more activities I did when I had 2nd graders check out a previous post I did HERE or another one HERE.

Here is our cute little ladybug art. We also did a life cycle, but I forgot to snap a picture. Here is what we did last year

A fun printable that I laminated for a center is HERE at a Kids Heart. Then I bought some dry black beans in a bag and the kids pick up a handful and drop them on the board. They add the two sides of beans together and write an equation. It’s a lot of fun at center time. I just printed them without spots.

Grant did an excellent job on his writing. He is a very good writer!

Writing is SO important. It is reciprocal for learning to spell, phonics and sounding out, handwriting, and reading. It helps improve all 4 areas of Language Arts. That is why I do it every single day. Kids in my class are real good spellers and I believe this is why. (I also do sound spelling on white boards “word families” every single day. It helps with all of the above also.

A fun Insect Center.

I’ve also done the caterpillar larva and praying mantis larva during this insect unit. Once I bought live ladybugs and we kept them in the butterfly house for a day and then went out and let them go. You can get them for about 5 bucks for a ton of them at Home Depot in the spring and early summer. You can also buy the larva HERE at Insect Lore for about $15 bucks.

I had these insects out at a center too. Most of the kids can tell you insects have 3 body parts and 6 legs.

We made little ladybug puppets with this song on the back too. It was fun to sing to the tune of “If You’re Happy and you Know It!”

OH I WISH I WERE A LITTLE LADY BUG (2 TIMES)
I’D BE SHINY RED AND BLACK
I’D EAT APHIDS FOR MY SNACK
OH I WISH I WERE A LITTLE LADYBUG!