Gasparilla Fun Celebrating Our Favorite Little Pirates at Home

It’s Gasparilla time here in Tampa Bay — and you know what that means, right? Pirate Invasions, everywhere you look, arghhh, matey!

All the parades and celebrations are loads of fun to attend (and personally, my family has made a tradition of going to the Gasparilla Children’s parade, collecting necklaces, and then hitting up a local donut shop for some yummy snacks afterward)– but who says you can’t have your own personal pirate celebration at home instead (or in addition to) all the pirate parades, invasions, and parties! Here are few ideas to get you going on your celebration, my matey!

Design Your Own Pirate Flags

Creating your own pirate flag is simple and easy.  You can use as many components or as few as you would like — it’s up to you! And not all pirate flags need to have ships, skulls, and bones on them. Let your little ones use their creative minds to make unique flag designs and you’ll be amazed at what they can come up with! Starting with a long triangle of with colored felt or foam and using some acrylic paint, puffy paint, or craft scraps to make the design. Alternatively, you can hit up your local craft store and check out the felt and foam cutouts for ideas.

Make Your Own Mini Pirate Ship

Using cardboard, some creativity, and this cool post from ikatbag, you and the kiddos can make your own mini personal Pirate Ship to paint and decorate any way you like!

Create Your Own Backyard Treasure Map

Most kids know what a map is, but few have ever needed to read one. We drew a simple map of our backyard and added different sorts of lines with a legend saying what the lines meant. For each line, you have to use a different motion. For the treasure at the end, keeping with the theme, I used chocolate coins!

Learn to Speak Like a Pirate!

There is this cool site speakpirate.com that will translate whatever you type into pirate speak!  Arrggghh!

Children’s Pirate Books to Read and Enjoy

• Shiver Me Timbers: A Pirate ABC by June Sobel
• How I Became A Pirate by David Shannon
• Pirates Go To School by Corinne Demas
• How I became a Pirate by Melinda Long
• Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs by Giles Andreae
• Pirates Don’t Change Diapers by Melinda Long
• Pirate Girl by Cornelia Funke
• Blackbeard by Pat Croce
• Pirate Pete’s Talk Like a Pirate by Kim Kennedy

Pirate Printables

3 Boys and a Dog has a host of fun educational printables you can download for free from cutting practice sheets to vocabulary word finds!