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Ahoy, mateys! We have 7 speech and language pirate themed activities to spice up your summer sessions or keep your little swashbucklers busy all summer long. Check out our awesome line up of pirate ideas and fun to fill your entire week of speech and language therapy. Don’t forget to instantly download our FREEBIE Pirate Vocabulary Bingo game either!
7 Pirate Activities For Kids
- Make It Monday
- Take A Trip Tuesday
- Water Wednesday
- Thinking Thursday
- Foodie Friday
- Scavenger Hunt Saturday
- Sensory Sunday
Make It Monday
First up, we made our very own treasure chest full of loot and doubloons…chocolate ones of course. Just grab the following:
- Cardboard egg carton
- Brown paint
- Gold masking tape
- Gems/chocolate coins/other small treasures
- Paint brush
Cut the cardboard egg carton in half and let your first mate paint the entire outside and inside brown. Once dry, place the gold masking tape wherever you want to make it look like a real treasure chest. Then fill with gems, chocolate coins, or any other small treasures you may have laying around the house!
Take A Trip Tuesday
We headed to check out our very own “pirate ship” this week! My boys and I are currently living in Glasgow, Scotland for the summer. Just down the road is a transportation museum with its very own permanent tall ship exhibit. While this ship, the Glenlee, was used mostly for cargo and transporting goods, we couldn’t help but pretend we were sailing the high seas as pirates!
If you aren’t near a tall ship exhibit like us, no big deal! Go ahead and search for a themed playground or splash pad. Several summers ago we found a super cute pirate themed playground near our home in Illinois as well as a full on pirate themed splash pad equipped with a water canon and treasure chest!
Water Wednesday
Mandy and her girls made pirate sensory bottles! Her girls had a great time filling sensory bottles with little treasures and trinkets. All you need is the following:
- Clear glue
- Gold glitter
- Plastic sensory bottles
- Trinkets, glass beads, or any other small treasures
- Water
First, empty the glue bottle into the sensory bottle. Then add whatever beads, trinkets, and other small gems for your pirate’s booty. Add a few pinches of gold glitter then fill the rest of the bottle with water. Seal the bottle tightly and shake to mix all contents. Enjoy the calming effects of your new pirate sensory bottle!
Thinking Thursday
Get into character with a fun pirate book! This week Mandy read How I Became A Pirate by Melinda Long with her girls. Such a cute book filled with lots of pirate themed phrases, vocabulary, and detailed illustrations. Perfect to target WH questions and labeling/describing with younger students and discuss non-literal phrases and inferencing with the older kids!
To go along with our fun pirate themed book, Mandy made an awesome freebie to continue targeting pirate themed vocabulary. Check out this Freebie Pirate Themed Vocabulary Bingo game. It comes in full color as well as black and white. It even includes printable gold coins for the Bingo markers too!
Don’t miss out and instantly download yours today!
Foodie Friday
We have the EASIEST pirate themed recipe for you this week. We made mini pirate ships with apples, toothpicks, and slices of cheddar. Just slice the apple with an apple slicer. Cut out small rectangles of cheese. Stick the toothpick through the cheese to resemble a sail then place in the top of the apple slice. Super yummy and super easy! And this means no scurvy for us either!
Scavenger Hunt Saturday
We have another vocabulary scavenger hunt for this week! Check out our Pirate Vocabulary Scavenger Hunt to increase receptive and expressive vocabulary as well as increasing mean length of utterance, spatial prepositions, and more! Targeted pirate vocabulary words include: Treasure Chest, Telescope, Map, Pirate Ship, Parrot, Message In A Bottle, Barrel, Gold, Shovel, Gem, Flag, Steering Wheel, Anchor, Compass.
Print and laminate the vocabulary cards to hide around the classroom or place into a sensory bin. Use the sentence strip visual to create 4-5 word utterances. Use the find and color or find and cover pages for additional activity. Pair the hidden pirate picture scene with any of the above ideas for a fully comprehensive vocabulary activity for your next speech and language session!
Great activity for a rainy day too. Hide pictures around the house to keep your little entertained. Print either the vocabulary checklist or find and color page for even more engaging fun!
Want an articulation scavenger hunt as well? Check out our Pirate Speech Articulation Scavenger Hunt to target all sounds in the initial, final, and medial position in addition to initial /r-blends/, /l-blends/, /s-blends/, and vocalic /r/.
Sensory Sunday
For a fun pirate themed sensory activity, Mandy put together a treasure island sand table for her girls! She filled her water table with sand and threw in treasure plus pinchers and scoops. Her girls had lots of fun searching for the loot!
We have just one more idea for our pirate themed sensory activity! We love a good dress up session in both of our houses! Our kids (and Mandy’s sweet dog, Lola) decided to have some fun and stretch their sea legs. Captain Ayla, First Mate Conor, Second Mate Zadie, and Bosun Lola definitely all fit the part too!
While our kids love dressing up, we love it for lots of reasons too! Our kids were able to use all kinds of language while engaged in pretend play. While they play, they often have great back and forth conversations. Pretend play is critical for developing language and dressing up is such a fun and simple way to encourage it!
Argh, all ye landlubbers! Shiver me timbers! Pirate week has come to an end! We hope you found some inspiration to spice up your summer speech and language sessions and/or keep your littles entertain at home this summer. Either way, let us know if you tried your luck at being a pirate by following us on social media! We would love to see your adventures!
Kate & Mandy
Talking Mama Bears
