07 November 2024
‘Pirates’ is a fun and imaginative topic in the early years, making it perfect for EYFS activities encouraging creativity, language development, and teamwork. Provided you don’t go into too much detail of what pirates were actually like of course.
Pirate-themed activities can engage young children in exciting ways while supporting their development across the EYFS learning goals. Below are some engaging pirate activities for EYFS, designed to promote learning through play, exploration, and adventure.
Blossom's Recommended Pirate Activities for Early Years:
1. Pirate Story Time and Role Play
Start by reading a pirate-themed book, such as Pirates Love Underpants, How I Became a Pirate or Go, Go, Pirate Boat to introduce the children to pirate lingo, accents and characters.
Afterwards, enhance your role play provision with pirate hats, treasure maps and telescopes. Children can engage in imaginative play based on the stories you have read. Role play fosters imagination, confidence, and social interaction while promoting language development.
EYFS Areas of Learning and Development:
- Literacy (Comprehension)
- Communication and Language (Listening, Attention and Understanding)
- Expressive Arts and Design (Being Imaginative and Expressive)
2. Create a Pirate Treasure Map
Provide children with paper and crayons or paints to create their own pirate treasure maps. This one’s a classic: begin by tea-staining the paper to give it an old treasure map look. Once dried, the children can get creative with their treasure maps.
You can show them how to draw “X marks the spot,” dotted lines, and simple landmarks like mountains (triangle), trees (triangles with a stick), or rivers (wavy).
This activity supports creativity and fine motor skills, and you can even have children follow each other’s maps to find hidden treasure. This introduces concepts of direction, problem-solving, and spatial awareness, and covers the natural world when including natural landmarks like the above.
EYFS Areas of Learning and Development:
- Expressive Arts and Design (Creating with Materials)
- Physical Development (Fine Motor Skills)
- Understanding the World (The Natural World)
3. Pirate Ship Building
Encourage children to build their own pirate ships using building blocks, cardboard boxes, or recycled materials. They can work together to design and build a ship, using their imagination to add sails, flags, and treasure chests.
This activity promotes teamwork, problem-solving, and creativity, as well as developing their spatial awareness.
EYFS Areas of Learning and Development:
- Expressive Arts and Design (Creating with Materials)
- Physical Development (Fine Motor Skills)
- Personal, Social, and Emotional Development (Building Relationships)
4. Pirate Treasure Hunt
Organise a pirate treasure hunt by hiding small “treasures” around the classroom or playground – these can be small toys, boxes, blocks, books etc (bonus points if they’re pirate-themed).
Provide children with a simple map (like activity 2) or verbal clues to guide them to the treasure, and depending on the number of children they can either work together as a group or with a practitioner.
This activity develops listening and problem-solving skills while encouraging physical activity as they search for hidden items. To enhance the activity further, incorporate counting and sorting. Simply ask the children to count their treasures at the end or throughout.
EYFS Areas of Learning and Development:
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development (Managing Self, Building Relationships)
- Physical Development (Gross Motor Skills)
- Mathematics (Number)
5. Pirate-Themed Sensory Play
Set up a pirate-themed sensory tray with sand and small (but not too small) treasures like pretend coins and gems, toy pirate ships etc. Let the children explore the textures, hide treasure in the sand, and role-play pirate adventures.
You can also do a water tray version, though you can’t hide anything in there. Perfect for pirate boats, sea monsters and ‘dangerous’ terrain to navigate like upturned buckets, plant pots and heavier-than-water toys.
Sensory play supports children’s exploration of textures and develops fine motor skills through digging, pouring, splashing and picking up small objects.
EYFS Areas of Learning and Development:
- Physical Development (Fine Motor Skills)
- Expressive Arts and Design (Being Imaginative and Expressive)
- Communication and Language (Speaking)
6. Pirate Songs and Rhymes
Teach children fun pirate-themed songs and rhymes like “When I Was One, I Sucked My Thumb” or “Row Row Row Your Boat” (with pirate-y additions). Add simple movements or actions to get the kids even more involved, such as stomping like a pirate or swaying like a ship at sea.
This activity enhances rhythm, language skills, and memory while promoting physical coordination.
EYFS Areas of Learning and Development:
- Communication and Language (Listening, Attention and Understanding)
- Physical Development (Gross Motor Skills)
- Expressive Arts and Design (Being Imaginative and Expressive)
7. Pirate Counting and Sorting
Use pirate-themed objects like gold coins, fake gems, or mini treasure chests to create counting and sorting games. Ask children to count how many coins they have or sort the treasures by colour or size. This activity introduces early maths concepts such as counting, number recognition, and sorting.
EYFS Areas of Learning and Development:
- Mathematics (Number, Numerical Patterns)
- Communication and Language (Speaking)
- Physical Development (Fine Motor Skills)
Adding pirate activities for EYFS to your EYFS provision offers a fun and adventurous way for children to develop their literacy, maths and social skills. From storytelling and treasure hunts to shipbuilding and counting games, these activities promote imagination, teamwork, and problem-solving while aligning with EYFS areas of learning and development.
