Pirate Day Teaching Ideas

If you’re planning a special day, week or term of activities linked to the topic of pirates, try some of the ideas below.

If you have any other ideas of your own, please let us know by leaving a comment.

Don’t forget to explore our large collection of pirate-themed ideas and resources, too!

English:

• Use our ideas for books about pirates, like The Night Pirates and The Pirate Cruncher.
• Write a story set on a pirate ship.
• Write a diary entry for a pirate.
• Create a social media post from someone who has been attacked by pirates.
• Try this simple poetry activity to build skills in alliteration and choosing adjectives.
• Use this fun pirate-themed phonics game.
• Improvise a scene from a play about pirates.
• Make a class list of adjectives that you can use to describe pirates.
• Write an acrostic poem for the word PIRATES.
• Use these fabulous resources from Royal Museums Greenwich to inspire your children to write about pirates.

Maths:

• Design a track board game with a pirate theme, such as the players have to be the first to reach the treasure.
• Young children will enjoy subtracting with pirates win this fun video.

• Set up a Pirate Poundland in your early years setting.
• Use our Coordinates Treasure Map to create your own map and challenges.
• Use this fantastic NRICH coordinates challenge , using a treasure map, of course!
• This NRICH treasure hunt challenge is perfect for older primary children.
• This pirate-themed brain break video is perfect for getting active when you are stuck indoors, while counting to 100.

• Invent some pirate themed word problems and challenge a partner to solve them.

Science:

• Try one of these science challenges about floating and sinking.
• Create a fact file about an undersea habitat. This BBC Bitesize page is a good starting point for research for younger children.
• Try this active investigation into the effects of wearing an eye-patch on your vision
• Learn how to navigate using the stars.
• Make your own compass.

Computing:

• Use Scratch Jr to code your own pirate game.
• Younger children will enjoy this pirate game.
• Draw your own treasure map using a graphics program.
• Create a webpage about pirates.

Design Technology:

• Create your own pirate ship.
• Design a treasure chest for a pirate. What features could you add to keep the treasure safe?

Art:

• Design your own treasure map with our template.
• Look at some art about pirates, for example this 17th century Italian drawing of a pirate camp, or this woodcut of “Calico Jack” Rackham. What do you notice about them? Can you make your own picture in the same style?
• Design your own Pirate flag.

Music:

• Younger children will enjoy learning the parts of a ship with this CBeebies sea shanty.

• Learn some sea songs like What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor?

• Listen to some classical music inspired by the sea, like La Mer by Debussy and A Sea Symphony by Vaughan Williams. How does the music remind you of the sea?

Geography:

• Create your own pirate maps.
• Find out the locations of pirates around the world, and mark them on a world map.
• Show the children some authentic pirate maps, like the ones in this Royal Museums Greenwich blog post. What do you notice about them? How do they compare to modern maps? Why are they different?

History:

• Download our Pirates Pack for lots of popular teaching, activity and display resources.

• Write a biography of a pirate like Gráinne O’Malley or Sir Francis Drake.
• Create a presentation about pirates. This fact list from Funkids is a good place to start.
• Research and write a training manual for pirates. What skills did they need to have?

Physical Education:

• Play this popular Pirate Ship game.
• Create a pirate themed obstacle course
• Learn a fun pirate hip hop dance routine.

Languages:

• Learn some pirate phrases in other languages.
• Create a pirate code.

PSHE:

• Have a look at a Pirate Code and try making your own. What rules do you think pirates should follow?
• Have a discussion about whether pirates were right or wrong to steal treasure.