• Home
  • Start here
  • Curious about…?
    • Curious about me?
    • Curious about Gift of Curiosity?
    • How to download printables
    • Disclosures & Privacy
    • Copyright
  • Contact
    • Contact me
    • Get the GOC button
  • Cart

Gift of Curiosity

Sparking children's creativity and learning

Don't miss out!

  • Printables
  • Activities
    • Arts and crafts
    • Colors
    • Fine motor
    • Literacy
    • Math
    • Montessori
    • Science
    • Sensory play
    • Shapes
  • Holidays
    • Gift Guides
    • Chinese New Year
    • Valentine’s Day
    • St. Patrick’s Day
    • Earth Day
    • Easter
    • 4th of July
    • Halloween
    • Thanksgiving
    • Christmas
  • Thematic units
    • Ants
    • Apples
    • Bees
    • Botany
    • Corn
    • Farm
    • Five Senses
    • Geography
    • Human Body
    • Insects
    • Leaves
    • Ocean
    • Pirates
    • Polar animals and lands
    • Seasons: Winter
    • Seasons: Spring
    • Seasons: Summer
    • Seasons: Fall
    • Seeds
    • Space
    • States of matter
    • Weather
    • Zoology
  • Age
    • Ages 2-3
    • Ages 3-4
    • Ages 4-6
    • Ages 6-8
    • Ages 8-10
  • Book lists

Pirate Montessori Activities

November 21, 2014 by Katie 5 Comments

This post may contain affiliate ads at no cost to you. See my disclosures for more information.

Sharing is caring - thank you for spreading the word!

8.0Kshares
  • Share 7
  • Twitter
  • Email

Earlier this year the kids and I did an awesome Pirate unit as part of our homeschool. We did so many different pirate activities, including making our own telescope, playing with our pirate sensory bin, and so much more. In this post I’m detailing the Pirate Montessori activities that went on our shelves during the course of our Pirate unit.

For our pirate Montessori activities I used printables from my own Pirate Printable Pack, but I also benefitted a lot from printables created by other bloggers. I have included links to those other printables below.

I hope you enjoy taking a look at our pirate Montessori activities, and that maybe you get a little inspiration for your own pirate unit too!

Note: You can find more pirate-themed activities on my Pirate Unit Study page. 

Pirate Montessori Activities: Montessori-inspired pirate activities for a pirate learning unit. My kids LOVED putting feathers onto the parrot. And check out the fun new vocabulary words kids can learn! || Gift of Curiosity

Put the Feathers on the Parrot

For this activity, I placed some colorful duck quill feathers on a tray along with a styrofoam ball I picked up at the craft store. I printed a picture of a parrot head onto cardstock and then stuck it into the ball.

Pirate Montessori activities: Put the feathers on the parrot || Gift of Curiosity

My kids then finished the parrot by adding its feathers. This was a great fine motor activity. Both of my kids spent time doing this activity during the first days of our pirate unit.

Pirate Montessori activities: Put the feathers on the parrot || Gift of Curiosity

Ring Toss Game

I used our Spielgaben set to set up this ring toss game. I introduced it to my kids by explaining that most ships include life preservers to be used in case anyone goes overboard. They needed to practice tossing the rings onto the poles in order to practice “rescuing” people that had gone overboard.

Pirate Montessori activities : Ring toss game || Gift of Curiosity

Swabbing the Decks

An important job on any pirate ship is to swab the decks. I set up a container with a towel and brush, and I set it on our shelves.

Pirate Montessori activities: Swabbing the deck || Gift of Curiosity

The kids took the container from our shelves, removed the items from the container, then filled the container with water. They then took turns scrubbing our kitchen floor swabbing the decks.

Pirate Montessori activities: Swabbing the deck || Gift of Curiosity

Tying Practice

Okay, so this activity would have been more relevant to pirates if I had used rope and taught them some actual nautical knots. But I didn’t have rope, and in any case, QBoy had shown a particular interest in the twist ties that I bring home from the grocery store. So that is how this activity was born.

I set out a basket full of twist ties.

Pirate Montessori activities: Tying practice || Gift of Curiosity

My kids then went and tied them around various  pieces of furniture. This was great fine motor practice for them. They often want to help me in the kitchen by closing bags with twist ties, but they lack the fine motor skills to do a good job. This activity was great for building this practical life skill.

Pirate Montessori activities: Tying practice || Gift of Curiosity

Pirates Mapping Activity

During our pirates unit we also began our study of geography. We talked a lot about maps and did several activities to learn about maps. I decided to add this pirate mapping activity to our shelves.

The objective of this activity was for the kids to use the marker and paper to crate a map of the pirate scene laid out on the tray. I used tape to stick the pirate figurines (from our Safari Ltd Pirates TOOB) to the tray to ensure they would not move around as my kids moved the tray.

Pirate Montessori activities: Pirate mapping activity || Gift of Curiosity

Pirate 3 Part Cards

Every Star is Different put together these cute pirate 3 part cards. I printed them out and used them to help teach my kids some new vocabulary related to pirates.

Pirate Montessori activities: Pirate 3 part cards to learn new pirate vocabulary with free printable pirate nomenclature cards || Gift of Curiosity

We matched the pictures and added the labels. My kids’ favorite new vocabulary word was “poop deck,” because what kid doesn’t like a chance to say “poop” and have it be totally appropriate? 🙂

Pirate Montessori activities: Pirate 3 part cards to learn new pirate vocabulary with free printable pirate nomenclature cards || Gift of Curiosity

Pirate Treasure Sorting

For this activity, I placed a variety of coins into a treasure box I picked up at the craft store.

Pirate Montessori activities: Pirate treasure sorting to learn about money || Gift of Curiosity

Along with the coins, I included a pirate-themed coin sorting activity from 1+1+1=1’s Pirate Kindergarten Printables.

Pirate Montessori activities: Pirate treasure sorting to learn about money || Gift of Curiosity

Because my kids have been getting more and more interested in money lately, this was a popular activity for them. They enjoyed sorting the coins and seeing how much money was in each group.

Pirate Montessori activities: Pirate treasure sorting to learn about money || Gift of Curiosity

Pirate Graphing Activity

For this activity, I printed the pirate graphing activity from my Pirate Printables Pack. I used pirate gold coins as the counters for graphing.

Pirate Montessori activities: Pirate graphing activity || Gift of Curiosity

Number Practice with Black Sand and Gold Coins

At the time we did our pirate unit, XGirl was working on learning her numbers up to 10. I set up this activity in a 3 part tray by placing black craft sand in the large compartment on the left, our sandpaper numerals in the top right compartment, and pirate gold coins in the lower right compartment.

Pirate Montessori activities: Number recognition, number writing, and counting practice || Gift of Curiosity

This activity had three parts. First, XGirl had to trace the sandpaper numeral.

Pirate Montessori activities: Number recognition, number writing, and counting practice || Gift of Curiosity

Then she had to write the number in the black craft sand.

Pirate Montessori activities: Number recognition, number writing, and counting practice || Gift of Curiosity

Then she laid the sandpaper numerals in order and placed gold coins under each card equal to the number on the card.

Pirate Montessori activities: Number recognition, number writing, and counting practice || Gift of Curiosity

Pirate Race Game

I printed this Pirate Race Game from my Pirate Printables Pack. I added glass gems and our number dice to the tray. (I used to use jumbo foam dice, but I switched to the number dice as my children have gotten older.)

For this activity, the kids roll the dice, and then cover that number of pirates on the top. Then they roll the dice again, and cover that number of pirates on the bottom. The goal is to see which pirates reach the treasure first.

Pirate Montessori activities: Pirate race game || Gift of Curiosity

Pirate Greater Than or Less Than Practice

I wanted to introduce my kids to the “greater than” and “less than” symbols. I used this activity from 1+1+1=1’s Pirate Kindergarten Printables.

Pirate Montessori activities: Pirate greater than or less than practice || Gift of Curiosity

Pirates Clip Cards

This pirates clip cards number activity comes from my Pirate Printables Pack. XGirl counted the number of pirates on the card, and then used the clothespins to clip the correct number. (I added a little dot to the back of the card so she could check her answers.)

Pirate Montessori activities: Pirate clip cards number practice || Gift of Curiosity

Pirate Number Line Activity

This activity comes from 1+1+1=1’s Pirate Kindergarten Printables. It involves a number line with one number covered up by a pirate. I played this game with XGirl by using the little pirate and the number line pictured on top. While she wasn’t looking, I covered one of the numbers on the number line with the pirate. She then had to look at the surrounding numbers to determine which one was covered. She loved this activity!

Pirate Montessori activities: Pirate number line activity || Gift of Curiosity

Introduction to Telling Time

The idea for this activity – and the printable that goes along with it – comes directly from Every Star is Different’s pirate unit post. QBoy looked at the time on the sun cards, and then had to move the hands on the clock to show the correct time.

Pirate Montessori activities: Introduction to telling time || Gift of Curiosity

Pirate-Themed Consonant Blends Practice

This printable comes from Ms. Kist’s Kinder Kids. She included a pirate printable to work on consonant blends, which was exactly what my son was working on at the time.

Pirate Montessori activities: Pirate-themed consonnant blends practice || Gift of Curiosity

More Pirate learning resources

More pirate posts from Gift of Curiosity:

  • Pirate sensory bin and small world play
  • Parts of a pirate ship
  • Lucky treasure chest
  • Make your own telescope
  • Make your own compass
  • Books about pirates


You can find more pirate-themed activities and printables on my Pirate Unit Study page and my Pirates Pinterest board.

Follow Katie @ Gift of Curiosity’s board Pirates on Pinterest.

Products mentioned in this post:

Don't miss out!

5 Comments

Comments

  1. Emma @ P is for Preschooler says

    November 22, 2014 at 4:32 am

    So many fun ideas for a pirate theme! I loved the Spielgaben ring toss – is there nothing those cool toys can’t be turned into?! 😉

    Reply
  2. Sheila @ BrainPowerBoy says

    November 23, 2014 at 1:07 pm

    I Love this. We are big pirate fans. I like the ring toss and the sand #s best though it was hard to choose. A whole lot of fun hands-on learning ideas!

    Reply
  3. Renae says

    November 25, 2014 at 7:24 am

    It looks like you had a FABULOUS time with pirate activities! I’m so excited that you were able to use and enjoy some of the printables I created! 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing them with others.

    Reply
    • Katie SG says

      November 25, 2014 at 7:32 am

      Yes Renae, we loved studying pirates. Sometimes we still talk like pirates too! 🙂 It was my pleasure to share your great pirate resources with others.

      Reply
  4. Ana says

    February 2, 2016 at 4:14 am

    Es preciosa la unidad. Qué artista.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Spread the word!

Gift of Curiosity
<a href="https://www.giftofcuriosity.com" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.giftofcuriosity.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/GOC_button_200.png" alt="Gift of Curiosity" width="210" height="60" /></a>

Archives

Privacy

Still Curious?

Find me on:

* Facebook

* Pinterest

* Instagram

* Or contact me by email.

Copyright Info

All text, images, logos, tag lines, etc. found at Gift of Curiosity are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. See my copyright page for more information.

Copyright © 2021 Gift of Curiosity

Copyright © 2021 · Gift of Curiosity on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in