The last post for the pirate party is all about the GAMES! This was for sure N’s favorite part (except for the cake).
Game 1: Island in a bottle:
We always start the party off with a craft. This gives folks who are running late time to get there. And it gives the kids time to warm up to each other before the active games begin.
This parties craft was to create an island in a bottle, since creating a ship in a bottle was more than I wanted to try with a bunch of kids 6 and under! And, bonus this craft was a science experiment too!
Each child got a plastic square ice tea bottles and added pirate jewels (colored plastic beads), pirate gold (gold plastic beads), and some sea shells. You can see the kids took this task VERY seriously!
Here’s where the science experiment comes in. I explained to the kids that oil and water won’t mix and we had a short conversation about that. I added a teaspoon of silver glitter. Then the bottle was filled up about 1/4 of the way with vegetable oil, then the rest of the way with blue water. Everyone was very curious to see if I was right. I think they didn’t believe me.
Finally the lids were SUPERGLUED down by another adult and handed back to the kiddo. They all loved them.
Treasure Hunt:
The treasure hunt was our next game. I needed the kids to do this before the kids got too wound up. Besides the treasure hunt was how they got their costumes that they were going to wear for the rest of the party.
We gathered around the patio and each child was given their map (Miss M decided to put her costume on early.)
Then I read the poem line for the next stop on the treasure hunt. The poem goes like this:
- In a land lubber fort lies a treasure you can sport! (Castle – Sash)
- If ye be a pirate peek if you dare; but don’t let the forest monsters give you a scare! (Trees – Pirate beard)
- In the place where you dig and ye’ll find a treasure that’ll send ye to the brig! (Sand Box – Eye patch)
- Beware of Kracken and Davy Jones below the flag of skull and bones. (Pirate Ship – Pirate hat)
The kids had a blast trying to figure out where the different items were hidden.
And after the hunting was done we had a whole ship worth of PIRATES!
Walk the Plank
Now that we had a whole bunch of pirates it was time to walk the plank. This took very little time. And several of the kids walked (or ran) the plank several times.
Sharks and Minnows:
I had never heard of Sharks and Minnows until I was looking for games for the party. But this game was perfect. Running and 6 year olds? Yep! Perfect.
Its basically a modified game of tag. We painted lines about 20 feet apart. One child stays between the lines – the shark. The other kids line up on the lines – the minnows. The minnows have to run across the sea and not get tagged by the shark. Once a minnow gets tagged by the shark, THEY become a shark. When all the minnows are sharks the game is over. I am not sure they followed the rules as much as they just ran all over. But hey, they had fun!
Tick Tock Don’t Get Eaten by the Croc
This was basically hot potato only played with a wooden croc.
There was an issue with the first kids eliminated. They were pretty upset to be eliminated. So they were put in charge of taking pictures and running the music. And that made things better.
Musical Islands
This is a knock of musical chairs. I couldn’t decid what to use for the islands. Then I remembered I had a whole bunch of hula hoops from t-ball pratice. PERFECT!
There was less of an issue with kids getting eliminated in this game because they knew they would get to run the music.
Pirate Ship War
We took a refrigerator box and cut it up to make 2 pirate ships. The masts were made from 1″ PVC pipe, more of that white queen size sheet, and black felt for the jolly roger. Then we added aluminum foil “cannon balls” and let the kids have at it. They had a great time. And I laughed until I couldn’t see straight.
Pirate Ship Ride:
The last event of the party was a pirate ship ride. N ALWAYS finds a way to work a tractor ride into the party somehow. This one was my mom’s idea. Mr. Steam grabbed one of the pirate ship masts and put it in the pole mount in our tractor trailer. We loaded all the kids up and off they went on their ship ride.
That’s it for the pirate party. You’ll have to wait for our next shin dig to see what we are up to. T
Game Inspiration:
Pirate Party Links:
Not Your Normal Steam 
Oh wow, you really went all out on the games, I LOVE IT!! The pirate ship you created is pretty darn amazing. Great post with lots of details and photos, looks like the kids all had a blast! Thanks so much for letting me know about your party, and for the shout out!
Your welcome Kelly! Thanks again for the ideas. And stopping by!
where did u get bottles for enough kids to make those bottles? if u dont mind me asking.
The bottles are actually plastic ice tea bottles. The brand is Pure Leaf. I mostly drink iced tea at work. So I just made sure to always drink this brand. Then I took them home and washed them in the dishwasher.