Prep time: 2 mins
Activity time: 60 - 90 mins
The forecast was for thunderstorms all day. As usual, the boys were up by 6:30. And my husband is out of commission with pneumonia. We had a bunch of cardboard boxes from some deliveries the night before, which were the perfect building blocks for making a pirate ship.
Zach and I went online and researched pictures of pirate ships and found one we wanted to use as our inspiration. The boys got some chalk and we drew our design onto the biggest box. I used a combination of scissors and a serrated knife to cut out the base of the boat and billowing sails. I actually found the knife easier for getting through the thick cardboard and creating curves. Just watch those fingers!
We used some of the foam packing material for the mast, plus a generous amount to tape to adhere the 2 mast pieces to each other, as well as the base of the boat. We looked online again for pictures of a Jolly Roger that I could actually draw and then used chalk to make the design. Once we were happy with it, I went over it with a black sharpie, and used a damp paper towel to “erase” the chalk. Using the same “generous amounts of tape” technique, we connected the sail to the mast. Then we covered the foam mast with cardboard cut from the corner of one of the boxes. We used a spider web style design for the ladders up to the crow's nest to complete our beautiful ship!
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| Our pirate ship, constructed from a computer box |
We practiced some choice pirate phrases (including “ahoy me mateys,” “shiver me timbers” and Elijah truly mastered “Arrrrrg!”) and the boys spent all morning in the boat. They were really proud to show their daddy when he came out for some chicken soup.
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| Just add pirates |
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