How to Create Pirate Ships & Pirate Battle Games
You can inexpensively create pirate ships and pirate battle games for hours of imaginative play. Pirate ships made of common household materials set the scene for a variety of sea adventures and battle games. Players will be more engaged in the games when they are given the opportunity to create and customize their own pirate ship. Foster artistic creation and imagination in children or adults by guiding the pretend pirates to make and battle handmade pirate ships.
Things You'll Need
- Pirate Ships:
- 2 cardboard milk cartons
- 4 wooden chopsticks
- Hot glue gun
- Construction paper
- Scissors
- Markers
- Battle Games:
- 10 sheets black construction paper
- Table
- 1 die
Instructions
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Pirate Ships
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1
Rinse the empty milk cartons thoroughly to remove all milk residue from the inside and outside. Leaving milk in the carton will cause the finished pirate ships to stink within a day.
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2
Close the cleaned milk cartons and set them down on their sides where the nutritional information is printed.
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3
Pierce the center of the top side of the cartons with the tip of the scissors six inches and three inches from the carton's base. Spin the scissors to make holes that are just wide enough for the chopsticks.
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4
Insert the chopsticks into the newly created holes so they protrude approximately five inches above the carton. Apply hot glue to the base of each chopstick where it enters the milk carton and hold it in position until the glue cools, which takes less than a minute.
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5
Cut four rectangular sails from the construction paper that are approximately 4 inches wide and 3 inches tall. Cut four smaller sails approximately 2 inches wide and 1 inch tall.
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6
Cut half-inch slits in the top and bottom of all the sails and slide the larger sails onto the chopsticks before the smaller ones.
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7
Decorate the milk carton ship with markers and by cutting and attaching pieces of construction paper with hot glue. Circles on the sides of the carton give the appearance of portholes. Create a skull and crossbones flag from construction paper to fly the pirate flag from the top of one of the chopstick masts.
Battle Games
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8
Cut the sheets of black construction paper in half and crumple them into tight, round balls. Compressing the construction paper into tight wads will make paper cannonballs that fly far and straight.
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9
Give each player 10 paper cannonballs and position the pirate ships at the ends of a table so they are as far from the other ships as possible.
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10
Roll a single die to see which player gets the highest number. This player gets to go first.
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11
Choose to roll or fire a cannonball for each turn. Rolling allows the player to move the number of inches on the die in any direction. Cannonballs must be released from behind the ship for the shot to be legal. Each cannonball that makes contact with the enemy ship before it hits the table counts as a hit point for the opposing player.
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12
Continue taking turns rolling and moving or firing cannonballs until one player has made five direct hits on the opponent's ship. The player who shot the cannonballs to make the five direct hits is declared the winner and the game is reset.
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1
Tips & Warnings
Talk in pirate phrasing and create character voices to add to the imaginative pirate battles.
Cover the table with a blue sheet or cloth to give the playing field the appearance of water.
Wearing an eye patch makes it difficult to judge distance and can give an unfair advantage to the two-eyed player.
References
- Photo Credit Pirate image by Dubravko Grakalic from Fotolia.com
