September 19 is International Talk Like a Pirate Day!
Here’s how the 99th Guides of Calgary are going to be celebrating in style!
Our Unit will be starting their evening by decorating their own eye patches:
- We bought the eye patches from a local theme party store as they sell cheap items like this in bulk. We were expecting about 20-30 girls this year for our Unit. We then took a hobby craft black primer (this brand item was Citadel – great for spray painting plastic to metal) and colored the patches black. From the dollar store we bought items for the girls to “bling out” their eye patches. They have sticker gems and glitter glue they can use. We also have feathers and other stickers left over from last year’s crafts. They can decorate them however they wish. The glitter glue and the gem stickers were about $7 total. In the end, we anticipate the eye patches to cost about 61 cents per girl.
After they are done their eye patches the girls will break into their patrols. As a patrol they need to come up with a crew name and decorate their Jolly Roger flag.
- Using normal felts and pillow cases from the dollar store (each one makes two flags), the girls will decorate their Jolly Rogers. These will be proudly kept in our hall for the rest of the year for them to see and use for Halloween.
Now with their Jolly Roger and eye patches ready they are ready for their treasure hunt!
- Each patrol is following the hints of a pirate captain to find the captain’s hidden treasure or ‘booty’. The clues will be hidden in main areas inside and just outside of our hall. We made the clues by finding a pirate treasure map online and then spent the time burning the edges of the maps. You can also get the same effect by ripping your paper around the edges and dipping the paper in a black tea. Using a couple different websites for pirate languages, we made the notes to lead them to five locations. We then wrote the clues on the paper, rolled them up and tied them with ribbon (each patrol has a different color). The last location will lead them to their booty bags.
There are so many other ideas for pirate-themed games you can play. You can use Styrofoam balls and cardboard to create cannon holes. The pirate ships each get a cannon ball per pirate and they throw them at the other ships. After they have been hit three times the ship sinks.
Another great craft is making a message in a bottle using a pop bottle, putting sand in it along with some sea shells and doing the same tea dipping technique, making a message and rolling it up. Use a sticker to hold the paper closed and then close the bottle. They can shake the bottle and place it on their dresser.
Hopefully someone else does this and has just as much fun as I know we will.
Arrr Matey!
By guest blogger Danielle Brunelle, 99th Rundle Guides, Calgary Alberta.
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What fun day do you like to celebrate? Tell us all about it!