How cute are these little rocking paper plate ships? We made these yesterday ahead of our coastal walk that we went on today and both of my two kids are still totally fascinated by them. Every time they walk past they give them a tap and watch them rock for a bit before carrying on. I have to admit they’re probably my favourite craft that we have made recently too! They’re so sweet and easy to make and they only require basic resources too which makes them perfect for crafting at home or in groups. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any pirate ships today or any boats with yellow and purple sails but we did see some pretty cool other ones!
Heres what we used
Paper plate
Coloured paper
Lollipop stick
Scissors
Glue
How to mAKE OUR ROCKING PAPER PLATE SHIP
First take your paper plate and fold it in half. Then, take your blue paper and cut it into wavy strips to create your ocean waves. Glue your paper strips across the front half of your paper plate and put it aside to dry.
Whilst your ocean is drying it’s time to make your ship! Cut out a trapezium shape for the base of your boat and then glue your lollipop to back of it to make the mast. Then cut out two curved triangles to make the ship’s sails and glue them onto the front of your stick.
Finish decorating your ship by adding any decoration such as circle portholes or patterns/designs on the sail. Pop your ship to one side.
Hopefully by now your paper plate ocean is nearly dry. Take it up again and trim off the loose ends of your paper strips to round off your plate again.
Glue your ship onto the back of your paper plate and leave to dry. Once it’s dry your awesome paper plate ship is finished! Don’t they look great?!
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I’m back again with another wooden spoon puppet craft that we made to go with our cardboard puppet theatre! Today’s puppet is this awesome wooden spoon pirate captain puppet that my son dreamed up and I helped him make. We have had so much fun on this project and I think this might be one of my favourite puppets that we have made so far. We’ve made up several different stories around him and my little lad is already coming up with loads of ideas for accessories that we can make to go with him too!
Self adhesive felt(we prefer to use self adhesive rather than felt and felt glue as it means that my son can do the sticking rather than just watch me doing it all. We just only peel off the bits we want to stick).
Scissors
Glue gun
How to make our wooden spoon pirate captain puppet
Start off by taking your lollipop stick and gluing it centrally across the neck of your wooden spoon, this will make the pirate’s arm. Then you’ll need to give your pirate a face. We started off by cutting out and sticking down a beard, we then added the hat on top before sticking on two grumpy eyes and a mouth.
To make the t-shirt, place your captain on to the back of your felt and draw your shirt shape around it on to the paper backing before cutting it out. Remember your shirt will need to be wider than your puppet frame in all places.
To save felt you could just stick one shirt piece to the front. However, we’re planning on using our puppets long term so wanted to make them sturdy as possible. We drew around our shirt shape and cut out a second identical piece to make the back. If you decide to cut out a back piece too remember to draw around the shirt with both felt sides facing outwards as they will be on the spoon, otherwise your pieces might not match up!
To attach your pirate shirt, peel off the backing paper and attach one to the front of your spoon and one to the back. Pinch the two sides together to meet and secure in the middle. Repeat the same process to make a little pair of trousers.
Finish off your pirate by adding some decoration. We cut out some yellow felt strips for the sleeves and the bottom of his shirt and we also added some yellow buttons. Finally we gave our pirate a sword by cutting out a white blade with a black hilt and sticking them together on one of our lollipop stick hands
*please note this post may contain amazon affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase via any of the links provided i may make a commission. This comes at no extra cost to you and helps me keep this site up and running*
Here I am again with another puppet craft that we made to use with our cardboard puppet theatre! I absolutely love this one. My son decided he wanted to make this after reading the night pirates – a story about a little boy and a gang of rough, tough girl pirates. Both my son and I both found this one the most fun to make just because it was a bit different with plaiting the hair and adding some fun stripy decoration. Our cute wooden spoon girl pirate puppet makes the perfect addition to the crew of our pirate captain puppet!
Self adhesive felt(Felt and flet glue also works but we prefer to use self adhesive felt as it means my son can do the sticking rather than just watching me glue it – we just remove the backing paper from the parts we want to stick).
First take your lollipop stick and glue it centrally across the top of your wooden spoon neck to make the arms. Next, give your pirate some hair. To make our hair we glued wool scraps around the curve of the spoon head, then plaited each side before fastening with a coloured wool scrap.
Next give your puppet two eyes and a mouth. Cut out a bandanna and add some stripes to it before sticking it down on the top of your puppet’s head. Once you have done that, place your puppet on the back of your felt and draw her shirt shape around her before cutting it out. Remember, your shirt will need to be wider in all places than your puppet.
To save felt you could just stick one shirt piece to the front of your puppet. However we’re planning on using our puppets long term so wanted to make them sturdy as possible. We drew around our shirt shape and cut out a second identical piece to make the back. If you decide to cut out a back piece too remember to draw around the dress with both felt sides facing outwards as they will be on the spoon, otherwise your pieces might not match up!
Once you’ve finished cutting out your pirate shirt, add some stripes to your front one so it matches your pirate bandanna. To attach your shirt to your puppet lightly stick one to the front of your wooden spoon handle and one to the back of it. Then, pinch the two together so that they meet and secure in the middle.
Repeat the same process to give your tough girl pirate some black pirate trousers. Then, cut out a white sword blade and a black hilt and stick them down in place together on one of your lollipop stick hands. You’ll notice my little lad also made some snips to the pirate’s trousers too – apparently it makes them more pirate-y!
Birds have been a popular topic in our house the last couple of days. Yesterday we made a gorgeous tp roll Peacock and today this cute and simple parrot pal. My son loves to dress up as a Pirate and go on little treasure hunts around the house and this little parrot makes the perfect pirate accessory. They’re really easy to make and cost barely anything too!
You will need
Toilet roll/cardboard tube
feathers
White & yellow paper
marker
scissors
quick drying glue
Start off by covering your Tp roll in red paint and then put it aside to dry.
Once your parrot’s tp roll body is dry, take two long feathers and glue one either side to make two wings.
take a 5-6 multicoloured feathers and glue them down in a bunch on the back of the parrot’s body. put aside to dry the feathers in place.
whilst waiting for the body piece to dry you can make your parrots face. Cut out two small white circles or ovals for the eyes and use a marker pen to draw on some pupils. to make the break fold a piece of yellow paper in half and cut out a triangle using the fold as the bottom of the triangle. This will give you this perfect folded diamond beak.
Glue on your Parrots facial features and he is finished. So simple and easy!
Every little pirate needs their own telescope. This DIY pirate telescope is really simple to make and is great for pirate fancy dress and play. My son loves his and it provides hours of play whilst he runs around looking for buried treasure!
You will need
3 cardboard tubes (either 3 tp rolls or one large tube cut in 3 equal lengths) Gold paint Black paint Paintbrush Scissors Glue gun
Take your 3 lengths of cardboard roll and paint them in your gold paint.
take your scissors and cut a straight line through each of your cardboard rolls. If you wish to paint the inside of your telescope now is the perfect time! By blu-tacking your telescope down to a surface, you can easily paint the inside without getting any paint on the outside that you have already painted.
Roll your first carboard tube back up ensuring that it is wider at the top than it is at the bottom. Secure it in place using your glue gun.
take your second tube. Roll it tight and insert it in to the first tube, Let go of it so that it springs out to fit snugly inside the first tube. Ensuring the top part of the tube doesn’t slip, take the second tube out and glue the top part down. Roll the bottom so that it slightly narrower than it is up the top and glue it in place. Place a small amount of glue inside the first tube and secure the second tube back inside
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Repeat the previous step with the third tube, ensuring again that it is smaller at the bottom than the top.
Take your black paint and paint bands around the edges and joins of your telescope. And your telescope is finished! Why not expand on this activity by creating your own treasure map!
