Pirates Center Activities for Preschool | Morning Tubs / Bins

1. Pirate fine motor practice mats (5 mats)

   To prepare the mats for use, print and then laminate them for durability. You will need to supply children with pom-poms, gems, buttons, beads, beans or other small objects that will fit inside the circles.
   Children will place a small object in each of the circles.

2. Pirate pre-writing tracing practice (9 cards)

   To prepare the pre-writing tracing cards for use, print and then laminate them for durability. The cards can be kept in a book-like format by making a hole in the top left corner and securing together with a key ring or a pipe-cleaner.
   Using a white board (dry-erase) marker, children will trace the lines on the card starting on the left and progressing towards the right.
   Other ideas: have children trace the path on a given card using play dough, pipe cleaners, yarn or sequins.

3. Pirate alphabet tracing practice – upper and lower case

   To prepare the alphabet tracing cards for use, print and then laminate them for durability. The cards can be kept in a book-like format by making a hole in the top left corner and securing together with a key ring or a pipe-cleaner.
   Children will use a white board (dry-erase) marker to trace the letters on the card, following the directional arrows.
   Other ideas: have children trace the letters on a given card using, play dough, pipe cleaners, yarn or sequins.

4. Treasure chest and coins alphabet match

   To prepare the activity for use, print and then laminate the pages for durability. Cut out all the pieces.
   Children will sort the upper and lower case letters to the matching treasure chests.

5. Treasure chest and gems beginning sounds match

   To prepare the activity for use, print and then laminate the pages for durability. Cut out the gems. You will need to use the treasure chests from the previous activity.
   Children will say the name of each picture and identify the beginning sound. They will then sort the gems to the matching treasure chests.

6. Feed the pirate parrot a cracker rhyming activity (32 rhyming cards)

   To prepare the activity for use, print and then laminate the pages for durability. Cut out all the pieces. Cut out the inside of the parrot’s mouth so children can “feed” him crackers. Cut out a slot along the top of the barrel (optional). Attach the parrot and barrel to a container to collect the crackers.
   Children will say the word for each of the two picture on a cracker. If they thyme, they will feed the cracker to the parrot. If the two pictures don’t rhyme, children will place the cracker in the barrel.

7. Pirate treasure CVC coins word match (5 cards)

   To prepare the activity for use, print and then laminate the pages for durability. Cut out all the pieces. Attach the coins with pictures to bottle caps to make it easier for children to pick and place on the mats (optional).
   Children will pick a word from the mat and read it. They will then find the matching picture and place it on top.

8. Pirate treasure build a sight word spelling activity (40 pre-primer sight words cards)

   To prepare the activity for use, print all the pages, laminate them for durability and then cut out the cards. You can secure the sight word treasure chests together by making a hole in the corner and placing on a key ring.
   Children will read the word on a treasure chest and build it using the gems.
   Other ideas: children can spell the words using Scrabble letters, magnetic letters, mini alphabet erasers, play dough, or simply trace the word with an erasable marker.

1. Pirate number tracing cards 1-10

   To prepare the number tracing cards for use, print and then laminate them for durability. The cards can be kept in a book-like format by making a hole in the top left corner and securing together with a key ring or a pipe-cleaner.
   Children will use a white board (dry-erase) marker to trace the number on the card, following the directional arrows.
   Other ideas: have children trace the numbers on a given card using play dough, pipe cleaners, yarn or sequins. Use the cards as counting cards: make a hole at the bottom of each card and thread a pipe cleaner through; have children string beads on the pipe cleaner to show how many.

2. Pirate ship and anchor counting 1-10

   To prepare the activity for use, print and then laminate the pages for durability. Cut out all the pieces. Make a hole in the anchor ring and the side of a ship. You will need to supply children with linking chains.
   Children will match the number on the anchor to the ship with the same number of dots on its sail. They will then use the correct number of linking chains to link the anchor to the ship.

3. Treasure chest and gems number sense 1-10

   To prepare the activity for use, print and then laminate the pages for durability. Cut out all the pieces. Attach transparent velcro to each gem to make it easier for children to keep the pieces on the treasure chest (optional).
   Children will identify and match all the number representations on the gems to the correct treasure chest. Introduce only a couple of numbers to begin with and, once children are familiar with the activity and have gained confidence, more numbers can be added.
   Other ideas: glue the gems on to clothes pegs/pins to make it a fine motor building activity.

4. Pirate sorting by size: small, medium, large

   To prepare the activity for use, print and then laminate the page for durability. Cut out all the pieces. Attach transparent velcro to the objects to make it easier for children to keep the pictures on the mats (optional).
   Children will determine the size of each item and sort it to the corresponding mat.

5. Treasure chest and key shape match (10 shapes)

   To prepare the activity for use, print and then laminate the pages for durability. Cut out all the pieces.
   Children will identify and match all the keys to the correct treasure chests.
   Other ideas: glue the keys on to clothes pegs/pins to make it a fine motor building activity.

6.  Treasure chest and gems color match (9 colors)

   To prepare the activity for use, print and then laminate the pages for durability. Cut out all the pieces.
   Children will match the gems to the matching colored treasure chest. You may also like to provide children with objects from your home or classroom and ask them sort them to the corresponding colors.

7. Which picture is different? Pirate theme (4 cards)

   To prepare the cards for use, print, laminate them for durability and then cut them apart. You will need to supply children with clothes pegs or paper clips for this activity in order for them to show their answers.
   Children will clip a peg on the picture that is different.

8. What doesn’t belong? Pirate theme (4 cards)

   To prepare the cards for use, print, laminate them for durability and then cut them apart. You will need to supply children with clothes pegs or paper clips for this activity in order for them to show their answers.
   The aim of this activity is for children to clip a peg on the picture that doesn’t belong.

9. Sorting kind and unkind actions

   To prepare the activity for use, print and then laminate the pages for durability. Cut out all the pieces. Attach transparent velcro to the back of each gem to make it easier for children to keep the treasure chests (optional).
   Children will identify and match all the gems to the correct treasure chests.

10. Digging for Treasure sequencing cards (4-part sequencing)

    To prepare the cards for use, print, laminate them for durability and then cut them apart. Attach velcro to the back of each picture and box (optional).
    Children will order the cards to show the sequence of the pirate digging for treasure.

11. Pirate AB patterns (5 cards)

    To prepare the cards for use, print, laminate them for durability and then cut them apart. Attach the pictures cut out from the bottom of the page to the end of a clothes peg/pin using a hot glue gun to make this a fine motor building activity. Alternatively, you can use velcro.
    Children will identify the pattern on the cards and will clip the correct picture in the empty box to complete the pattern.

12. Pirate shadow matching (20 card pairs)

    To prepare the activity for use, print and then laminate the pages for durability. Cut out all the pieces.
    The aim of this activity is for children to match the pictures to their shadows.

Happy Teaching 🙂

Your students will have so much fun learning with the Pirates Center Activities for Preschool packet!

Click here to view other center activities for preschool and kindergarten.