avast, me hearties

Avast me hearties, we did it, after months of saving cardboard, we had our first community event! It was a lot of fun and I think there was at least 50 people, playing, building, and plundering and it was very easy to do. Here is how we did it so you can have your own fun, engaging, family or community event.

Adjusting the mast

Working hard

It started with a thought of having an event to bring people together to build and have fun all we needed was a theme. We then decided we would focus on the theme pirates in honor of international talk like a pirate day on September 19th. Once we had the theme, we could then find activities to fit into the theme. We decided to build pirate boats, make pirate vests, hats, and come up with pirate names.

For the boats, I started saving cardboard from our neighborhood about two months ago with the intent of using one of my favorite toys Makedo to assist in our creativity. I have used Makedo many times in classes, science museums, and other events.  Every time I use it, I can not wait for the next opportunity to find something new and different to do with it!

To collect cardboard, I would walk our dog in our neighborhood in search of the good pieces; bathtubs, washers, dryers, and air conditioning boxes. If you do not have the luxury of living in an area that has a lot of new building, it is still rather easy to come across large cardboard boxes. I have had a lot of success calling Lowes Home Improvement early in the morning and simply asking if they have any boxes.

Our garage full of cardboard

To build the vests, I saved paper bags from grocery stores. We cut straight up the middle, cut a little place out for the neck and poked out places for arms. We had lots of markers and sticky "jewels" so people could decorate.

To complete the pirate assemble, we made hats from newspaper, following these very simple directions.

Salty Sea Dog

To add even more of a pirate effect we had a treasure box full of little toys, pirate eye patches, plastic flags, and gold doubloons. We even raised the Jolly Roger.

The Jolly Roger flying high in the Christmas Tree stand!

Finally, it was time. So we took all our cardboard, paper bags, Makedo, and our recycled gold which the little buccaneers used to make canons, telescopes, and swords.

Here is a small sampling of the hard work, fun, and creativity that was had.

Thanks to all who came out to participate!

Arrrggghhhh!

Families having fun together

A "submarine" pirate ship

In the gally

 

Looking out the port windows