Looking for pirate sensory activities for kids to celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day? Then look no further than this pirate sensory bin! Your kids will love this simple pirate water play activity.
Water play is usually our go-to activity when we need to hit the reset button for the day. Which is exactly what we needed this one particular day.
See, the kids and I were at the bookstore and my boys were literally running around and hiding among the shelves. Things were hectic and I was getting worn out so we were about to leave when a staff member flagged us down. I think she sensed how exhausted I was or something because she asked it if was okay to give the boys something that was leftover from one of their weekly story times. Of course I said yes because, at this point, I needed something to help distract or settle the kids.
The bag she game them was full of pirate loot such as foam pirates, gold coins, and lots of other goodies. They were happy. As for me? I was happy to know that I was mere minutes away from a much needed quiet car ride all because they had these little loot bags to play with on the way home.
When I got home, I whipped up a quick sensory soup, as I like to call them. That way we could really hit reset button for the day. I added all of their pirate goodies and some other items from around our house to put together this super simple pirate sensory bin for the kids.
Pirate Sensory Bin with Water: What You'll Need
Here's what we used for this particular pirate and treasure chest sensory bin:
- Water - We're making a water sensory bin so this was kind of obvious, right?
- Acrylic gems/diamonds or whatever small colorful gems you can find
- Foam pirates or other pirate figurines (optional)
- Fine motor tools of some kind - We personally used things from our kitchen, including a whisk, ladle, large spoon, and a bowl. You could also use things like measuring cups, measuring spoons, and/or tongs.
Simply toss everything into a plastic sensory bin container and it's ready for play. Same idea as any of our other sensory soup activities really. Just dump and play.
Time to Go on Your Own Treasure Hunt with this Fun Sensory Activity!
This pirate themed sensory bin looks sort of like a treasure chest and a pirate ship exploded in the ocean or something. There's loot and pirates everywhere!
My boys spent lots of time scooping up the loot and adding it to the bowl. Then they mixed all of those items up with a good whisk. That's what I love about sensory soup activities like this. They're great for fine motor development.
Sensory soups are also great for encouraging story telling and endless creativity. Obviously, these stories were pirate inspired today. We're using pirate themed toys and goodies here after all.
Another reason why sensory soup activities like this are so awesome is that they encourage some math learning. Things like measuring, estimation, counting, patterning, reasoning, and more. For instance, my boys used the gold coins and gems to make patterns and count.
My boys sure had a lot of fun with this pirate sensory bin. It kept them engaged for quite some time. And it would be a great activity for Talk Like a Pirate Day too!
Other Pirate Themed Activities for Kids You'll Love
