Pirate food

Pirates had revolting food! Mel and I thought that the only way to really get the children to realise how hard life was was to explore it .... so we did! We made 'ships biscuits' out of flour and water and left them in the sun to dry ( no electricity or fridges!)

Strangely enough the children couldn't wait to taste them! When they did they even tapped them to make sure no weevils came out before they ate them! Too precious!

Next we embarked on an adventure to Paradise Valley! The children boarded the ship - the bus-  which became known as the Jolly Roger! We set sail to our island Paradise Valley! What excitement there was! We had to celebrate our coming ashore with a tot of 'beer' and 'rum'! ( thank goodness for ginger beer and red non alcoholic champagne!) 

Having celebrated our arrival the pirates then went on to make pirate food! Mel and I had divided them beforehand into groups of four and each group was responsible for making a type of food! They made a fire .....

The next step was to cook the food.
Ingredients consisted of boiled sardines, onions in water ; potato, onions, ships biscuits cooked in vinegar ; oats, salt, butter and sugar ; and lastly bully beef oats and water! Oh my gosh did they have fun! 

This just stinks tooooo much!

And then came the testing - which was the best!

Mel and I were taken aback at how many actually ate the food - they became real pirates!

We ended up doing a real treasure hunt where each group created six clues using compass directions and another group had to find where the treasure was located! We all went home exhausted but so happy!

Treasure maps

In keeping with our theme we decided to make treasure maps! We went into the red square and showed the children how to set out their maps using a basic plotting map of squares. 

The children quickly got the idea....... we used pirate equipment like treasure chests and gave them the co-ordinates and they could take the 'treasure' if they landed on the correct spot! It was great fun.

We then headed off in pairs and used a wash of coffee and water to paint our treasure maps! They looked really old!!

Once back in the classroom the real fun began as they created their own ones!

And this was the end result.....

The real test came next when they plotted a route which another group had to follow. If the group did it correctly they landed getting some treasure! Such excitement!