SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About TLT
  • Reviews
    • Book Reviews
    • A to Z Book Lists
    • Book Review Policy
  • Teen Issues
  • Middle Grade Mondays
  • Programs
    • TPiB
    • Tech Talk
  • Professional
    • Teen Services 101
    • Things We Didn’t Learn in Library School
  • MakerSpace
  • Projects
    • #SVYALit
    • #FSYALit
    • #MHYALit
    • #Poverty in YA Lit

September 13, 2012 by Karen Jensen, MLS

Strike Yer Colors! There Be Pirates Here! Arrrrr! (TPIB: Talk Like a Pirate Day)

September 13, 2012 by Karen Jensen, MLS   1 comments

Arrrghhhh! September is always a fun month programming-wise.  You have Banned Book Week, you have National Library Card Sign-up Month, you have all the Back-To-School activities, you have International Make Your Mark Day (September 15th-ish, see blog post here) but my absolute favorite program to do in September is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.


September 19, 2012 is the 10th anniversary of Talk Like a Pirate Day, and HOW can you let this programming opportunity pass you by?  It’s perfect for all ages, because of the wide variety of crafts, activities, and movies that you can show; and if you’re like me, you are responsible for more than just the teen population. 


For starters, have your kids hoist their own colors by making their own Jolly Roger flag.  Print out and copy a variety of skulls, bones, swords, and other emblems that can be found on pirate flags, and then have your kids cut out and color them to their tastes.  Then glue them onto squares of vibrant copy paper, or go traditional and use black construction paper.
If that’s not enough craft-ivities for your programming time, take butcher paper or colored copy paper and have kids cut raggedly along the edges so that the edges look worn.  Then take black crayons or markers, and have them draw their own pirate maps.  This would be a perfect time to make collection connections and have your pirate books rotating around during craft time to use as examples.  Then to make the secret X, you can have them dip a paint brush in a mixture of lemon juice and water- it won’t stain clothes, and when it dries it won’t show up on the paper.  Only waving it over a light bulb will cause the treasure to reveal itself.  (Karen’s tip: you can soak paper in coffee or tea and let it dry to have it get that worn, weary look).
If you have tweens/teens, have them make pirate booty by stringing different colors of pony beads and gold beads onto lengths of cord.  Or have them make hemp, sailor’s knots, or braided bracelets.  If you’re really ambitious, throw a temporary tattoo or henna party in conjunction with pirate day- just remember that with this type of program, a permission slip is often recommended.
Games are always a hit with my kids.  Pirate Fluxx is a fun card game with ever-changing rules, and works with up to 8 players at a time.  Have a Talk Like a Pirate contest, with the best Pirate talker winning a prize.  Or modify the game Assassin for a pirate theme:  one of the crew has the deadly black mark, but can they figure out who has it before the marked one takes out the rest of the crew? 

You can put together your own “treasure chest” – actually a time capsule – and bury it.  Come back in 1, 5 or 10 years and unearth it.

Have a pirate costume relay race.  Get a variety of scarves, hats, etc.  Place them all together at one end of your room and have teens relay race to dress up the designated person as the best pirate.  Or do a Project Runway type of pirate fashion show.  Don’t forget, you can buy plain bandannas and use fabric markers or pain to make pirate scarves.  If you are really adventurous, you can do tie-dying.  But you can also do no mess tie-dye with permanent markers and rubbing alcohol.

I have always wanted to do a can stacking event and use it as an opportunity to encourage teens to give back to their community.  You can have teens bring canned goods to donate to the local food shelter as their admittance “fee” and then see if they can build a pirate ship out of the cans.  This is called CANstruction: making sculpture out of stacking cans.  If the cans scare you, or you don’t have space, you can always have races to see who can build a pirate ship out of Legos.

For a great passive program for tweens and teens, have a pirate themed scavenger hunt using the library’s collection.  They could pick up the scavenger list at the teen or reference desk, search to find the proper books that have the items, and return for their pirate booty (or scan the library for QR codes and get their clues).  And absolutely give each person their own pirate name- there are numerous pirate name generators online, and anyone with a smart phone can walk around during the program and attach a nametag to each participant. 
With Talk Like a Pirate Day being a Wednesday this year, my kids are coming straight from school and sitting most of the day- which makes for jittery and wiggly kids.  If your kids are anything like mine, they want constant stimulation, and if you have a movie license, showing movies is an excellent way to balance things out.  Those who finish early can watch the movie, those who need more time can have all the time they need without feeling like they’re holding things up for others.  Movies like The Goonies, Peter Pan, Hook, and The Pirates:  Band of Misfits work with family programming, while the Pirates of the Caribbean series skews more toward an older tween/teen audience.
If you want to make sure everyone knows you are having an event, then email the Webwench (webwench@talklikeapirate.com) and they’ll add your event to the official map, and you can join the official Facebook, follow their Twitter, and add your photos to the Flickr as well.  If your library provides access to Mango Languages, it’s a wonderful day to promote the database as well- Mango has a Pirate Language tutorial.
So tell me’now, how will ye be celebratin’ Pirates Day?

Filed under: Pirates, Programming, Talk Like a Pirate Day, Teen Programming in a Box, TPIB

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments

About Karen Jensen, MLS

Karen Jensen has been a Teen Services Librarian for almost 30 years. She created TLT in 2011 and is the co-editor of The Whole Library Handbook: Teen Services with Heather Booth (ALA Editions, 2014).

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

September 2016

TPIB: Photo Shrink Jewelry Charms

by Karen Jensen, MLS

June 2015

TPiB: Comic Book Creations

by Karen Jensen, MLS

May 2015

Book Review and Program Ideas: Playing with Surface Design by Courtney Cerruti

by Karen Jensen, MLS

May 2015

Take 5: Postcards from France, programs, books and more for a France themed day (Quarto Week) (TPiB)

by Karen Jensen, MLS

February 2015

TPiB: Programming with Straws

by Karen Jensen, MLS

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

One Star Review, Guess Who? (#184)

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Review of the Day – Trees: Haiku from Roots to Leaves by Sally M. Walker, ill. Angela McKay

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Review: Nat the Cat Takes a Nap

by Esther Keller

Heavy Medal

March suggestions: early Mock Newbery possibilities

by Emily Mroczek-Bayci

Teen Librarian Toolbox

Here Be Monsters: On Horror, Catharsis, and Uneasy Truces with Yourself, a guest post by author Rebecca Mahoney

by Karen Jensen, MLS

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

Newbery Medalist Amina Luqman-Dawson visits The Yarn

by Colby Sharp

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

Duke MDs’ Prescription for Schools? Masks, with Enforcement, and Psychological Support for Teachers, Students.

The Human Rainbow | Dr. Ibram X. Kendi on Antiracism

Pronouncing Kids’ Names Correctly Matters. Here’s How to Get it Right.

37 Kidlit and YA Titles in Honor of Hispanic Heritage Month

21 Books About Children and their Names

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. Talk Like a Pirate Day–September 19th » North Central Kansas Libraries System says:
    September 13, 2016 at 9:28 am

    […] Strike Yer Colors! There Be Pirates Here! Arrrrr! (TPIB: Talk Like a Pirate Day) from School Library Journal […]

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Follow This Blog

Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News & Features
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • School Libraries
  • Public Libraries
  • Age Level
  • Ideas
  • Blogs
  • Classroom
  • Diversity
  • People
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Book Lists
  • Best Books
  • Media
  • Reference
  • Series Made Simple
  • Tech
  • Review for SLJ
  • Review Submissions

SLJ Blog Network

  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal
  • Neverending Search
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn

Resources

  • 2022 Youth Media Awards
  • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
  • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
  • Summer Reading 2021
  • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
  • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
  • Summer Programming Survey
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies
  • School Librarian of the Year
  • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
  • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

Events & PD

  • In-Person Events
  • Online Courses
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Content Submissions
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Diversity Policy
  • Careers at MSI


COPYRIGHT © 2023


COPYRIGHT © 2023