20 pirate-themed party games for kids

It isn't a pirate party if you don't walk the plank!

Place a piece of rope or a beam across the room and challenge kids to walk across without falling into the shark-infested sea!

To make it tougher for older kids, have two teams. Kids then walk the plank from differing ends and have a sword fight in the middle. If they fall in, they're out.

The team with the most kids who make it all the way across wins.

What do pirates love? Treasure!

Give the kids a treasure map – you can make it look ancient by painting it with coffee or a wet tea bag – and set them off exploring.

Mark Xs on the map to show the places they need to find. At each spot place a clue for them to discover (and maybe some gold coins). The clues should lead them to the hidden treasure pot at the end.

Fill a pirate chest or empty sweet jar with chocolate coins and place it near the entrance to your party.

Ask guests to guess how many chocolate coins there are as they come in. This is a good game to keep kids who arrive early occupied.

Write down all the guesses and whoever's closest wins a prize.

Gather together some large cardboard boxes, cardboard tubes, paint and fabric. Split your guests into two teams – more if you're having a really big party – and challenge them to build the best pirate ship, complete with a fun name.

The most impressive ship wins a prize – although if your guests are younger, you might want to call it a draw to avoid any tears.

If you've got one or two willing adults, ask them to dress up as a sea monster, shark, crocodile or evil pirate … whatever you've got the costume for basically..

Line kids up at one side of the room or garden and get the sea monsters to stand in the middle.

The space between is the sea. The kids need to run to the other side without getting caught. Last one standing is the winner!

Find loads more party games for kids of all ages here.

Buy a few small pirate-themed toys, stickers, pieces of jewellery and gold coins and bury them in a small sandpit.

Kids need to dig for the buried treasure to see what they can find – slightly damp sand will take them longer to get through than dry! You could make this tougher by giving them blindfolds to wear.

They get to keep anything they uncover, just make sure everybody gets a turn.

This is a classic kids' game you probably remember from your own childhood, and it's still just as much fun.

Buy a Pop Up Pirate game (they cost around a tenner) – or ask around to see if any of your friends have one or two you can borrow. Set it up on a table for kids to play in their own time.

This is a good one for kids who might want a bit of quieter time away from the group.

Check out more cool board games to play with kids.

Make a number of skull and crossbones tokens by drawing or printing them onto small pieces of paper. Now do a smaller number of gold tokens.

Blow up a number of black balloons to make cannon balls, inserting a token in each.

Place the cannon balls on the floor and get the kids to pop them however they want – with their hands, feet or pirate swords. If they find a golden token they win a prize – skull and crossbones counts for nothing, sadly.

Pirates of yore famously often had wooden legs, so let kids experience what it feels like to be a peg-legged pirate by having a three-legged race.

You could do an egg and spoon race, too. The egg could be a parrot's egg!

Balloon swords are really easy to make and kids will love having sword fights and duels with them.

Follow this easy balloon sword video tutorial to make yours.

A pirate assault course can be loads of fun to create and for kids to tackle.

You need a large space, such as a garden or hall. Now make obstacles from whatever you have around. Some examples could include:

– Running under a waving blue piece of fabric that represents the sea

– Walking the plank

– Crossing a shark-infested paddling pool while being squirted with water pistols by the other pirates

Decorate paper cups or tin cans with pirate emblems such as anchors and skulls and crossbones.

Place them in a stack and get kids to try and knock them over. You can place them on a table and use a ball or beanbag as your missile or have them on the floor and roll a ball towards them as though you were bowling.

Remember the playground game, Grandmother's Footsteps? This is the pirate version.

Get an adult or willing child to stand at the front of the room and be the bad pirate. Place a treasure chest behind them.

Kids stand at the back of the room and have to inch forwards to steal the pirate's treasure without them noticing.

The pirate can turn round at any point. If they see anyone moving, that person has to go back to the beginning.

This is best played in a garden in the summer. Create two large pirate ships from cardboard and place them a couple of metres apart.

Split your guests into teams with each team standing behind one of the ships.

Now give them a big basket of water balloons each and let them attack!

The rules are the pirates can't go beyond their ship, but be prepared for this to descend into a massive, fun water fight!

Like Simon Says only with pirate actions!

One person stands at the front of the room (it might be best for an adult to go first) and shouts instructions such as 'climb the rigging', shout 'Arrrrr', hop on one leg, pull your best pirate face.

Kids have to follow the instructions but only if they're preceded by 'Long John Silver says'. Anyone who follows an instruction without 'Long John Silver says' is out.

Cut out a number of islands of varying sizes from coloured card. Place them on the floor and dot them around the room.

Play some music and get kids to dance or run around the room. When the music stops, if they're not standing with both feet on an island they're out.

Take away an island each round until you only have one small island left. Anyone standing on that is a winner.

For this game you'll need a small inflatable or toy parrot.

Get the kids to sit or stand in a line. Get the parrot (well, you) to whisper a phrase in the first child's ear.

They need to whisper it to the next child, give them the parrot and say 'pass it on' and so on till the end of the line.

The last child then needs to say the phrase out loud.

The idea is to see if you still have the same phrase at the end as the beginning. The more complicated/longer the starting phrases, the funnier answers you're going to get.

Add hooks made from wire or pipe cleaners to some 'jewels' and treasure such as toy jewellery, crowns etc. Drop the treasure into the bottom of a shallow paddling pool or washing up bowl.

Divide kids into teams and give each team a pirate hook.

One member from each team goes forward and has to try and hook a piece of treasure.

Once they have one, they pass the hook to the next person and so on. The first team where everyone has retrieved a piece of treasure is the winner.

You'll need a paddling pool or large washing up bowl filled with water for this game.

Use small toy boats or get the kids to make and decorate paper boats.

Place them on the water and have races by blowing the boats. Whoever's boat reaches the other side first without capsizing wins.

Try this simple tutorial on YouTube to make easy paper boats.

Like pin the tail on the donkey, only with a pirate and an eyepatch.

Draw a large pirate on a piece of paper and pin it to the wall.

Cut out an eye patch and place some Blu Tack on the back.

Each child is blindfolded and spun round. They then have to place the eye patch where they think it should go. The child who gets closest is the winner.