Are you looking for a fun family activity or something awesome to make for a birthday party, Talk Like a Pirate Day, or any other fun occasion? My husband, Tom, made this super fun and cool pirate ship, and it’s quite easy to make!
Have fun!
Avast, ye land lubbers! This pirate ship made entirely of fruit is perfect as a fun and healthy family activity. You can make it as a centerpiece for a kids’ pirate theme party, a family activity for International Talk Like a Pirate Day September 19 or a celebratory treat as part of a pirate unit study. I’m a 29-year-old kid and had so much fun designing and building this pirate ship. Kids of all ages will love creating their own pirate-ship masterpiece.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you.
Here’s how to make it!
You Will Need
- A large oval-shaped watermelon
- A large orange
- 5 white grapes
- 1 cactus pear (A plum would work also but I suggest you try a cactus pear if you can)
- 10 red toothpicks
- 5 blue toothpicks (colors are your choice)
- 3 12″ bamboo skewers
- Wood cutting board
- 8″ Chef’s knife
- Carving knife (optional)
- Vegetable knife
- Melon baller
Carving the Hull
1. Using a sharp chef’s knife, cut out a wedge from the front of your watermelon. This will form the ship’s front.
2. Slice a large chunk from the top 2/3 of the watermelon to form the main deck. Try to keep both parts intact.
3. Slice a smaller block out of the back of the watermelon to form the captain’s deck
4. You have now formed the hull of your fruit pirate ship!
Making the Sails
1. Take the large chunk of watermelon you sliced off in part 2 of Carving the Hull. Slice it in half and then carefully slice the skin away from the flesh. You may find this easier with a thinner carving knife. The skin will form your sails, so be careful not to slice through it.
2. Trim the edges of your sail so that it is a neat square or rectangle.
3. Push one of the 12″ bamboo sticks through both sides of your sail.
4. Insert your mast and sail into the main deck and spike an orange wedge on the top of the mast.
5. Repeat steps 1 – 3 and insert your second mast and sail into the captain’s deck.
6. Slide some spare chunks of watermelon and orange onto the final 12″ bamboo stick and insert into the bow of your ship to create the figurehead.
Constructing Your Pirates
This could be a quick activity if you are short on time and is a perfect way to involve younger children.
1. Make 5 melon balls from some of the spare chunks of watermelon and your melon baller. These will be your pirate heads.
2. Slice up your cactus pear. First slice it from top to bottom and then across the width to create your pirate hats.
3. If you prepare a Montessori-inspired pirate-making tray, younger children can construct their own pirates. See Living Montessori Now for more information on where this tray came from. Put your toothpicks (blue ones snapped in half), grape bodies, melon ball heads and cactus pear hats into separate containers and place them on a tray.
4. Use a red toothpick to attach the pirate’s hat, head and body together. Then slide another red toothpick straight through the body to make the arms. Use 2 halves of a blue toothpick to make the legs. I made mine with a little peg leg here, arrgghh matey!
5. Make four more pirates and add them onto your ship. Don’t forget to make one of them the captain on the captain’s deck! Bring me the horizon, you scurvy dogs!!
Finishing Touches
Why not make a little display with your fruit pirate ship? I used Safari Ltd Ocean TOOB and Safari Ltd Coral Reef TOOB. You could also use this Safari Ltd Pirate TOOB.
Here’s the melon baller if you don’t have one already.
Photos (except those with a blue background) taken by Deb Chitwood. Montessori-inspired fruit pirate tray designed by Deb Chitwood from Living Montessori Now.
Linked to Afterschool Express, Thoughtful Spot, Tuesday Tots, The Mommy Club Resources and Solutions, Mom’s Library, A Little Bird Told Me Linky Party, The Weekly Kid’s Co-op, Homeschool Link-up, Learn & Link, TGIF Linky Party, Ultimate Homeschool Pinterest Party, Sharing Saturday, Share It Saturday, Show-and-Share Saturday,The Sunday Showcase, Link & Learn, X-Mas Dolly.
I LOVE this ship, especially the pirates! Thanks for sharing this excellent idea!
Thanks Liz, Glad you liked it! It works great for parties because all the fruit keeps well if left out. Enjoy
This is so cool. I sure hope you can come over by me and join my recipe linky and share your recipe. I know my readers would flip over this just as much as I did. I have got to do this for my grandson’s birthday… oh my goodness I’ll be NaNee of the year. LOL Thanks
Thanks for the invite to your linky, I shared it. Hopefully your grandson will love it!
How fun! And so perfect for a pirate unit!
Stopping by from the TGIF linky. )
Thanks Selena! Thank you for stopping by. This would be a great activity for your 4 lil homeschool students.
Cute, Cute, Cute!
Phyllis@grandparentsplus.com
Thank you, thank you, thank you! 🙂
This is so cute and cool all at the same time. It is great for kids and it’s great for big kids too. I am seeing this be a hit at football parties! Stopping in from the link up.
Thank you!! It’s perfect for parties as all the fruit in it stay fresh. You could maybe put it in a bowl of ice and it should be good all day for a football party. Go Chargers!
Love this! Especially the little pirates!
Thank you! The pirates are really easy to make, a perfect mini project for younger kids to contribute.
How very creative and a great way to get kids to eat fruit. Thanks for sharing on Real Food Fridays, Pinned.
Thank you so much! I used a lot of the watermelon to make smoothies. Recipe coming soon…
Stopping over from Thoughtful Spot linky to say hi 🙂 We love pirates in our house and your pirate ship is really neat. Pinning.
Thank you for stopping by and thank you for the pin. Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you so much for linking up to The Sunday Showcase last week. I was thrilled to see this post on the link up! It is amazing how many fun elements you have placed on the ship.
My pleasure Dierdre. I had so much fun creating this post. Glad you enjoyed it!
Tom, your project is FABULOUS! I’ve had it sitting open on my computer for several days!
Congrats – you’ve been featured on Inspire Me Monday at Create With Joy!
Thank you so much for featuring me on Inspire Me Monday!!! Happy to hear you enjoyed it. I’ll be following up with a smoothie recipe for all that watermelon soon…