12 Fun Peter Pan Themed Activities for Kids
Ahoy there mateys! Are you ready for some Peter Pan themed fun . . . .?
Let the Adventure Begin
Way back in 1904 a man called J M Barrie wrote a play about a boy called Peter Pan who discovers a girl called Wendy and her brothers, and takes them back to a magical island called Neverland where they have adventures with Pirates, mermaids, fairies, Native Americans, and children who refuse to grow up. It was hugely popular, and so he turned it into a novel in 1911. Since then it has spawned many other adaptations and movies.
You can download a free ebook for free here. Here are a few things about it that you might not know.
- Fairy dust wasn’t an original part of the storyline, it
was added in after several reports of children injuring
themselves while trying to fly. - Walt Disney starred as Peter Pan in a school play.
In the original stage production, Tinkerbell was a
spot of light that moved around the stage by people
focussing a mirror. - Captain Hook is known to Long John Silver, the
villainous pirate from ‘Treasure Island’, since the 2
authors were friends. - It is tradition to have the same actor playing Hook and
Mr Darling. - At one point, Barrie was thinking about calling it ‘The
Boy who Hated Mothers’, but his publisher said no to
the title.
Tidy Up Your Mind
Wendy’s mother tidies up each of her children’s minds when they are asleep.
Can you draw a map of all the things that she would find in your mind?
Maybe there are friends, relatives, things from school, pets, favourite toys, characters from books or films, places you’ve been and places that you’d love to go. Maybe like Wendy, you might include an imaginary friend.
Nana's Nursery
Wendy, John and Michael had a dog for a nanny to look after them. Can you search around the house for items that will work as a dog costume? Some black socks over your ears and your hands maybe, and some face paint on the tip of your nose.
Get a doll or a cuddly toy, and try giving it a bath and putting it to bed all the time pretending that you’re a dog. How can you manage without having any hands? What dog-themed books can you read to it, what dog-themed songs can you use to sing them to sleep?
Losing Your Shadow
Peter gets surprised by Wendy’s mother and dashes off, leaving his shadow behind. Check out these 6 things you can do with shadows.
- Create a shadow puppet theatre
- Turn yourself into a human sundial by standing on a driveway, and marking in chalk the outline of your shadow every hour. Make sure to mark where to stand so that you can keep returning to the
same spot. - Try and run away from your shadow
- Make some shadow art by drawing around some of the shadows that some of your toys cast when you sit them up against a light, or bright sun.
- Take photos of funny shadow shapes you can make with your hands and body. Can you be a butterfly? An elephant? The initials of your name?
- Take a walk around your house when it’s dark, switch off the main lights and use a torch to create shadows. See the effect it has when you move the torch closer or further away.
You Can Fly
Peter taught Wendy, John and Peter to fly by sprinkling some fairy dust onto them and thinking happy thoughts. Since we don’t have any fairy dust, we’ll need to think of some other ways that we can take photos flying.
1 - Lay on the ground and get someone else to stand on a chair and take a photo of you from overhead. Use sheets and other props to make it look like you’re flying.
2 - Jump in the air, and get someone to photograph you using a high shutter speed so that you don’t look very blurry.
3 - Use a green cloth behind you and a greenscreen app to create the illusion of flying, like Kinemaster.
Believe in Fairies
Tinkerbell is the little fairy who lives with Peter and the lost boys, here are some ideas to sprinkle a little fairy dust magic in your life.
1 - Catch a firefly. At the right time of year, in the right place you might be lucky enough to see fireflies. They like high grass, and humid, damp areas, so go to these places on a warm summers evening. If you find some then turn off your big lights, watch the light pattern they are making, and copy it with a torch to get their
attention. Then you can gently try and catch one in your hands, or use a net or a glass jar. If you manage to catch one in a jar then put a slice of apple in there, and a bunch of grass. Don’t keep them in there for too long, and remember to release them before you go to bed.
2 - If it’s the wrong time of year for fireflies then get some battery or solar powered fairy lights and put them in a jar instead to give the illusion of fairies.
3 - Make a fairy potion by putting some baking soda in a small cup or jar, add in a dash of washing up liquid, and a spoonful of some colourful glitter or confetti. Then pour in some vinegar and watch it bubble over.
4 - Make some magic milk by pouring milk into a shallow dish, then add a dash of 2 different colours of food colouring near the centre of the dish. Add a drop of washing up liquid into the middle of the milk and see what happens to the colours.
5 - In 1917 2 girls took some photographs of them playing with fairies that fooled many people into believing that it was real. You can do the same by drawing pictures of faries, cut them out and mount them onto twigs using pins or tape or glue, and take some photos. Make it extra believable by adding a sepia effect onto the photos before you show them to people using an app on your phone, or a website.
2nd to the Right
Peter gave the directions to Neverland as “the 2nd to the right, and straight on til morning’, describing what star to follow.
Go outside when it’s dark (depending on where you live, this might be better in winter months) and look up at the stars and see if you can spot a star which might be the 2nd star on the right.
Download an app to help you look up at the stars and figure out what they all are, see which ones might actually be planets, which ones are really satellites,and which are part of larger constellations.
Neverland
After a long flight, Wendy, John and Michael get their first view of Neverland. Read the description below, and draw a picture or a painting of what they would have seen.
“A million golden arrows were pointing it out to the children . . . there’s the lagoon . . . look at the turtles burying their eggsin the sand . . . I see your flamingo with the broken leg . . . look, there’s your cave . . .what’s that in the woods . . . it’s a wolf with her whelps . . . there’s my boat John with her sides stove in . . . there, just across the mysterious river”
Live Like a Lost Boy
The lost boys are a group of boys who had fallen out of their prams as babies and so now live in Neverland. They live in a house underground, they didn’t have any shops to buy all their furniture from, they had to use what they could find from around the island.
What can you make from around your house, garden or local park instead of buying things from shops? How about
- Making a sitting mat out of newspaper.
- Making some plates and cups using leaves and small twigs.
- Learn which flowers are edible (always check with a grown-up before eating any)
- You’ll need to find a water source. Can you try collecting rainwater, or find a leafy tree which is in the sun, and cover a branch with a transparent plastic bag, tieing it on tight enough so that it’s sealed. After a while, evaporated water will collect in the bag.
- Use a sewing needle, or a hairpin, a magnet, a leaf and a bowl of water to make a compass. Rub the needle or pin on the magnet about 40 times. Place the leaf on the bowl of water, and then place the needle on the leaf, and it will align itself to the earth’s magnetic poles and point north/ south.
- Use twigs and string to make a bow and arrow.
- Go a day without using any electricity. How can you see without it, how can you cook food, how do you keep warm, how do you keep entertained?
- If you’ve got some small branches, some string and a sheet, as well as a patch of grass then you can build a small shelter.
Dress Like a Pirate
Captain Hook was a very dastardly pirate, with a hook in place for his right hand, he is Peter’s nemesis. Follow the steps below to turn yourself into a worthy pirate.
- Make an eyepatch by cutting a shield shape out of cardboard, and drawing or painting on a skull and crossbones. add some string on and tie it around your head.
- Get some old trousers, ideally ones that are torn or spoiled (check with a grown up first) and cut round them at the knees in a zig zag pattern.
- Get an old stripy t-shirt, again, if a grown up says that you can then cut the bottom and the sleeves in a zig zag pattern.
- Find a scarf or bandana to put over the top of your head, then tie it in a knot at the back.
- Tie a scarf or belt around your waist. Try adding other belts which also go over your shoulder for the Jack Sparrow look.
- Make a sword or a hook out of cardboard, then cover it in foil.
- Use face paint, or eyeliner to draw on a moustache and a beard.
- Put on any wigs that you might have in the house, or any toy hoop earrings, or gold rings, and put a toy bird (hopefully a parrot) on your shoulder.
The Jolly Rodger
You can’t be a pirate without a ship. So with that in mind, here’s how I built mine. Make this whatever scale you want, maybe you want it for some action toys, or maybe you want it big enough
to sit in yourself. I made this one big enough for Rafiki to sit in, and pretend that he was Captain Hook, so I waited until I’d saved up a lot of cardboard boxes.
- Choose 2 sturdy boxes that are big enough to sit on. These are going to become either end of the ship.
- Cut some more cardboard to be the sides. I used a box that vegetables had come in so that it already had canon style holes in the side. Hot glue the sides to the 2 end boxes.
- Cut some cardboard and give it a rounded shape for the back, make it a little higher than the rest of the ship. Hot glue it to the back box and the sides.
- Cut 2 strips of cardboard to make a pointed front of the ship, hot glue them.
- Hot glue other cardboard in as needed to fill in the floors and sides, and make the structure stronger.
- Cut out strips with holes in them to be the bannisters, hot glue them all around the ship, leaving space at
the sides. - Find a cardboard tube to be the mast, hot glue it to the front box. Then get 2 longer sticks which will hold your flag ( I glued together some skewers)
- Paint your ship use whatever kind of paint, and colours you
fancy) - When the paint is dry, use a marker pen to add in details, timber, windows etc.
- I already had a flag, but you can decorate any old t shirt, or pillow case or other cloth with a skull and crossbones to paint a flag on it.
Speak Like a Pirate
Ooooooo Arrrrrrrr me hearties. If ye be wantin ta be a true pirate then ye be needin to know some lingo. It’d be good for ye to get some practice in ready for ‘International talk like a pirateday’ on Saturday 19th September. Make sure you make your voice sound gruff, and make the vowel sounds last a lot longer than they normally would.
Ahoy/ Yo Ho - Hello
Avast - Stop and look at that
Aye - yes
Arrr - I agree
Ye be - you are
Cap’n - the captain of the ship
Jim lad - someone younger who you like
Scurvy dog - someone younger you dislike
Salty sea dog - someone old
Me hearty - a friend
Wench - a lady
Sad I be - I am sad
This grog be warm - My drink is warm.
At sea me ship be - my ship is at sea.
I bin plunderin - I have been plundering
I be plunderin - I am plundering
I gonna be plundering - I will plunder
Shiver me timbers - I’m scared and surprisedYe - You
Grog - drink
Booty - treasure
Cut of your jib - the way you talk
Harrr - That is funny
Tis a fine day - It’s a nice day
How be ye? - How are you?
Be ye afeared - Are you scared
Davy Jones Locker - seabed
Salty sea dog - someone old
Me hearty - a friend
Bilge rad - a terrible insult
Lubber - An insult for a non sailor
Smartly! - QUickly!
Belay- stop
Blimey! - Oh my goodness!
Fire in the hole! - Firing the cannon
Parley - talk of a truce
Take a Caulk - take a nap.
Native Americans
When Peter Pan was written, some things were considered acceptable to say and think that we now understand are offensive and racist. The depiction of Tiger Lily and her tribe of Native Americans is a good example of that. The play and the book show the Native Americans as wild, practically cavemen, here is how they are introduced in the book:
“On the trail of the pirates, stealing noiselessly down the war-path, which is not visible to inexperienced eyes, come the redskins, every one of them with his eyes peeled. They carry tomahawks and knives, and their naked bodies gleam with paint and oil. Strung around them are scalps, of boys as well as of pirates, for these are the Piccaninny tribe”
Peter rescues Tiger Lily from the pirates, and she has this reaction:
“They called Peter the Great White Father, prostrating themselves [lying down] before him; and he liked this tremendously, so that it was not really good for him. “The great white father,”he would say to them in a very lordly manner, as they grovelled at his feet, “is glad to see the Piccaninny warriors protecting his wigwam from the pirates.” “Me Tiger Lily,” that lovely creature would reply. “Peter Pan save me, me his velly nice friend. Me no let pirates hurt him.”
Think about the way the Native Americans have been portrayed here, as you watch the documentary “America’s Great Indian Nations” and think about how a Native American would feel reading Peter Pan. How could you write the characters and plot differently to make the representation more fair?
Walk the Plank
While making sure that you're watching the kids, and keeping them safe, either place a plank on the floor, or fix a rig to have it going over a paddling pool, or draw a plank on the floor with chalk.
Maybe you could draw some sharks or make some from cardboard to stick next to the plank.
Round one is people walking accross the plank, trying not to step or fall off of it. If they touch the ground with their feet at all then they are disqualified. Everyone who manages to do it progresses to the next round.
Round 2 - Hop across
Round 3 - Walk across backwards
Round 4 - Walk across being blindfolded.
Ideas for babies & toddlers
Canon ball toss - Get some black balls, and throw them into a bucket, or try and hit a target.
Sensory bottle - Fill a bottle with water, add a dash of cooking oil, put a small drop of blue food colouring in there, add in glitter and confetti. Add in any little trinkets that you might have which are related to pirates, mermaids or fairies. Hot glue gun the lid on.
Sensory Bins - set up different bins next to each other to represent different elements in the Peter Pan tale. One can be a watery world, with rocks, and bubbles and little figures. Fill a 2nd with colourful cloud dough. Fill the 3rd with soil, sticks and leaves.
Hide some chocolate coins around the garden, give them a little basket and let them search for the treasure. For older toddlers, cut out large arrows and crosses for them to follow as they are hunting.
Fairy Wings
Get 2 wire clothes hangers, bend them into shape, so that the hooks are in the middle. If you have wire cutters then cut off the hooks.
Cover the ends in a thick fabric like felt and stick a lot of masking tape round to hold it in place.
Cut off the legs from some tights, and put one aroundeach hanger. Hot glue or tape it into place in the middle.
Decorate with glitter, cotton wool, ribbons, and anything else you have in the house.
Cut some fabric to be the shoulder straps, glue or tie them
to the rest of the wings.
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