Pirates!

Lately, pirates seem to be all the rage.  In terms of imaginary play, pirates really are a treasure chest of fun.  You can find treasure maps that lead to buried treasure.  You can dress up, wave flags, have a parrot on your shoulder...so I've been thinking of a fun way to inspire Ben's interest in the Jolly Roger.  My mom and I have been imagining playmats with different themes, and I've also been thinking about felt story boards.  I haven't quite figured out which one would be the best, but I thought I'd collect some ideas here.

I love this Pirate Playhouse on etsy, but I don't think I'd want to create a house like this.  Instead, I might create a treasure map like the one here as a base - and then create felt/fabric pieces that could be attached and reattached.  Ideas for pieces include:
1. an "X" to mark the spot
2. treasure chest
3. jolly roger flag
4. pirate ships
4. parrot
5. pirates

This felt storyboard on amazon has some great examples of pirates with different costumes that could be used to populate the pirate world. 

Another possibility would be to make a big felt pirate ship as the base - and then create the other parts to attach and move around the ship...