Discoverylearningacademy’s Weblog

This pirate unit has been a lot of fun.  It is Isaac’s main interest right now.  He loves the treasure and hunting, the swashbuckling duels, the history, supplies – everything!  I cannot believe how much he has really learned about pirates from this unit.  I spent a weekend researching everything possible I could find on line that had to do with pirates. 

The Websites

www.piratesinfo.com Has biographies on many famous pirates, the history of piracy, and tons of information on pirate ships.  They have pictures of all the different types of ships that were used, and they also have a ship diagram with all the parts labeled.  I was also able to find information about Injury Compensation, a Pirate’s Code of Conduct, what their lives were like on and off the ship, types of things pirates stole from other ships, how they were punished when captured, and the three types of pirates.  I also found a little information of fact-and-fiction about things like peg legs.  Overall I would say that for historical and accurate information, this website was top notch.

www.mrmcgroovys.com/t-plans-cardboard-pirate-ship.aspx This whole website is amazing for making large cardboard box projects.  I plan on using several other patterns on this site for other units (the castle for our upcoming knight unit).  The pirate ship we made was much smaller than the one here, but it was really easy to scale down and adapt.  I didn’t purchase the actual kit or the rivets – we just used tape and a boxcutter and it worked fine.  I also didn’t cut the sails out of cardboard, we used an old shirt.  Isaac requested a black pirate flag which he wanted to have the edge raggedy.  You can’t really see that in the picture, but it was a really good idea.  We drew “boards” on the sides of the ship but didn’t paint it since ships are brown and the cardboard is, too!

http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/pirates/pirates.html This is the website that I used for all the craft activities that we did.  We used the paper pirate “doll”, milk carton pirate ship, TP tube parrot, pirate bookmark, spyglass telescope, treasure chest and treasure map.  All of these items other than the pirate “doll” and the bookmark were added to his pirate ship and costume supplies. 

 http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50180  From the Family Fun magazine, they had all kinds of ideas for a pirate party, which we are hosting with Grammie, Grampie and Aunt Kiki as the grand finale to the pirate unit.  They had two cake ideas (chest or ship), games and snacks and foods.  It all seems relatively inexpensive and very fun.  We haven’t actually done this part, we are planning it for two weeks from now and the pictures and info about how it went should hopefully follow.

Our Own Collection

 We also had a lot of our own stuff.  Most of Isaac’s costume has been a work in progress over the past year or so as this interest has developed.  We have gathered parts from Target (One Spot, of course), and Hobby Lobby in the party section of all places.  He is also into improvising with his shoes and various pairs of pants, rolling up one pant leg higher than the other, running around without a shirt on, and wearing only one shoe (since pirates often wore simply what they had).  Yesterday his latest discovery was that if he wore one regular shoe and one snow boot, it appeared (at least to him!) that he had a peg leg.  He also enjoys wearing his pirate jammies, not only at bedtime, but nap time, play time, snack time . . .  We have a Veggies Tales pirate puzzle that Isaac has enjoyed doing – it is two-sided and lots of pieces which means he needs a little help.  We also have a cheesy pirate game I picked up at the dollar store a long time ago but he still enjoys occasionally. 

All the Details

The prep work was fairly minimal and I completed most of the stuff in a weekend.  It was a long weekend of research, gathering and cutting! 

• The Verse:  “Store up your treasures in heaven.”  Matthew 6:20  I wrote this on our dry erase board that we do verses on and we say it every preschool day.  Then we also used one of the treasure chest envelopes (my mom had made a ton for a Sunday school class when I was little and still had about 10 that I discovered) to write the verse on.  Then I tied this verse in with the “rewards of piracy” that I found on www.piratesinfo.com .  I found a bunch of objects that were listed and we actually put them into the chest.  We talked about real pirates and what they really did take, other than gold and jewels.  Then we talked about what happened to those treasures once the pirates died or if the treasure was lost or stolen again.  I was able to lead this conversation back to the fact that material possessions are great and can be fun and rewarding, but our real treasure is waiting for us in heaven and by following God’s commands, we are storing up treasures greater than anything we could ever own on this earth.  This was a big success and Isaac picked up the verse in probably two days.

• Nomenclature Cards:
  • Famous Pirates – I did two-part set of pirate cards using the pirates from www.piratesinfo.com .  I put their name on the bottom of the card and googled an image of them and put that on the top part.  On the matching card, I put their name on the bottom and an easy-to-remember fact about them.  Because Isaac is obviously not reading on his own yet, this set would have been way over his head to do on his own.  We read through all the names and looked at their pictures and then matched the facts as I re-went over the names.  Then as we were putting them away, I would ask him to hand me “Bartholomew Roberts” for example and he remembered a shocking amount of them!
    • After going over the names and the facts probably twice, we were done with this and Isaac was ready to move on.  One day last week in the car, he was sitting in his seat, looking out the window and starting saying “Captain Kidd, Captain Kidd, what do you see?”, just like the Eric Carle Brown Bear, Brown Bear book.  I realized what a great idea he had and jumped on it.  I typed up word strips with the pirates name and a quesion about them, and then their answer that rhymed.  Isaac helped me glue in the words and then we cut up the Famous Pirate cards and glued in the pictures.  Because Grammie works at a school, she was able to get the book bound.  Isaac was tickled pink with the outcome and it is something he has enjoyed listening to over and over, I think because he knows it was his idea and we were able to carry it out to completion!

  

  • Types of Ships – I did three-part cards for the ships that I got from www.piratesinfo.com .  I printed off two matching sets of ship cards with the names under them and cut the names off one set.  The first time through, we just read all the names and talked about the differences (shape of the body of the ship, number of sails, etc).  Then we went through and matched the pictures together.  The last time through these cards, we matched the words.  Isaac really enjoyed it, but we only went through these completely once – he had an ear infection the day we did it and was not the most agreeable.  I am thinking of pulling these out again on our party night, perhaps so he can “teach” Grammie and Grampie.

• Books:  These were just the books that were available at our local library.  Most of them are just fictional stories, usually silly.  A few are informational books, which Isaac LOVES.  Still a few more are for adult readers, but I am hoping to pull some information out of them, or possibly even get Isaac to listen to parts.  He has completed chapter books (listening to them at least) before, so I am thinking I will have some success with pirate ones.  The books are listed in no particular order, and the author’s last name is in the parenthesis.
  • Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies (Crimi)
  • The Life of Captain Singleton (Defoe)
  • No Man Knows My Grave (Winston)
  • The Buccaneers (Saville)
  • Captain Kidd and the War Against Pirates (Ritchie)
  • Backbeard: Pirate for Hire (McElligott)
  • 1001 Pirate Things to Spot (Jones)
  • I Love My Pirate Papa (Leuck)
  • Pirates Don’t Change Diapers (Long)
  • The Best Book of Pirates (Harward)
  • Don’t Mention Pirates! (McConnell)
  • Shiver Me Letters: A Pirates ABC (Sobel)
  • Pirate Mom (Underwood)
  • Backbeard and the Birthday Suit (McElligott)
  • Pirate Treasure (Krupinski)
  • Bubble Bath Pirates (Krosoczka)
  • The Pirate’s Eye (Priest)
  • Roger the Jolly Pirate (Helquist)
  • This Little Pirate (Walrod)
  • Olive’s Pirate Party (Baker)
  • Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs (Andreae)
    • We also rented Peter Pan the movie which he was allowed to watch over a period of two days (too much TV for one sitting).   We have the book so we read that one a lot as well.
• Code of Conduct: This is a craft that we have not done yet.  I would like to do it on a “weathered” paper bag and post it in his ship.  It will just have a list of our house’s rules on it, but worded in pirate slang (such as “all ye landlubbers shall obey ye captain mom”).
• Injury Compensation:  This was one of the first things we did.  We used the pirate paper “doll” and first cut out the critter pirate and the clothing and then pasted them together, talking about each article of clothing.  I didn’t find the clothing to be that detailed, it was mainly just cute.  However, then we glued that entire project to construction paper and cut it out again.  We cut the arms, legs, one hand and made an eye patch.  This was the fun part: we used play money and the Injury Compensation guide to count out how many Pieces of Eight a pirate would receive for losing a limb.  Then we made it a little more complex and added two injuries together.  Isaac struggled the first time through so I was the one deciding which combinations to do and he was just counting out the money.  We did it again yesterday and he understood the concept so much better and was giving me combinations that he would come up with and I would tell him the amount for each one.  He would then count out the two (or three) piles of money and then count them all together.  Very successful and it was a neat craft to do and then serve a purpose.

• What To Pack: Another craft we haven’t done yet.  We are going to use stencils and trace and cut out various items that pirates took with them on the ship and what foods they packed or caught as well.  We are going to cut out a suitcase shape and folds in half and put all the traced items inside.
• Milk Carton Pirate Ship: Yet another to-do.  Pretty simple, and I would like to use it for science experiements in the bathtub.  We are going to see how many pirates it can hold, perhaps how many (cleaned) rocks it takes to sink it, etc.
• Parts of a Ship:  I printed off the diagram on www.piratesinfo.com and then typed up the parts on paper strips.  We then referred to the diagram and then found the approximate place on Isaac’s large cardboard ship and taped it on.  This was fun, learning the names of the different parts, who slept where, what a “hatch” was exactly, etc.
• Walking the Plank:  This is a balancing game that can be done with tape or string on the floor, or an actual balance beam if you have one available.  I have a feeling Isaac will enjoy this one probably once or twice since we don’t actually have a beam – but I think a beam would add an extra element of interest.
• TP Parrot: Another to-do.  Very cute and can be added to his dress-up stuff.  The other day we were at the pet store in the mall and he declared to me that he would like to get a real parrot when he grows up so that he can be a real pirate.
• TP Spyglass Telescope: The directions at http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/pirates/pirates.html were honestly kind of hard to follow without the pictures (I didn’t print them off).  But we were able to rig one that takes some gentle twisting.  We put Saran wrap over the end to look like glass, but that was poked through in about two uses.  Oh well.  Isaac has been using it to hunt for islands and treasure while sailing in his boat.
• Tic Toc Find the Croc:  I am going to use this as a party game.  We are going to hide a crocodile and a timer and Isaac has to find the ticking timer before it dings.  I have a feeling that this is going to be one that he will want to play many times.
• Treasure Map:  We are going to use a paper bag and “weather” it.  Depending on the amount of time pre-party, I would like to do the mapping in lemon juice so that we can hold it over a candle and have it all appear.  We’ll see on that part.  I am also going to make a scavenger-type hunt and cards for each place to lead him through the hunt.
• Map Work:  We didn’t spend a lot of time with geography, but I do like looking at flat maps and the globe and talking about the names of the different continents, islands and oceans.  I would have like to have mapped pirates’ most common routes between Africa and Central America, and we may still if we have enough time.  Just exposing Isaac to maps and globes and the names of various landmarks is very important and he remembers so many of them already!
• Bookmark:  This was super easy – we just used a black piece of construction paper and I let Ike decorate it with some pirate stickers that we had.  Then we put his name on one side and “Find a Treasure in a Book” on the other.  We decided to put clear contact paper on it so it would last longer and tied a plastic cord through the top.  Now he has a bookmark for all his informational and chapter books that we take a couple weeks to read and can never remember where we stopped!

• Treasure Chest:  We made this out of a small shoe box and some printables from http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/pirates/pirates.html  .  It was SO easy and turned out really well.  I used masking tape because it was on hand, but as you can see from the picture, it looks like the edging on a chest.  Isaac glued all the cutouts on by himself.  I then had the brilliant idea to make a key from cardboard and cover it with tin foil, which then led me to another “ah-ha” moment.  I cut about 20 circles from the remaining cardboard and Isaac and I covered then with tinfoil to look like coins.  So he now has a really neat treasure chest with a key and coins.  His favorite activity the past few days has been letting me hid it and then searching (giggling all the while) for it.  I plan on filling it with those candy necklaces, chocolate coins and other candies that look like treasure (and perhaps a few dollar store bobbles) to hide at the end of the hunt at the party.

 

 

•  Invitations:  We only had one invitation to make but that was all and well.  We crumpled a brown piece of construction paper and then I showed Isaac how to tear a small strip from each side to give it that worn look.  He was quite pleased with the results.  I then drew a dotted- and dashed path over it and put a yellow circle on each place he needed to put a sticker.  He put the stickers on and then on the back we wrote the “invitation”.  We put it in one of the treasure chest envelopes, addressed and stamped it and it is ready to mail!  (He wanted to sign his name “Black Fart” – what a boy)