Did you know that it’s National Talk Like a Pirate Day? Ay, matey! It ‘tis! Excited to take a fun learning approach on this seriously drab day, I ordered my children to get their pirate gear on while I looked around for all of our piratey books. Suddenly, I had a Pirate Homeschool Day prepped!
- Listen to the pirate-speak educational song, Talk Like a Pirate from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Also, note their attire! It will help with the next step.
2. Next, tell your mateys to head to their rooms or the scrap pile to grab some pirate pants, a hat, or a scarf to tie around their heads. Don said attire while speaking pirate.
3. Here’s an article on what pirates likely ate from National Geographic (The Plate) that’s very interesting, especially the bit about William Dampier! This is a good opportunity to pull out your purse, leather jacket, or any other leather—synthetic or otherwise—that you might have in your house to show them what some pirates ate in desperation. Ugh! Leather satchels cut into strips and fried? Nasty!
4. Do you have Treasure Island (Stevenson)–Free Kindle Version, Or how about Pirates Past Noon (The Magic Tree House #4 by Osborne)? We have the Fact Tracker Pirates Magic Tree House book, which has some great info about the scallywags. Or HERE is an article that’s kid friendly on Black Beard, the crazy pirate that lit braided-into-his-hair ropes on fire to terrify those he attacked.
5. Perhaps have a go at a Pirate Craft! My kiddos decided to make scull and crossbones pirate flags, but I’ll probably help them with some of the crafts in the above link later. You may want to hand them a glue stick before they grab the tape and start making flags on their own! Lots of tape–yikes!
6. Finally, take all of this Pirate knowledge and go write a story. Questions that will help children (or yourself) to get the story going would be:
What would your ship be named if you had one?
What would your pirate name be?
Would you have a parrot if you were a pirate?
What would you do to terrify those you attacked?
What kinds of food would you want to eat if you were a pirate?
Where would you travel as a pirate?
Where would you hide your treasure?
While it may be too late to fully use all of these ideas, you can celebrate your own Talk Like a Pirate Day on a different day. Or, take the gathered list of ideas to create a lesson plan to learn about pirates. Though they made some pretty horrific choices, there’s so much history to be learned!
Now, take to the sea, matey’s! And please let me know if you try any of these ideas! I’d love to hear about it.