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Every year our homeschool group has a "History & International Fair.
This year, the kids voted to do Pirates.
So, the past month has been devoted to them.
Since I am really no good at designing my own unit study, I searched the net for pirate lapbooks or unit studies. Unfortunately, the free ones were geared towards young kids and/or specific books. We currently are without library access (other than the church library) so that added an element of difficulty to my search. I did find some lapbooks that looked really nice but as finances are tight...I couldn't swing that extra expense.
So - on my own I ventured....
We read -
The Pirates of the Carribean - the sword of Cortes
Treasure Island
The Black Pirate
Pirates Past Noon
Without library books I had to depend on the internet.
Some useful sites -
Even though the HSS sites are geared towards a book, I was able to utilize some of the info and minibooks from there.
Week one was alot of basic background info.
WHAT is a pirate?
What do they look like (and what are stereotypes). Pirate clothes. Food. Jobs. Weapons. Ships - different kinds and then parts of. Pets. The pirate code of conduct. Pirate talk. Health & hygiene. They attempted to make sailor bracelets. We played a game that was supposed to help teach the ship terms of aft, starboard, bow & stern - but it was pretty lame for my crew and I quickly had mutiny on my hands. We only reviewed knots since they do know many of them from working at the ranch I didn't see a need to practice much. (although ironically, I've suddenly been finding ropes all over the house tied in various knots!) They carved apple heads.
It was a fun week.
Week two covered maps, geography and then famous pirates male & female.
Do you know where/what the 7 seas are?
We also listened to an audio recording I'd saved long ago about The Mysterious Pirate Pit - which of course prompted a web search into that. Truth or fiction? :) Do YOU know? lol. They thought that was neat, despite the initial reaction to the sound of the recording.
Week three was wrap up week.
We discussed modern day pirates and piracy (illegal copying), made sea biscuits, assembled lapbooks/notebooks, and worked on our display board and costumes for the big event. :)
Sea Biscuits
Preheat oven to 375'
this makes about 10 pieces
4 Cups flour
4 teaspoons salt
Mix flour & salt together
About 2 cups of water
Add just enough water so the mixture sticks together, making a dough that doesn't stick to your hands.
Mix by hand then roll out.
Cut into 3x3 inch squares 1/2 inch thick.
Press a pattern of 4 rows of 4 holes into each square. Do not punch through. Turn over and repeat.
Place on cookie sheet and bake 30 min.
Turn over and bake another 30 min.
If properly dried, these will keep for a year.
They were really good fresh with butter & honey.
They do get pretty hard after sitting a bit so we've had them in soup too. :)
We also watched The Black Pirate (a "silent" film) and Treasure Island (an older black & white version).
To finish today, here are their books. Sis and therefore Hunny decided they wanted to do a notebook style so Bug was the only one who actually did a lapbook.
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