A Pirate JourneyThe Not-So-Jolly Roger by Jon Scieszka

Pirates Past Noon by Mary Pope OsborneEverything I Need to Know about Pirates by Tom Lichtenheld

Unit Contents and Rubric

Assignment Total Possible PointsBook Pile Scavenger Hunt

(Group Activity)5 points

The Not-So-Jolly Roger Mood and Visualization

(Individual Activity)

5 points

Pirate Group Research(Group Activity)

20 points

Deciphering Blackbeard(Partner Activity)

5 points

Pirate Glyph (Individual Activity)

10 points

Pirate Fast Facts Hunt(Group Activity)

5 points

DRTA Lesson(Individual Activity)

20 points

Create Your Own Jolly Roger

(Individual Activity)

5 points

Post-It Notes Pirate(Group Activity)

5 points

Creative Book Report(Individual Activity)

10 points

Total Points 100 points

Book Pile Scavenger HuntYou Mission: Explore the books at each center. As you look through the books with your team, look for quotations, questions and exclamations that give your information about each of the three topics – weather, pirates and the ocean. For example, as you glance over a book about pirates, you may notice that pirates used to say certain key phrases, such as “Shiver me Timbers!” This would be a quotation that tells you more about pirates. Once you find something to write, find the appropriate post-it note and record it. Then post it under the right category on your group’s poster.

Your poster will look something like this: Pirates Ocean Weather

The Not – So – Jolly RogerMood and Visualization Activity

MOODThe author develops the mood of the story. It is the author’s job to make the reader feel as if he or she is a part of they story and in doing so creates a mood that the reader becomes part of. Usually there are certain words used that help the author create this mood and make the reader feel a certain way. Read the following passages and think about the mood each once creates. Also look for the words and phrases that help create it.

Page 17 – “ He froze. He looked at the hat. Then he looked slowly up, up, up the trunk of my tree. Our eyes met and my heart went as numb as my foot. The black pirate growled, “Arrrrrrgh,” and grinned a crazy smile. I swear I saw his eyes flashing red.”

Describe the mood of the characters at this point in the book. _______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

What words or phrases help to create this mood?_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Page 22 – “The pirate wasn’t smiling anymore. Sam stepped forward on wobbly legs. “Uh . . . .hi, there, uh . . . .Mr. Blackbeard,” said Sam. The pirate’s dark face went suddenly white. “How do you know my name?” “I read it,” said Sam. “Where’s your crystal ball?”

Describe how the mood changes in this selection._______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

VISUALIZATION

It is also important for the author to paint a picture of the setting of the story or the settings of the story. An author must use descriptive language to ensure that the reader can “see” the story as it is read.

Page 11 – “The small rowboat landed as I peeked through the leaves. Two guys unloaded a chest. One was tall. The other was short. Both wore ragged pants and striped shirts. They were the ugliest and nastiest-looking guys I’ve ever seen. . . . until I saw the third guy behind them. He was twice as big and twice as nasty-looking.”

Draw a picture of how this scene looks in your mind.

Page 27 – “We climbed up the side of the ship so fast we didn’t even have time to be afraid. But there was plenty of time for that once we climbed over the rail and stood on deck. Because there, eyeing us like hungry sharks, were at least a hundred black, white, and every different shade of brown, pirates.”

Draw a picture of how this scene looks in your mind.

Find a passage from the story where we can talk about mood. Page #: ________First Sentence: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Find a passage where we can visualize the setting or scene.Page #: ________First Sentence:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Pirate Group Research*One copy of this research sheet is due to me by February 19th. Keep in mind that you will present your question and share what you found out about your question. You will need to have a group visual of some kind that relates to your research. It can be a poster, a short PowerPoint, a short skit, etc. Each member should play an active role in this activity. The presentations will be on February 29th. The project presentations should only be 5 minutes – 10 minutes at the most.

Group Members:

Our Question: ________________________________________________________________________

What do you already know about this question?

How will you present your question and answer to the class? What kind of visual will you use to teach the class about your research?

What are each group member’s responsibilities? On Friday you will have more time to work together and organize your project.

List the resources you used: (author, title, publication place & publication date)

*The following questions do not need to be answered until after the group presentations.*After you complete your project, answer these questions as a group:

Why is your question and research important to our pirate study?

If you were a research team, where could you go next with your pirate research?

Decipherin’ Blackbeard: What’s he really saying?

Read each quote from The Not-So-Jolly Roger. Try to explain what the underlined portion of each of Blackbeard’s quotes really means.

Page 19 – “Call out the rest of your spying monkeys. Let’s fight to the death and the Devil take the hindmost.”___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Page 26 – “Blast it all,” growled Blackbeard. “If that sea-rat crew of mine walked all the prisoners off the plank, I’m going to have to cut off some heads.”___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Page 28 – “And now I might ask you barnacle for brains – where might we find our next treasure?” The first mate and the wild band of cutthroats looked at their feet.”___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Page 44 – “Sorry, lad,” said Blackbeard. “If we sailed into New York, me and this whole bloody bunch would be swinging from a noose in a minute.”___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Pirate Glyph

Color and design the pirate to represent you! Each part of the pirate has specific instructions for how to color it – make sure to follow them!

The Hat If you have read about pirates before: Color the hat blue with orange polka-dots.If you have not read about pirates before: Color the hat orange with blue polka-dots.

The Legs If you love to visit the beach: Color the legs with red and yellow vertical stripes.If you would rather visit the mountains: Color the legs with green and purple stripes.

The Shoes If you love a good ghost story or mystery: Color the shoes black with silver tops.If you would rather hear a good old-fashioned fairy tale: Color the shoes silver with black tops.

The Arms If you were born in North Carolina: Color the arms with CAROLINA blue and purple zigzags.If you were not born in North Carolina: Color the arms with brown and pink zigzags.

The Face You may give your pirate any face you choose. You may also add hair – BE CREATIVE!

The Body If you want to teach children in K-2nd grade: Color your pirate’s body brown.If you want to teach children in 3rd-6th grade: Color your pirate’s body yellow.

The Belt & The Frill on the Top of the Body

YOUR CHOICE OF COLOR OR DESIGN.

After you have colored and designed your pirate, cut out the pieces and paste them together.

The write a short paragraph about your pirate. Please include the following information in your paragraph:

*Your Pirate’s Name*How your pirate became a pirate*Where you could find your pirate*Any other interesting facts about your pirate

Pirate Books Fast Facts Hunt

Three Weapons used by Pirates

Three Parts of a Pirate Ship

Name a Pirate and their Biggest Accomplishment

Two Movies with Pirates

Your Favorite Pirate and a friend who

agrees

Book and Page# Book and Page# Book and Page# Book and Page# Book and Page#

Name four Types of Food

Eaten by Pirates

Name two Women Pirates

Three different Sea Creatures

encountered by Pirates

Three different Home

Countries of Pirates

Three Jobs for Crew Members

on a Ship

Book and Page# Book and Page# Book and Page# Book and Page# Book and Page#

Name Three different Pirate

Ships

Three different Types of Loot

Name and Date of a Sunken Pirate Ship

Three Pirate Destinations

ANY interesting

FACT

Book and Page# Book and Page# Book and Page# Book and Page# Book and Page#

Creating a DRTA Lesson A Few Guidelines to Help You

A Directed Reading and Thinking Activity (DRTA) can help students to think through a text. It helps provide a structure and a context to what they are reading. As the teacher, it is important for you to read the text and develop questions that guide the students through the reading.

Determine what type of reading will occur throughout the activity

o Will they do silent reading, partner reading or oral reading in small groups?

o It is usually a good idea to alternate the types of reading – some silent and some oral.

Choose stopping spots that allow students to make predictions or allow for summarizing the text to that point.

o Predictions are important because students are using the text to come to conclusions about the plot and the characters. It requires a higher level of thinking.

o Summarizing helps students assess what they have read to make sure they understood the text. This requires students to monitor their reading and reread if necessary.

Your questions can be about details in the story, but make sure they aren’t about insignificant details – usually the color of a character’s shirt is insignificant.

o Look for themes in the story that would make for thoughtful questions.

o Try to ask questions that push students to go back to the text for examples.

o Ask questions that focus the students on the author’s craft – word choice, sentence variety, purpose, etc.

Try not to put in too many stopping spots. o The first few times you try this, you will want

to stop after every paragraph. Resist!! (Unless a student needs this type of instruction.)

o You want to maintain the flow of the story. Every 2 pages are usually sufficient to help students stay focused – but again, use the book to help you come to these decisions.

Create your Own Jolly Roger

Your Mission: Imagine you are a pirate living hundreds of years ago. What would your Jolly Roger look like? What would the images tell others about you?

Guidelines: Create your jolly roger using whatever media

you choose: painting, collage, computer generated, etc.

It must be at least 8 ½ x 11 inches. You must have at least 3 different images on

your flag. You should include a written explanation of each

image and why it was chosen. You are trying to answer the question: What does this image say about me as a pirate?

After completing your Jolly Roger, go online to http://www.cosmosmith.com/jolly_roger.html and check out one other pirates’ jolly rogers. Be prepared to share a little about that pirate in class.

Name of Pirate: _________________Description of Flag: ______________________________________________________________________One interesting Fact:______________________________________________________________________

Post-It Note Pirates – Working with Captions in Non-Fiction Text

You Mission: With your group, you will create a pirate. As you create your pirate you will do the following things:

Draw your pirate. Use the books provided and your own imagination to create your pirate. It must be a whole body illustration. Before you begin drawing decide what things have happened to your pirate.

Examples:

Does your pirate wear an eye patch? Why?Does your pirate have any scars? Where and why?Is the clothes your pirate wears significant? Why?

These decisions will be important for your captions.

Use your book, Everything I Know about Pirates, to come up with a pirate name. Include your pirate’s name on your drawing.

Use post-it notes to write captions about your pirate and his or her appearance.

Think about which parts of your pirate’s appearance would be important for others to know about.

You are focusing on using captions to tell a story like authors do with non-fiction text. Captions are important, so be sure to write yours carefully and thoughtfully.

You may add humor to your captions or keep them serious – it depends on you and your pirate!

Creative Book Report Assignment

You may choose to complete this create book report on either The Not-So-Jolly Roger or Pirates Past Noon. Activities like the ones that follow are excellent ways to see if students understood the book being read. The activities require a little more creativity than a normal book report-allowing students to share a different part of themselves with the class. For this assignment you may choose to do ONE of the following activities:

1. A One-Person Show* You will dress up as one of the characters from the book and give a brief report on your adventure in the story.

2. A Tell-Along Board*You will create several Popsicle stick puppets and a background to perform one short scene from the story.

3. A Story Mobile*You will create a mobile of the characters and setting of your story.

4. A Collage*You will create a collage that represents some aspect of the book.

5. You may suggest an alternative.

When it gets closer to the date for this assignment, more information will be provided for each choice. You will complete this assignment a second time for Peter and the Starcatchers later in the semester. You CANNOT do the same activity each time – so keep that in mind as you make your selections.