Pirates Unit Study for Homeschooling Families

Your elementary kiddos will LOVE learning all about pirates, their ships, the science of buoyancy and reflections, the Seven Seas, geological land forms, and so much more in this Pirates Unit Study that covers all subject areas.

Pirates Unit Study for Elementary Students

This Pirates Unit is a literature plus STEM unit based upon the sweet, vintage book by Thom Roberts, Pirates in the Park, about a girl, Jenny, who makes a ship out of a walnut shell and sails off into an imaginary adventure in a great ship of her own, when the boys at a pond won’t let her play along with their toy pirate ship.

All subjects are covered in this multi-subject unit about ships, pirates, reflection (physics), buoyancy, geology, history, and more!

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While your elementary children are learning about the world of pirates, your older children may enjoy reading Treasure Island (the original pirate story) by Robert Louis Stevenson, or doing our Carry On, Mr. Bowditch Literature and STEM unit study.

First, read through the book, Pirates in the Park with your children. Then select a couple different activities to do each day with your kids:

Pirate Unit Study Science

Reflections

There was a reflection of the ship in the water. Explain to your kids what causes a reflection: when light rays bounce off something, such as the ship in the story, and onto a flat smooth area, such as a pond, or glass, or shiny metal, you see these rays as a reflection. This is one of the three types of reflection, called “specular reflection”. Have your younger kids watch this short video for a simple explanation of reflection and your older kids can learn the difference between specular reflection and diffuse scattering, as well as the Law of Reflection in this video.

Have your child look at his reflection in different items, such as aluminum foil, a mirror, a polished spoon and a puddle of water. Do they all look the same? The flatter, smoother, and shinier the object, the clearer the reflection will be. As your children look at the reflections in the different items, have them draw their findings on the printable reflection experiment pages, and then record their conclusion.

Also, have him observe how the reflection is a reverse image. Have fun writing secret messages (using a mirror) to each other in reverse writing that must be read in their reflections. Use the Reverse Writing printable pages.

Buoyancy

When Jenny put the walnut shell in the water it did float. What causes something to float instead of sink? Discuss the term “buoyancy” (the capacity to float), with your child.

Explanation: When a boat floats, it pushes some of the water under it aside. The water around the boat pushes back. This force of water holds up the boat, letting it float. If the boat becomes too heavy, from something such as too many people aboard, a large wave filling the boat with water, or as in this story, something heavy falls on it, the weight of the boat is too much for the force around it, and it will capsize or sink.

Read The Magic School Bus, Ups and Downs by Joanna Cole to learn more about things that sink and float.

Watch this video, The Magic School Bus: How Submarines Work (full episode) or this short video about buoyancy.

Conduct your own experiment to see how much your “boat” can hold. You can use a plastic bowl (like an empty/clean sour cream or other food container) and a larger bowl or the sink full of water. Make a guess at how many items you can place in the bowl before it sinks or tips over. For example, 100 pennies, or 10 pebbles from the driveway. You’ll want to use something that has a little bit of weight to it and can get wet. Use the Sink the Pirate Ship worksheet to record your hypothesis and observations.

Your older kids may enjoy making a duct tape boat that stays afloat and having a boat float race like we do every summer in a local creek. Learn more about making a duct tape boat float here.

Telescope

Pirates and other seamen often used telescopes to look for other ships and to watch for dangerous rocks. Telescopes were first invented about 400 years ago.

Telescopes such as the one invented by Galileo in 1609 were “refracting telescopes”. They had two lenses, a larger objective lens and a smaller ocular lens, which was held near the eye. Rays of light would enter through the objective lens, and as they passed through the second lens, the light was bent again to magnify the image. The image, while appearing to be up to 33X closer, actually appeared backward and upside down.

This design was later improved by the addition of mirrors. Just for fun, maybe your child would like to make a telescope, using these pirate science instructions.

Learn more about telescopes, Galileo, and the Hubble telescope in our Planets and Outer Space Unit.

Health

Jenny thought many of her toys needed some exercise. Do you and your children have a regular exercise routine? If not, why not start right now by tightening up those tummy muscles with some sit-ups or toe touches.

Or see if your kids can do a “plank”. Explain that a gang plank on a pirate ship was used to help passengers and crew get from the dock to the ship. Active bodies make healthy bodies!

Pirates Unit Study Social Studies

Seven Seas

The boy at the park boasted that his ship could outsail any of the seven seas. Looking at a world map, have your child locate the seven seas.

Use the Seven Seas Worksheet to have your child label all the major bodies of water. The Seven Seas are considered to be the North and South Atlantic, the North and South Pacific, the Indian, the Arctic, and the Antarctic Oceans.

Land and Water Forms

When pirates were sailing over the ocean and the look-out spotted land, they shouted, “Land Ho!”

Using your non-fiction Landforms book, learn about these different land forms and then use the Landforms flashcards printable to show what you’ve learned.

• Pond – A body of still, fresh water, smaller than a lake. Sometimes ponds are naturally created by water running off to a low spot, and sometimes they are man-made. Usually not connected to running water.
• Lake– A bigger body of still water. Can have a creek or river running into it and can be natural or man-made. Usually fresh water.
• Island – A piece of land entirely surrounded by water.
• Bay– A recess into the shoreline, which makes the water mostly surrounded by land. Smaller than a gulf.
• Cove – A smaller bay-like recess into a shoreline. Usually very sheltered from the larger body of water, which makes it safer for boats.
• River – A large, natural stream of water, usually fed by smaller creeks along its course, and discharging into a larger body of water such as a lake or ocean.
• Peninsula– A big piece of land that sticks out from the mainland, surrounded on three sides by water.
• Horizon – The line you see looking out as far as you can, where the sky meets the earth or sea.

Pirates

The study of pirates is an often interesting subject for children. There are many good books about pirates and their history available. Select a few of the “optional books” listed above and read through them with your kids. Talk to them about what the real life of pirates might have been like. If your kids are old enough, talk to them about whether there are still pirates roaming the seas looking for ships to take over.

Pirate Flags

The boy’s toy pirate ship had a Jolly Roger flag, the most famous of pirate flags. Some pirates designed their own flags, the scarier and more threatening the better, and others just used the standard skull and crossbones.

Have your child design a pirate flag. Use the Pirate Flag Worksheet in the Pirates Unit Study Pack.

Pirate Weapons

The pirates in the story had swords and cannons for weapons. Generally, pirates possessed whatever weapons they had stolen from victim ships, and usually had very well-stocked arsenals. They had short weapons, such as a flintlock pistol, cutlass, and dagger, for fighting on board in close quarters. For attacking at a distance they used cannons, catapults, muskets, grenades, and stinkpots.

Maybe your child would like to make a cutlass from cardboard and aluminum foil, or a catapult from craft sticks and rubber bands.

Pirate Clothes

Much of the clothes pirates wore were obtained during attacks. The clothing worn was chosen for its comfort and durability, and ease of moving around and fighting. Kerchiefs were worn around a pirate’s head to keep out dirt and dust, and to catch sweat. Sashes, usually of red, were pirate trademarks.

And every once in a while, a pirate did wear an eye patch to cover the damage done in some altercation.

Let your child have some fun dressing up in pirate garb. Look at garage sales and thrift stores for outgrown pirate costumes, or let them create their own out of their own clothes.

Pirate Ships

Pirates used whatever ships they could steal, as long as they were fast. They especially preferred small fast ships that were easy to steer, so they could sneak up on their victims and get away fast.

Generally, a rigged ship with both a mast and sails was used, like sloops and clippers. Check out Pirate’s Glossary for more information about Pirate ships. Or do an image search for “parts of a pirate ship”

Use the Pirate Ship Labeling Worksheets in the Pirates Unit Study Pack (comes in two difficulty levels) to label parts of a ship such as:

• Crow’s Nest–A basket-like lookout perch for sailor’s to watch for hazards, land, or other ships
• Gang Plank – A temporary bridge for passengers between a ship and land.
• Helm – The steering apparatus of a ship.
• Mainsail – The principal sail on a mainmast.
• Mainmast – The second mast from the front of the ship (the bow).
• Gunwale – The upper edge of the side of a ship where the cannons poked through.
• Masts – A pole set upright in a ship to support the sails
• Sails – A piece of material attached by ropes to a mast in a ship that catches the wind to help the ship propel forward.
• Anchor – A heavy, hooked implement, usually of iron or steel that is attached to a cable and dropped from a ship to hold it in place.

Pirate Sayings

“Shiver me timbers, mates”, the boy with the pirate ship exclaims in the book, Pirates in the Park. The boy is saying “Goodness me!” There are quite a few pirate sayings your child may or may not be familiar with.

“Ahoy there” means “Hey!”

“Lands Ahoy” means that there is land within sight.

“Tell it to the parrot” means to tell everyone.

You can find over 60 pirate sayings and their meanings over In the Playroom.

Watch a film with a pirate theme such as the Muppets Treasure Island, (rated G), Disney’s Blackbeard’s Ghost (rated G), the Charlton Heston version Treasure Island (ok for age 7+), or the movie Captain Kidd (rated G) starring Charles Laughton to hear more pirate sayings.

Remember what you’ve learned for Talk Like a Pirate Day, September 19th.

Pirates Unit Study Language Arts

Reality and Fantasy

While the Pirates in the Park story had many events that could have really happened, it also had many elements of fantasy. Discuss with your child, which parts were real and which parts were fantasy. Many of the children in the story were using their imagination, pretending to be pirates, cowboys, and ship captains.

Have your child use his imagination to narrate or write a story that includes elements of reality and fantasy, maybe with himself as a pirate!

Use the Pirate Creative Writing worksheet in the Pirates Unit Study Pack (comes in 3 handwriting sizes) for your child’s writing assignment.

Narration

When he was only 13, Benjamin Franklin is said to have written a song about the death of Blackbeard, the famous pirate. Blackbeard’s real name is generally thought to have been Edward Teach. Use the Pirates Narration pages which contain a quote from this song/poem to help your child learn spelling and grammar. You can read the song/poem The Taking of Teach the Pirate here. (Warning, the whole poem is a bit graphic for very young children! The excepts in the narration are fine.)

Abbreviations

An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Jenny called her ship the S.S. Walnut. The abbreviation S.S. is short for “steamship”. Some other common abbreviations your child may be familiar with are Mr., Mrs., Dr., as well as state abbreviations and address abbreviations.

Point out the abbreviation S.S. in the story, and encourage the child to write out some abbreviations himself, such as N.A.S.A., Mrs., or Dr. along with the words that they stand for.

Italics

In the book, Pirates in the Park, your child may notice that the words Skull and Walnut are printed in a slightly slanted style called italics. Italics are used to emphasize a certain word, indicate titles of magazines, newspapers, books, plays, films, a foreign word, and in this case, the names of ships.

Have your child find all the italicized words in the story. How many were there?

Pirates Unit Study Math

Dates

Have the child find the date of copyright in the front of the book (1973). Ask him how many years ago that was, helping him to subtract if needed.

Also, tell them the year you were born and have them figure out how old you were when the story was copyrighted, and how old you are now (or, how many years it was copyrighted before you were born).

The famous pirate Blackbeard was born around 1680 and died in 1718. How old was he when he died? How long ago was that?

Counting Treasure

Pirates had to be good at their math skills to make sure they got their “fair share” of treasure. Use little jewels, foil covered chocolate coins, or some other treasure as manipulatives for whatever math skill you are currently working on, like counting, adding, or dividing into groups. You could even spray paint some pebbles silver or gold, or make these salt dough pirate coins. The dollar tree usually has plastic “gold” coins in the spring, which work really well.

Pirates Unit Study Character

Boasting

The boy at the park was very boastful about the speed and quality of his ship. What happened at the end of the story? (A passing log crushed his ship.)

Proverbs 27:2 says, “Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth.” The Lord does not want us to be proud or boastful. If we do good and right things, then people will notice, and even if they don’t, Jesus will.

Use the Pirate Copywork Pages (in 3 levels) in the Pirates Unit Study Pack to copy out the Bible verse.

Instead of looking like a great ship, the crushed ship looked like a pile of rubble that nobody was much interested in playing with. Share a time when maybe your boastfulness backfired on you, or ask your child if something like that ever happened to him/her.

Pirates Unit Study Art

Look with your child through all the pictures of the ships. Take notice of the details of the many shapes and lines, the rectangular flags, the triangular sails, the circular helm and portholes, and the many ropes. Examine the ornate carvings on the bows of the ships.

Check out the pictures of masted ships from Pirate’s Glossary to see a frigate, a ketch, a galleon, and many more.

Have your child try her hand at drawing a ship, using some of the details found in the pictures. Here are “How-to-Draw” instructions for a pirate ship (and a treasure chest) from the fantastic Art for Kids Hub.

Practical Arts

Pirates mostly ate hardtack (sometimes called “sea biscuits” or “worm castles”) that were too hard to bite into without soaking first in liquid, and usually infested with weevils (bugs). They also had salted beef or pork, that was so salty it had to be soaked for days, and it was still as hard as jerky after cooking. They also had dried beans, and sometimes a bit of cheese.

If they were lucky and had looted a ship with spices, they loved using pepper, cinnamon, and cloves in their cooking.

Fresh water turned green and slimy in the barrels, so they usually drank rum mixed with water and lime, which they called grog, or they drank a very weak ale, which is like beer.

They ate very few fruits and vegetables, which led to scurvy.

Watch this video about hardtack (ship’s biscuits),

Have your child help you make a seafaring snack of hardtack, beans, and beef jerky. Would they want to eat that for six to twelve months straight?

Or if you are feeling adventuresome, you can make pease pudding (aka dog’s body) and lobscouse like in this authentic sailor’s video from Townsends. This is a great video to watch to see what their food actually looked like!

Additional Activities for your Pirate Unit

Listen to this album of Sea Shanties by Pirates of the Horizon. This video also has great images of a real “pirate” ship sailing in the ocean for your kids to see.

If you live near, or are going to the Outer Banks for vacation, you can see the real Blackbeard’s house in Beaufort NC. We also took a hilarious Pirate’s Revenge cruise run by a friend of a friend while we were in Beaufort.

If your elementary kiddos are into jokes, they may enjoy these pirate jokes.

More Pirates Resources for your Homeschool

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