Teaching the Odyssey to Children: The Final Battle
0 CommentsBy Lostcheerio on Thursday, February 05, 2009 at 11:34 AM.
The final battle in the Odyssey is an extremely action-packed story that can be very very fun to act out! You will need:
A simple bow -- one that is large enough to be very difficult for the children to string.
Enough foamy swords for everyone.
Do not bring any real arrows!
1. Hide all the swords in the wine cellar.
2. Everyone is now a suitor, but someone is Odysseus in disguise! We don't know who! Pick the biggest, strongest, tallest student to go last.
3. Have all the suitors try to string the bow. With any luck, only the biggest, strongest kid will get it strung. If it doesn't go that way, just improvise. I had two Odysseuses in the same class, and it worked out fine!
4. Once Odysseus strings the bow, take the bow away and now you become Odysseus. Act out how he transformed back into his glorious strong radiant form, and immediately shot one of the suitors in the throat. Wow! Action! Intensity!
5. Now someone needs to sneak down to the wine cellar and arm the suitors! Have one of the students hand out the swords quickly while Odysseus is making hay with his bow!
6. When everyone is armed, say that they can all try to kill you with their foam swords while you count backwards from 20 to 1. Hopefully, you will survive. If you yell "No killing on the face!" a few times in between counting, you should be alright. But you might want to remove all glasses from you and the children before engaging in this battle.
This activity was planned and executed at our homeschool co-op, Homeschool Out of the Box, for my elementary literature class on The Odyssey. For more of my Odyssey ideas and plans, click on the Odyssey tag at the bottom of the post.
A simple bow -- one that is large enough to be very difficult for the children to string.
Enough foamy swords for everyone.
Do not bring any real arrows!
1. Hide all the swords in the wine cellar.
2. Everyone is now a suitor, but someone is Odysseus in disguise! We don't know who! Pick the biggest, strongest, tallest student to go last.
3. Have all the suitors try to string the bow. With any luck, only the biggest, strongest kid will get it strung. If it doesn't go that way, just improvise. I had two Odysseuses in the same class, and it worked out fine!
4. Once Odysseus strings the bow, take the bow away and now you become Odysseus. Act out how he transformed back into his glorious strong radiant form, and immediately shot one of the suitors in the throat. Wow! Action! Intensity!
5. Now someone needs to sneak down to the wine cellar and arm the suitors! Have one of the students hand out the swords quickly while Odysseus is making hay with his bow!
6. When everyone is armed, say that they can all try to kill you with their foam swords while you count backwards from 20 to 1. Hopefully, you will survive. If you yell "No killing on the face!" a few times in between counting, you should be alright. But you might want to remove all glasses from you and the children before engaging in this battle.
This activity was planned and executed at our homeschool co-op, Homeschool Out of the Box, for my elementary literature class on The Odyssey. For more of my Odyssey ideas and plans, click on the Odyssey tag at the bottom of the post.
Labels: classical literature, homeschool, homeschool co-op, lesson plans, odysseus, odyssey
Every day Penelope worked on her tapestry, and every night she picked out the stitches. She promised the suitors that she would marry one of them just as soon as she got done with the tapestry, but she never got done!
It's very easy for children to weave on a simple loom that you can construct out of cardboard or plastic. For a rectangular piece, notch the top and bottom of the rectangle. Set up the loom by starting the yarn at the bottom, then going up to the first notch on top, over one notch, back down, over one, back up, etc. until you get to the end. Wrap the end around the last notch, put a yarn needle on the leftover yarn, and you're ready to start weaving! Do a few rows on each loom to get the kids going and give them an idea over over-under-over-under, and make sure they know that the stitches alternate by rows. So if you went over it last time, you're going under it this time.
You can also make a circular loom -- we used empty soup containers -- or a loom that goes on the back and front of a rectangle at the same time by winding the yarn over the back side too.
Here is a page with really great instructions on making homemade looms out of recycled materials.
And here are some pictures of our Penelopes. They enjoyed the project very much and it even spilled over into lunch time:
This activity was planned and executed at our homeschool co-op, Homeschool Out of the Box, for my elementary literature class on The Odyssey. For more of my Odyssey ideas and plans, click on the Odyssey tag at the bottom of the post.
It's very easy for children to weave on a simple loom that you can construct out of cardboard or plastic. For a rectangular piece, notch the top and bottom of the rectangle. Set up the loom by starting the yarn at the bottom, then going up to the first notch on top, over one notch, back down, over one, back up, etc. until you get to the end. Wrap the end around the last notch, put a yarn needle on the leftover yarn, and you're ready to start weaving! Do a few rows on each loom to get the kids going and give them an idea over over-under-over-under, and make sure they know that the stitches alternate by rows. So if you went over it last time, you're going under it this time.
You can also make a circular loom -- we used empty soup containers -- or a loom that goes on the back and front of a rectangle at the same time by winding the yarn over the back side too.
Here is a page with really great instructions on making homemade looms out of recycled materials.
And here are some pictures of our Penelopes. They enjoyed the project very much and it even spilled over into lunch time:
This activity was planned and executed at our homeschool co-op, Homeschool Out of the Box, for my elementary literature class on The Odyssey. For more of my Odyssey ideas and plans, click on the Odyssey tag at the bottom of the post.
Labels: classical literature, homeschool, homeschool co-op, lesosn plans, odysseus, odyssey, penelope, weaving
When the Greeks went to the Underworld, they had specific instructions from Circe for how to give the ghosts life and health. If they prepared this special concoction, and allowed the ghosts to drink it, the ghosts could gain human form and speech. They were to dig a trench and fill it up with the stuff ghosts just loooove to eat. So, here's the recipe:
Blood (21st century Greeks may substitute ketchup)
Honey
Milk
Wine (Again, grape juice is an acceptable substitute for Greeks under 21)
Grain (We used corn meal for allergy reasons)
The exact ratio of ingredients is unspecified in the text but we just used a lot of everything.
For this activity you will need the following:
One trench. We used a long kind of tupperware-ish thing.
The four trench ingredients
Enough little glass bottles to hold some trench mix for each kid. With CORKS!
A ladle
A turkey baster
Creepy face paint.
Index cards
Markers
Tape
Before you start, have the children use the index cards, markers and tape to create the labels for their bottles. They should use a name like "Trench Surprise!" or "Trench Soup!" or something like that. Then set the bottles aside.
Divide your class up into ghosts and Greeks. On the ghost side you will need: Tiresias, Odysseus' mother, and Achilles. Paint up your ghosts' faces with creepy paint. On the Greek side you'll need Odysseus and enough Greeks to hold all the ingredients. So, here's how it goes.
1. Establish your trench -- put the ghosts on one side of it and the Greeks on the other.
2. Odysseus orders his Greeks to put their ingredients into the trench. As they come up one by one, you sit next to the trench and mix it together. Encourage everyone to be completely grossed out by the smell, the sight, and everything. Loudly yell "EWWWW!"
3. Have the ghosts come around sniffing hungrily and drooling and begging for a drink of what's in the trench. Odysseus must refuse all but Tiresias.
4. Let Tiresias get a big "drink" of trench and then say his bit about not eating up the sun god's cows.
5. Let the other ghosts come up and have a go at the jug.
6. When it's all over, use the turkey baster to put a little bit of "trench soup" into everyone's bottle. Cork FIRMLY. Tell the children NOT to let the bottles tip over, seriously. You do not want that stuff loose in a book bag. Of course if they want to uncork it once they get home, that's the parents' problem. *cackle*
The children enjoyed this activity very very much. As with everything else that's valuable and fun, it was a pain in the bottom to set up and clean up, but it was so totally worth it.
This activity was planned and executed at our homeschool co-op, Homeschool Out of the Box, for my elementary literature class on The Odyssey. For more of my Odyssey ideas and plans, click on the Odyssey tag at the bottom of the post.
Blood (21st century Greeks may substitute ketchup)
Honey
Milk
Wine (Again, grape juice is an acceptable substitute for Greeks under 21)
Grain (We used corn meal for allergy reasons)
The exact ratio of ingredients is unspecified in the text but we just used a lot of everything.
For this activity you will need the following:
One trench. We used a long kind of tupperware-ish thing.
The four trench ingredients
Enough little glass bottles to hold some trench mix for each kid. With CORKS!
A ladle
A turkey baster
Creepy face paint.
Index cards
Markers
Tape
Before you start, have the children use the index cards, markers and tape to create the labels for their bottles. They should use a name like "Trench Surprise!" or "Trench Soup!" or something like that. Then set the bottles aside.
Divide your class up into ghosts and Greeks. On the ghost side you will need: Tiresias, Odysseus' mother, and Achilles. Paint up your ghosts' faces with creepy paint. On the Greek side you'll need Odysseus and enough Greeks to hold all the ingredients. So, here's how it goes.
1. Establish your trench -- put the ghosts on one side of it and the Greeks on the other.
2. Odysseus orders his Greeks to put their ingredients into the trench. As they come up one by one, you sit next to the trench and mix it together. Encourage everyone to be completely grossed out by the smell, the sight, and everything. Loudly yell "EWWWW!"
3. Have the ghosts come around sniffing hungrily and drooling and begging for a drink of what's in the trench. Odysseus must refuse all but Tiresias.
4. Let Tiresias get a big "drink" of trench and then say his bit about not eating up the sun god's cows.
5. Let the other ghosts come up and have a go at the jug.
6. When it's all over, use the turkey baster to put a little bit of "trench soup" into everyone's bottle. Cork FIRMLY. Tell the children NOT to let the bottles tip over, seriously. You do not want that stuff loose in a book bag. Of course if they want to uncork it once they get home, that's the parents' problem. *cackle*
The children enjoyed this activity very very much. As with everything else that's valuable and fun, it was a pain in the bottom to set up and clean up, but it was so totally worth it.
This activity was planned and executed at our homeschool co-op, Homeschool Out of the Box, for my elementary literature class on The Odyssey. For more of my Odyssey ideas and plans, click on the Odyssey tag at the bottom of the post.
Labels: children, classical literature, homeschool, homeschool co-op, lesson plans, odysseus, odyssey
The episode in the Underworld can be a gruesome, gory read. We tried to lighten the mood by doing "Blind Tiresias" drawings. Here's what you'll need:
Blindfolds
White charcoal (available in the drawing section at a craft/art store)
Black cardstock
You could do it with white chalk but white charcoal is much nicer.
1. Show the students a picture of Tiresias and give them a little backstory on him. Tiresias is an awesome character to use when teaching how one figure can appear in multiple stories, with different purposes. Classical authors had no problem sharing characters and overlapping storylines. Why? Because these stories are based in oral traditions and myths, and characters like Tiresias the blind prophet can pop up all over the place. A good run-down on Tiresias can be found here with pictures. I love to point out places where texts can be deconstructed and the kids can kind of see beyond the page, and I find that even a six-year-old can understand this stuff, especially when you relate it to a character like "the wicked stepmother" or "the orphan who becomes a prince" etc.
2. Blindfold them. Make a big deal about checking if they can see or not, but if there are kids that get freaked out by being blindfolded, leave them a crack.
3. Pass out the materials, preferably after the kids are blindfolded, so that it will be a surprise when they see black paper and white chalk.
4. Ask them to draw Tiresias. Let hilarity ensue.
5. Some kids will cheat, and peek! That's okay! Accuse them loudly and angrily, and then move on! Bring lots of paper so that the cheaters have an opportunity to start over with virtue and a more secure blindfold
6. Some kids will not cheat, and their pictures will turn out funny:
This activity was planned and executed at our homeschool co-op, Homeschool Out of the Box, for my elementary literature class on The Odyssey. For more of my Odyssey ideas and plans, click on the Odyssey tag at the bottom of the post.
Blindfolds
White charcoal (available in the drawing section at a craft/art store)
Black cardstock
You could do it with white chalk but white charcoal is much nicer.
1. Show the students a picture of Tiresias and give them a little backstory on him. Tiresias is an awesome character to use when teaching how one figure can appear in multiple stories, with different purposes. Classical authors had no problem sharing characters and overlapping storylines. Why? Because these stories are based in oral traditions and myths, and characters like Tiresias the blind prophet can pop up all over the place. A good run-down on Tiresias can be found here with pictures. I love to point out places where texts can be deconstructed and the kids can kind of see beyond the page, and I find that even a six-year-old can understand this stuff, especially when you relate it to a character like "the wicked stepmother" or "the orphan who becomes a prince" etc.
2. Blindfold them. Make a big deal about checking if they can see or not, but if there are kids that get freaked out by being blindfolded, leave them a crack.
3. Pass out the materials, preferably after the kids are blindfolded, so that it will be a surprise when they see black paper and white chalk.
4. Ask them to draw Tiresias. Let hilarity ensue.
5. Some kids will cheat, and peek! That's okay! Accuse them loudly and angrily, and then move on! Bring lots of paper so that the cheaters have an opportunity to start over with virtue and a more secure blindfold
6. Some kids will not cheat, and their pictures will turn out funny:
This activity was planned and executed at our homeschool co-op, Homeschool Out of the Box, for my elementary literature class on The Odyssey. For more of my Odyssey ideas and plans, click on the Odyssey tag at the bottom of the post.
Labels: children, homeschool, homeschool co-op, lesson plans, odysseus, odyssey, tiresias
Homeschool Out of the Box Fall Semester Kick-off Party
0 CommentsBy Lostcheerio on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 8:04 PM.
Today we had a lovely party at our co-op to celebrate going back to school, one day a week, with awesome classes, good friends, and a loving family atmosphere. I don't have time for a proper post before I get the children into the tub, but I do have time for three pictures and three observations:
1. The Chess Table
2. The Drum Circle
3. The Food Table
1. I love the other moms at our co-op. I feel so lucky to have actual friends in a place where my children have fun and learn. These are people I would choose to hang out with even if our children didn't coincide. Nobody in our circle resembes the SNL caricature of the homeschool mom enough to prevent me from laughing at the skit.
2. When homeschoolers bring food, they bring food. The table was groaning under incredible offerings -- homemade baklava, glorious brownies, loads of veggies and tubs of melon, complex and subtle salsa, literate hummus, I mean it was ridiculous. We all ate all afternoon and there were mad leftovers. I have been in several "pot luck" situations in the last couple of weeks and no one, I mean no one, delivered anything like the homeschoolers.
3. Homeschooled children are delightful. I love how they're so earnest and interested in everything, how they're so full of vocabulary, how they joyously rush around, making up games to play, frowning over chess, giggling in stair wells. They play across gender lines, across age lines, they're funny and I LIKE THEM. I'm glad my children have these peers.
That is all. :)
1. The Chess Table
2. The Drum Circle
3. The Food Table
1. I love the other moms at our co-op. I feel so lucky to have actual friends in a place where my children have fun and learn. These are people I would choose to hang out with even if our children didn't coincide. Nobody in our circle resembes the SNL caricature of the homeschool mom enough to prevent me from laughing at the skit.
2. When homeschoolers bring food, they bring food. The table was groaning under incredible offerings -- homemade baklava, glorious brownies, loads of veggies and tubs of melon, complex and subtle salsa, literate hummus, I mean it was ridiculous. We all ate all afternoon and there were mad leftovers. I have been in several "pot luck" situations in the last couple of weeks and no one, I mean no one, delivered anything like the homeschoolers.
3. Homeschooled children are delightful. I love how they're so earnest and interested in everything, how they're so full of vocabulary, how they joyously rush around, making up games to play, frowning over chess, giggling in stair wells. They play across gender lines, across age lines, they're funny and I LIKE THEM. I'm glad my children have these peers.
That is all. :)
Labels: homeschool co-op
Islands of Adventure: Boys Book Club Materials
0 CommentsBy Lostcheerio on Tuesday, February 05, 2008 at 1:43 PM.
UPDATE: This set of lessons is available in full now, downloadable as one PDF. Go check out the Treasure Island Seminar to check that out. :)
Hello! On this page you'll be able to do access and download all the materials your children will be receiving in class, as well as additional stuff to look at and print. I will update this page as new materials become available. Here's a short list of the materials you can find here, and below is a more detailed list, by date.
Class Summary 1: jpg or pdf
Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum: jpg or pdf
Yo Ho Yo Ho a Pirate's Life for Me: jpg or pdf
Class Summary 2: jpg or pdf
Compass Exercise: jpg or pdf
Class Summary 3: jpg or pdf
Class Summary 4: jpg or pdf
A Pirate's Life is a Wonderful Life: jpg or pdf
Vocabulary Worksheet for Part One: jpg or pdf
Class Summary 5: jpg or pdf
Pirate Story Plan: jpg or pdf
Class Summary 6: jpg or pdf
Class Summary 7: jpg or pdf
Pirate Vessels: jpg or pdf
Vocabulary Worksheet for Part Four: jpg or pdf
Class Summary 8: jpg or pdf
Ship's Bells Worksheet: jpg or pdf
Class Summary 9: jpg or pdf
Signal Flags Worksheet: jpg or pdf
Lillibullero: jpg or pdf
Class Summary 10: jpg or pdf
Coin Worksheet: jpg or pdf
Class 11 and 12 available here.
This week the children really impressed me with their grasp of the salient points from these chapters. As we near the end of the book, things will start to come together, plot-wise, but this part where Jim Hawkins is in the coracle, on and off the Hispaniola, and fighting with Israel Hands, is kind of difficult to follow even for an adult. I continue to be amazed with their comprehension skills and when we sit down to discuss the story they are almost always right with me as we go through the ideas and facts I want to get across. Kudos to you guys for reading with them, and kudos to them for tackling such a challenging text.
When Jim Hawkins returns to the stockade, he is clued in to the fact that the pirates have taken over residence when he hears the parrot saying "Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!" We learned what this phrase means, and the answer was kind of interesting! Spanish dollars were worth 8 reals, and they were made of gold. To make change, instead of making coins with smaller denominations, they would just chop up the big gold coins into individual reals. Each "bit" was worth one real, making each quarter worth two reals, or two bits! Interesting -- I did not know that until doing research for this class.
After we discussed some of the symbolism of the images that appear on coins, how carefully the faces, buildings, animals, birds, or shapes are chosen, the students designed their own coins with interesting results. We also talked about fractions, and practiced dividing our coins into halves, quarters, eighths, but I found this was not challenging for them -- they seemed to already understand these math concepts.
Documents:
Update April 29:
In this class we learned about signal flags and the way they were used to communicate between ships. We studied the signal flag alphabet and practiced writing our names and messages to each other in flags. Keep your eye open for flags in the harbor and also on buildings around town!
We learned a new song today. Lillibullero is an English folk song that has been used and re-used with many different lyrics at different times in history. We put Treasure Island lyrics to it -- a call and response song between the faithful and the pirates as they taunt each other over the wall of the stockade.
Lillibullero was the tune that the pirates were whistling while Dr. Livesey was making his trips with the jolly boat before the faithful took up residence in the stockade. I thought it would be neat to teach the children this song, and it *really* gets stuck in their heads. I may have assigned them to come home and drive you insane singing "Lero lero lillibullero!" Sorry about that.
Here are the documents:
Update April 8:
The men in the stockade had to make difficult choices about what they chose to take with them from the ship, since they didn't have a lot of room in the boat. Some luxuries and even some necessities were left behind, and now they're struggling to survive with only what they have. Today in class we're going to be creating "survival packs" in class. We will determine the bare minimum that we would need to survive in a jungle island environment and pack our boxes with symbols of these provisions and tools.
We will also be learning about telling time with ship's bells, and I have a worksheet for them to use in practicing this. It would be great if throughout this week you could reinforce the "ship's bells" method a bit when you find yourself checking the time or setting a bed time or a time for dinner. :)
Update April 1:
At the beginning of our reading for today, Dr. Livesey becomes the narrator and Jim Hawkins is temporarily out of the story. Today we focused on point of view as a literary device. The point of view from which a story is told determines a lot about the story! We discussed how different Treasure Island might be if it were told from the point of view of Long John Silver. We discussed how real life situations might be seen differently from different characters involved in the action. The boys were incredibly perceptive with this stuff! Well beyond my expectations! They continue to amaze me.
We are learning about different types of pirate vessels in these chapters and the ones to come. I assigned an art worksheet for them to do, with your help, after looking up pictures of gigs, coracles, schooners, and jolly-boats on the internet. I also gave them another vocabulary worksheet -- same as the first, with "pick three to use in sentences" and then "pick three to show in a picture." As usual, how much you do of these "assignments" is up to you, but it does enrich our class time if everyone can participate fully.
Update March 11:
Chapter 13 provides us with a lot of very evocative descriptions of Treasure Island itself. This is not your fun, happy, blue-skied, diamond-beached tropical paradise! It's marshy, grey, forbidding, and scary. Today we discussed literary settings, and the three elements that make up a setting:
1. The physical objects present, including landscape elements and "things" in view.
2. The time of day. Lonely beach during the day is quite different from a lonely beach at night!
3. The weather.
Without any of these three elements, a setting is incomplete. An author gives us at least an impression of all three, to create a full picture in our minds. We also talked about including other senses besides just vision. The marsh in Treasure Island smelled bad, the heat felt oppressive, there were bird calls, etc.
To reinforce these ideas, we did watercolor paintings of the setting we had read about. This is why your child's picture might have come home looking very dreary. We talked about including the major landmarks, like Spyglass Mountain, and giving an impression of the weather and time of day.
During spring break, I'd like the boys to read the next six chapters. Also, if you're interested in participating in the Reading Rainbow contest for young writers and illustrators, that deadline is March 28. I would love to have some pirate stories entered! They could even use their watercolor painting as a cover, or one of their illustrations.
I realized when I was unpacking my things that in the excitement over giving the boys their pirate mugs (thanks, Amy Moler!) I forgot to hand out the class summary sheet for Class Six: Land Ho! Here it is:
Update March 4:
What's up pirates and pirate parents? Today we spent some time working on their pirate vocabulary and looking at their homework. I was amazed and delighted to hear them already beginning to incorporate some of these words into their discussion of the books. These children are so smart! You might look over that sheet this week and ask your child which words he remembers, to reinforce his knowledge. If you didn't do this sheet, don't worry about it -- we'll be doing more of these as the book progresses. One of the most valuable side effects of reading real literature at a young age is exposure to interesting vocabulary, so we want to maximize that! We also spent some time talking about the geography of the ocean voyage, from Bristol to the Caribbean Sea. If you have a globe handy, you might point out these places on the globe.
New project:
Storytelling: Today we started a new project! We are all going to write pirate adventure stories! In their folders you will find a worksheet I made to help them start brainstorming ideas. If your child needs help writing down his ideas, you can absolutely be a scribe for him, or he can just draw pictures in the boxes to start thinking about the main points of his tale. In class, they already began telling me how they have different ideas, ones that don't fit in the boxes -- well, of course, that's just what I would expect!! Not at all necessary to fill in the boxes or stay within the limits I've defined -- whatever your boy imagines is fantastic. I'm just trying to spark some ideas with these questions.
Reading Rainbow, a show on PBS, has an annual contest for young writers and illustrators. The contest has some very specific rules, so you will definitely want to look at their web site if you're interested in pursuing that. Check out the local rules and regs at WHRO. I think this is a great contest, and I will be doing this with Benny. I encourage you to investigate it -- not a requirement by any means though! The deadline is at the end of this month. Next week in class we'll be talking more about structuring their stories, so over the break they'll have lots of time to finish working at home.
Ongoing Projects:
Songwriting: Two of our students wrote new verses to "A Pirate's Life is a Wonderful Life" which we sang in class. I encourage everyone to do this! There are lines on your song sheet for filling in your own verse(s) that relate to Treasure Island.
Treasure Collecting: I gave the children their treasure pouches today, in which they'll be collecting coins and jewels in class. They can either keep it clipped into their class notebooks or with the rest of their treasure trove at home. They've begun negotiating with me for trading up to better coins, better "diamonds" etc. -- this is awesome! Deal-making is very piratical. So now in their treasure troves they should have their beads, their maps, and their pouches.
Music: I have made MP3 versions of the three songs we are learning in class! I'm not going to host them on my site or the list, but if you would like to have me email them to you, please email me offlist and let me know.
That's it! Keep reading!
Update February 26:Ahoy pirates! I hope your reading is going well. Today in class we launched two new projects:
1. I invited the students to write their own verse, or verses, for the "A Pirate's Life is a Wonderful Life" song. I'm working on getting you guys a CD with all of these songs on it, but until then if you're not sure of the tune -- it's the song from Peter Pan. There's no pressure on this -- if they don't want to do it right away or at all, that's totally fine. Some seemed excited at the prospect, some less so, so let's just make sure it stays fun!
2. We will be making a pirate's sea chest later on in the class, but for now we are starting to collect our "treasure trove." The students should now have a treasure map (in an oilskin packet) and a necklace made with beads and shells from the West Indies. Note: The shells are not actually from the West Indies and the envelope is not actually made of skin. :) They will be collecting and making more items, so they'll just need to keep them in a central location at home until we make the chest later in the semester.
The reading for this week is the next three chapters. I welcome your feedback on the speed at which we are going through the book. If three chapters per week is too fast, please let me know. Also let me know if your children are done reading the book! :)
The vocabulary worksheet that the children brought home is a "friendly" homework assignment. We will be talking about it these words in class, and it would be helpful for the students to learn their meanings. If these homework assignments are too much, just ignore them. If you're enjoying them, that's great! They're meant to enhance their understanding of the book, not to be a chore. :) If you have any questions, feel free to email me at jackets at rpsd dot com.
Update February 19:
For next week, please read chapters 7-9. Please bring your treasure maps back to class with you so we can all admire them before we put them in their "oilskin packets." :)
In class, we sang our pirate songs, and then covered the "salient points" of chapters 1-3. We learned about boxing the compass, which means reciting the thirty-two points of the compass. We learned sixteen points of the compass, and did a worksheet in class to practice putting these points where they go in relation to each other. For next week, I'd like them to be able to place N, S, E, and W on a compass. We will also work on this in class with some games on our not-quite-round rug. :)
I handed out their folders and they each got a black pencil. It would be great if they could bring these to class each week. I will have extra pencils for those that forget, and I have someone's pencil in my bag from last week, but if they could just put their pencils in the center little pocket on their folders, then they'd always have one. It is not important that they bring the actual text of the story, since we will not be using that in class.
For next week, please read chapters 4 through 6. The children all had amazing recall of the facts in the chapters they had read. You are all doing a great job supporting them as they tackle this literature! They are such bright, enthusiastic, exciting students -- I really appreciate them.
Update February 5:
I realized that I assigned the boys to research one of the piratey terms in "Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum" but did not provide them with a lyric sheet. I had to wrestle my printer into submission to get it to print out the class summary, but it stuck out its lip last night and refused to print the lyrics!
Here is the class summary, which the boys received on paper today. You'll find their chosen pirate names in the blank on the sheet they got in class. You can download this either as a JPG (image) or as a PDF (Adobe Acrobat file).
Hello! On this page you'll be able to do access and download all the materials your children will be receiving in class, as well as additional stuff to look at and print. I will update this page as new materials become available. Here's a short list of the materials you can find here, and below is a more detailed list, by date.
Class Summary 1: jpg or pdf
Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum: jpg or pdf
Yo Ho Yo Ho a Pirate's Life for Me: jpg or pdf
Class Summary 2: jpg or pdf
Compass Exercise: jpg or pdf
Class Summary 3: jpg or pdf
Class Summary 4: jpg or pdf
A Pirate's Life is a Wonderful Life: jpg or pdf
Vocabulary Worksheet for Part One: jpg or pdf
Class Summary 5: jpg or pdf
Pirate Story Plan: jpg or pdf
Class Summary 6: jpg or pdf
Class Summary 7: jpg or pdf
Pirate Vessels: jpg or pdf
Vocabulary Worksheet for Part Four: jpg or pdf
Class Summary 8: jpg or pdf
Ship's Bells Worksheet: jpg or pdf
Class Summary 9: jpg or pdf
Signal Flags Worksheet: jpg or pdf
Lillibullero: jpg or pdf
Class Summary 10: jpg or pdf
Coin Worksheet: jpg or pdf
Class 11 and 12 available here.
This week the children really impressed me with their grasp of the salient points from these chapters. As we near the end of the book, things will start to come together, plot-wise, but this part where Jim Hawkins is in the coracle, on and off the Hispaniola, and fighting with Israel Hands, is kind of difficult to follow even for an adult. I continue to be amazed with their comprehension skills and when we sit down to discuss the story they are almost always right with me as we go through the ideas and facts I want to get across. Kudos to you guys for reading with them, and kudos to them for tackling such a challenging text.
When Jim Hawkins returns to the stockade, he is clued in to the fact that the pirates have taken over residence when he hears the parrot saying "Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!" We learned what this phrase means, and the answer was kind of interesting! Spanish dollars were worth 8 reals, and they were made of gold. To make change, instead of making coins with smaller denominations, they would just chop up the big gold coins into individual reals. Each "bit" was worth one real, making each quarter worth two reals, or two bits! Interesting -- I did not know that until doing research for this class.
After we discussed some of the symbolism of the images that appear on coins, how carefully the faces, buildings, animals, birds, or shapes are chosen, the students designed their own coins with interesting results. We also talked about fractions, and practiced dividing our coins into halves, quarters, eighths, but I found this was not challenging for them -- they seemed to already understand these math concepts.
Documents:
Update April 29:
In this class we learned about signal flags and the way they were used to communicate between ships. We studied the signal flag alphabet and practiced writing our names and messages to each other in flags. Keep your eye open for flags in the harbor and also on buildings around town!
We learned a new song today. Lillibullero is an English folk song that has been used and re-used with many different lyrics at different times in history. We put Treasure Island lyrics to it -- a call and response song between the faithful and the pirates as they taunt each other over the wall of the stockade.
Lillibullero was the tune that the pirates were whistling while Dr. Livesey was making his trips with the jolly boat before the faithful took up residence in the stockade. I thought it would be neat to teach the children this song, and it *really* gets stuck in their heads. I may have assigned them to come home and drive you insane singing "Lero lero lillibullero!" Sorry about that.
Here are the documents:
Update April 8:
The men in the stockade had to make difficult choices about what they chose to take with them from the ship, since they didn't have a lot of room in the boat. Some luxuries and even some necessities were left behind, and now they're struggling to survive with only what they have. Today in class we're going to be creating "survival packs" in class. We will determine the bare minimum that we would need to survive in a jungle island environment and pack our boxes with symbols of these provisions and tools.
We will also be learning about telling time with ship's bells, and I have a worksheet for them to use in practicing this. It would be great if throughout this week you could reinforce the "ship's bells" method a bit when you find yourself checking the time or setting a bed time or a time for dinner. :)
Ship's Bells Exercise: jpg or pdf
Update April 1:
At the beginning of our reading for today, Dr. Livesey becomes the narrator and Jim Hawkins is temporarily out of the story. Today we focused on point of view as a literary device. The point of view from which a story is told determines a lot about the story! We discussed how different Treasure Island might be if it were told from the point of view of Long John Silver. We discussed how real life situations might be seen differently from different characters involved in the action. The boys were incredibly perceptive with this stuff! Well beyond my expectations! They continue to amaze me.
We are learning about different types of pirate vessels in these chapters and the ones to come. I assigned an art worksheet for them to do, with your help, after looking up pictures of gigs, coracles, schooners, and jolly-boats on the internet. I also gave them another vocabulary worksheet -- same as the first, with "pick three to use in sentences" and then "pick three to show in a picture." As usual, how much you do of these "assignments" is up to you, but it does enrich our class time if everyone can participate fully.
Vocabulary for part 4: jpg or pdf
Update March 11:
Chapter 13 provides us with a lot of very evocative descriptions of Treasure Island itself. This is not your fun, happy, blue-skied, diamond-beached tropical paradise! It's marshy, grey, forbidding, and scary. Today we discussed literary settings, and the three elements that make up a setting:
1. The physical objects present, including landscape elements and "things" in view.
2. The time of day. Lonely beach during the day is quite different from a lonely beach at night!
3. The weather.
Without any of these three elements, a setting is incomplete. An author gives us at least an impression of all three, to create a full picture in our minds. We also talked about including other senses besides just vision. The marsh in Treasure Island smelled bad, the heat felt oppressive, there were bird calls, etc.
To reinforce these ideas, we did watercolor paintings of the setting we had read about. This is why your child's picture might have come home looking very dreary. We talked about including the major landmarks, like Spyglass Mountain, and giving an impression of the weather and time of day.
During spring break, I'd like the boys to read the next six chapters. Also, if you're interested in participating in the Reading Rainbow contest for young writers and illustrators, that deadline is March 28. I would love to have some pirate stories entered! They could even use their watercolor painting as a cover, or one of their illustrations.
I realized when I was unpacking my things that in the excitement over giving the boys their pirate mugs (thanks, Amy Moler!) I forgot to hand out the class summary sheet for Class Six: Land Ho! Here it is:
Update March 4:
What's up pirates and pirate parents? Today we spent some time working on their pirate vocabulary and looking at their homework. I was amazed and delighted to hear them already beginning to incorporate some of these words into their discussion of the books. These children are so smart! You might look over that sheet this week and ask your child which words he remembers, to reinforce his knowledge. If you didn't do this sheet, don't worry about it -- we'll be doing more of these as the book progresses. One of the most valuable side effects of reading real literature at a young age is exposure to interesting vocabulary, so we want to maximize that! We also spent some time talking about the geography of the ocean voyage, from Bristol to the Caribbean Sea. If you have a globe handy, you might point out these places on the globe.
New project:
Storytelling: Today we started a new project! We are all going to write pirate adventure stories! In their folders you will find a worksheet I made to help them start brainstorming ideas. If your child needs help writing down his ideas, you can absolutely be a scribe for him, or he can just draw pictures in the boxes to start thinking about the main points of his tale. In class, they already began telling me how they have different ideas, ones that don't fit in the boxes -- well, of course, that's just what I would expect!! Not at all necessary to fill in the boxes or stay within the limits I've defined -- whatever your boy imagines is fantastic. I'm just trying to spark some ideas with these questions.
Reading Rainbow, a show on PBS, has an annual contest for young writers and illustrators. The contest has some very specific rules, so you will definitely want to look at their web site if you're interested in pursuing that. Check out the local rules and regs at WHRO. I think this is a great contest, and I will be doing this with Benny. I encourage you to investigate it -- not a requirement by any means though! The deadline is at the end of this month. Next week in class we'll be talking more about structuring their stories, so over the break they'll have lots of time to finish working at home.
Ongoing Projects:
Songwriting: Two of our students wrote new verses to "A Pirate's Life is a Wonderful Life" which we sang in class. I encourage everyone to do this! There are lines on your song sheet for filling in your own verse(s) that relate to Treasure Island.
Treasure Collecting: I gave the children their treasure pouches today, in which they'll be collecting coins and jewels in class. They can either keep it clipped into their class notebooks or with the rest of their treasure trove at home. They've begun negotiating with me for trading up to better coins, better "diamonds" etc. -- this is awesome! Deal-making is very piratical. So now in their treasure troves they should have their beads, their maps, and their pouches.
Music: I have made MP3 versions of the three songs we are learning in class! I'm not going to host them on my site or the list, but if you would like to have me email them to you, please email me offlist and let me know.
That's it! Keep reading!
Update February 26:Ahoy pirates! I hope your reading is going well. Today in class we launched two new projects:
1. I invited the students to write their own verse, or verses, for the "A Pirate's Life is a Wonderful Life" song. I'm working on getting you guys a CD with all of these songs on it, but until then if you're not sure of the tune -- it's the song from Peter Pan. There's no pressure on this -- if they don't want to do it right away or at all, that's totally fine. Some seemed excited at the prospect, some less so, so let's just make sure it stays fun!
2. We will be making a pirate's sea chest later on in the class, but for now we are starting to collect our "treasure trove." The students should now have a treasure map (in an oilskin packet) and a necklace made with beads and shells from the West Indies. Note: The shells are not actually from the West Indies and the envelope is not actually made of skin. :) They will be collecting and making more items, so they'll just need to keep them in a central location at home until we make the chest later in the semester.
The reading for this week is the next three chapters. I welcome your feedback on the speed at which we are going through the book. If three chapters per week is too fast, please let me know. Also let me know if your children are done reading the book! :)
The vocabulary worksheet that the children brought home is a "friendly" homework assignment. We will be talking about it these words in class, and it would be helpful for the students to learn their meanings. If these homework assignments are too much, just ignore them. If you're enjoying them, that's great! They're meant to enhance their understanding of the book, not to be a chore. :) If you have any questions, feel free to email me at jackets at rpsd dot com.
A Pirate's Life is a Wonderful Life: jpg or pdf
Vocabulary Worksheet: jpg or pdf
Update February 19:
Hi pirates! I hope that by now you've uncrumpled your treasure maps and rubbed them with oil. Ours turned out really old and piratey-looking, but we had a terrible tragedy in our house -- THE DOG ATE IT! The dog ate Benny's homework literally! I guess we should have used goat oil or something, because the olive oil we used was just too delicious for Leroy the Boston Terrier to resist.
If you are in the same situation, or if you just need instructions on making your pirate map because you missed class, here are the steps:
1. On a plain piece of paper, draw a pirate map with permanent marker or crayons. Don't use washable marker! Your map should include the elements we agreed on in class: a compass, labels on landmarks, and an X to mark the treasure.
2. Paint the map with tea. We used pretty weak tea in class, but you could use stronger tea for a darker color. Paint both sides.
3. When the map is good and wet, crumple it up and leave it to dry overnight while crumpled.
4. The next day, uncrumple the map and rub oil into it for a greasy old pirate map.
Note: If a lot of the crayon rubs off during the oiling process, don't worry -- part of the point is that when maps get used and abused, they get harder to read.
Here is the class summary for this week:
For next week, please read chapters 7-9. Please bring your treasure maps back to class with you so we can all admire them before we put them in their "oilskin packets." :)
Update February 12:
This update is late because almost immediately after our class on Tuesday, I went off on a trip! For those who are wondering, it went very well. For those who are wanting to download the class materials, here they are!
In class, we sang our pirate songs, and then covered the "salient points" of chapters 1-3. We learned about boxing the compass, which means reciting the thirty-two points of the compass. We learned sixteen points of the compass, and did a worksheet in class to practice putting these points where they go in relation to each other. For next week, I'd like them to be able to place N, S, E, and W on a compass. We will also work on this in class with some games on our not-quite-round rug. :)
I handed out their folders and they each got a black pencil. It would be great if they could bring these to class each week. I will have extra pencils for those that forget, and I have someone's pencil in my bag from last week, but if they could just put their pencils in the center little pocket on their folders, then they'd always have one. It is not important that they bring the actual text of the story, since we will not be using that in class.
For next week, please read chapters 4 through 6. The children all had amazing recall of the facts in the chapters they had read. You are all doing a great job supporting them as they tackle this literature! They are such bright, enthusiastic, exciting students -- I really appreciate them.
Update February 5:
I realized that I assigned the boys to research one of the piratey terms in "Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum" but did not provide them with a lyric sheet. I had to wrestle my printer into submission to get it to print out the class summary, but it stuck out its lip last night and refused to print the lyrics!
Here is the class summary, which the boys received on paper today. You'll find their chosen pirate names in the blank on the sheet they got in class. You can download this either as a JPG (image) or as a PDF (Adobe Acrobat file).
Here are the lyric sheets for the two songs we'll be learning. The boys do not need to learn *all* these lyrics, by any means! The "pirate choir" will be joining in on the repeated lines, with me singing the verses, for now. No pressure to learn these at all, but I would like them to look at one of the slang terms in "Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum" and try to figure out what it means.
Have fun with the reading for this week, and don't worry about the boys understanding every little aspect of the text. This is more "grown up" literature than most of them are probably used to. It's more important to get a feel for the language and enjoy the general feeling of the book than it is to go through it paragraph by paragraph and make sure they understand every word. We will talk about the settings, the characters, and the plot points, when we meet. Next week in "pirate lore" we'll be discussing the points of the compass, and also all the other pirate lore stuff that we didn't get to this week, since we ran out of time!
Labels: book club, homeschool co-op, homeschooling, islands of adventure, language arts, lessons, literature, reading, treasure island
Islands of Adventure: Class 1: At the Admiral Benbow
0 CommentsBy Lostcheerio on Monday, February 04, 2008 at 2:18 PM.
Tomorrow I begin teaching a class on Treasure Island and other adventurey books for boys age 6-9. The class is held at the "Out of the Box" co-op that meets here in my neighborhood. I'm going to have eight little boys. Here's my lesson plan for day 1:
Sing!
Fifteen Men on a Dead Man’s Chest
Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate’s Life for Me
Choose a Pirate Name! Mix and Match from the list:
Salty Jude Fourfingers
Crazy Jack LePlank
Scurvy Jim Pegleg
Blue John The Goat
Captain Bogg Swashbuckle
Swarthy Mack Cutthroat
Briny Tom Doubloon
Scabby Kracken Swordswaller
Red Flint Musketmouth
Rummy Hank Gumbo
Mad-eye Bill Fishlip
Make a Pirate Flag! Not all pirates flew the Jolly Roger. In fact, each designed his or her own flag. Cut your symbolic elements out of white and red paper, and glue them onto your black flag.
Typical pirate flag elements: Bones, skulls, hearts, swords, hour-glasses, skeletons, stars, letters, numbers.
Learn Some Pirate Lore! Parents: These terms are relevant to the reading selection for next week and will be discussed in class. There won't be a quiz or a test.
1. Bearings 7. Compass
2. Sea chest 8. Mate
3. Tarry pigtail 9. Skipper
4. Capstan bars 10. Keep your weather eye open
5. Walking the plank 11. Dry Tortugas
6. Spanish Main 12. Man who sails before the mast
Assignments for next time:
Reading Assignment: Chapters 1-3 of Treasure Island
Research: One “piratey term” from the song “Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum”
Optional: Piratey Destinations To Visit Online (with an adult):
Pirate Flags: http://pirateshold.buccaneersoft.com/pirate_flags.html
Fifteen Men on a Dead Man’s Chest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhXbhK9tL6U Yo ho, Yo ho, a Pirate’s Life For Me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wT8ZNsKNZc
Labels: homeschool co-op, islands of adventure, literature, treasure island
