Swashbuckling Adventures on the High Seas: Historical Fiction, Informational Texts, and an Integrated Unit about Pirates

I really liked the suggestions for launching the pirate unit in your own classroom.  It would really excite and begin to get the kids engaged in the upcoming unit if you did the suggested centers in your classroom.  Playing pirate music, displaying pirate books, and creating centers seems like a great interactive approach.  This approach reminded me of what we have been talking about in our science class.  This first part of the unit seems experimental, where the kids are able to write down what they know and question what they do not yet know.  This unit allows for the teacher to be creative and make learning about social studies fun! Even though this unit is mostly intended for the fourth grade level, it could be adapted to higher or lower grades in between.  As for the students keeping pirate notebooks, I think this a great idea because it allows the students to work on their writing skills, but also to learn more about pirates.  I had never really thought about strategies and importance of making a unit launch so interesting and engaging.  I am excited to learn more about this pirate unit!  🙂