Week 6- Pirates

Week 6- Pirates! Arghhhh

Welcome to the final week of our summer learning camp. It has been lots of fun. The final week we focused on Pirates. We learned a little bit about some of the more well known pirates, the ships, how to talk like a pirate and some pirate games like shipwreck and pirate dance moves.

On our first day we counting some gold coins, did some graphing of pirate objects, some pirate addition, and worked on decoding words with the "ar" sound. We also read some stories with sight words and pirate words. Our day could not begin though until we made our pirate hats.

For writing the students were given a choice of writing prompts. They varied from "If I were a pirate I would bury the treasure..." to "I open the treasure chest and found..." The students came up with some very creative responses. 

On day two, we made a pirate ship craft using water colors, Popsicle sticks, and paper. The students were asked to name their boats as well. Below are pictures of them working on the craft

 

We also had a cooking group with a pirate inspired idea. The student made some vanilla pudding and adding blue food coloring for the water. Then added some Swedish fish into their ocean up. We sliced up an apple, added a tooth pick and cut up a tortilla for the sail and boat! Below is what they looked like.

We also read a pirate story and did a comprehension activity with that using the story grammar symbols. We finished the day with a game of shipwreck.


Our last day was really fun and the students were very excited. We were headed to Kettle Cove Beach to look for pirate treasure! When we got there, we set up camp and the students were given a scavenger hunt with items they might be able to find on the beach. They had some times to explore and look for those things. We then took a short break for snack and another pirate story. After snack I told them when I was walking on he beach I found this paper rolled up in a bottle. We opened it as a group and it was our first clue.  Each clue lead us to a new spot and each clue also provided us with another piece to the treasure map. The students got to practice reading a map, putting the map together like a puzzle and reading and solving the clues. They were all very excited to find real pirate treasure! The clues and map are below along with pictures from our adventures.

Here is the journey!

Once we had all four pieces to our map we put it all together and used rocks to help so it would not blow away and the treasure would never be found. We had to figure out where we were on the map and then how to get to where the X was. We made a plan and headed back down the path to find the treasure chest.

We found a X on the ground made with sticks and a red X in the trees just like the one on the clues. It was tricky to find since it was under some branches and tucked off the path a little bit. We cracked it open and found lots of gold coins, expensive jewels, gold chunks, and jewelry. The students could fill their pockets quicker. We dragged the chest out and carried it back to our base location. They told everyone we passed along the way of their treasure and they were not sharing!

It was another fun week and like always we had so much more planned but not enough time. I hope that the students had just as much fun as the adults did. I hope they were excited to come and it wasn't like "summer school". Enjoy the next few weeks of summer and see you all in the fall. Thank you for checking out the blog, feel free to share with friends and family.

Thanks,

Dave, Mrs. Howard, Mrs. Kelsey, Mrs. McIntyre, Ms. Bahadori, Ms. Moe, Mrs. Connolly, and Mrs. Downer

Week 5- Underwater Adventures!

Welcome to Week 5- Underwater Adventures!

There was some disappointment to start the week especially after last weeks classroom tranformation into the international space station and mission control. The students walked in this week to find the classroom back to normal. Oh well! This week we learned about ocean animals. When the students arrived they got right to work. Each student chose a underwater creature and did a research project. The students used books and iPads to find out new facts. The put together their final reports using file folders called lap books. Unfortunately I was out one day and forgot to take pictures the other day so our two school days are short on pictures, but I did take lots of pictures on our field trip.


Our field trip though definitely made up for it I think. We were able to get in touch with a local lobster boat Captain named Captain Bridge from Peaks Island. We met him down at the marina where he ties up his boat when he needs to get things from the mainland. We did not go out on the water on his boat, but we were able to sit on the boat while it was docked. He was fantastic! He had pulled a trap all ready which had two lobsters in it as well as some other creatures from the Maine coast. He started off by explaining how lobster traps work. They have the kitchen and the bait and then there is a parlor. He took out the lobsters and explained the different parts of a lobster and how to tell if its a boy or a girl. He demonstrated how to band the lobsters so they would not pinch and then handed them over to the students to look at and explore. The students were thrilled.

We then got to take a look at some of the other creatures that were in his trap. He had a green crab and some snails. The crab got away on the boat, but the snails were fun to look at. Captain Bridge also showed up what he uses for bait. He had a huge squid that he laid on the deck and some fish remains and frozen mackerel. The students were very interested in this and not grossed out which I was surprised at. They were touching and exploring the squid and the fish. They asked some really good questions about lobsters and other creatures in the ocean.

Captain Bridge also showed us the jaws of a shark he caught years ago. He passed it around so the students could see and the teeth were very sharp. The jaws could easily fit one of their heads inside!

We finished up with Captain Bridge and headed down the trail to a grassy area to eat our snack. We got to see the narrow gauge train go by a couple times.

When we got back to school we finished up our research projects, but ran out of time to share what we learned with the other students. Some student went fishing for sight words as well.

It was a great week and nice to learn about something so close to home.We only have one more week left of Learning Camp. We are setting sail to become Pirates and find ye' buried treasure!