How to Teach About Pirates in the Classroom

Thanks to Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean series, pirates are a popular topic for most young people today. As an educator or a parent who wants to reinforce skills at home, you can take advantage of this phenomenon by introducing a pirate theme to lesson plans for reading, geography, history and more.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Xpeditions outline maps (available on National Geographic website)
• Drawing and writing supplies

1. Teach geography and world history using a pirate theme. National Geographic Xpeditions offers a lesson plan that can be tailored to a particular grade level. This lesson plan teaches students about the relationship between piracy and the slave trade, the triangular trade route and geography.
2. Have fun with pirate vocabulary. You can help students to appreciate language by playing with "piratey" words. Suite 101 features a pirate dictionary that you can use to create word searches, crossword puzzles and other vocabulary skills. Have students study the dictionary and then use the words in conversation. Award points to the team that uses the most pirate words correctly.
3. Strengthen research skills by studying famous pirates. There are lots of famous pirates--William Kidd, Blackbeard, Bartholomew Roberts and Anne Bonny are just a few. Have students choose one and research their pirate in the library or on the Internet. They can do a wanted poster, write a report or develop a power point presentation on the pirate.

Tips & Warnings

• Take time to explore the hundreds of links that two professors at Kennesaw State University have compiled on their Pirates Theme Page. You will be amazed at how much valuable information exists about pirates.