KS2 Book topic – pirates

You may have already plundered a pirate topic in KS1, but revisiting men of low moral fibre in KS2 can yield fresh spoils, says Clare Pearson...

Along with cowboys, dinosaurs, princesses and dragons, pirates occupy a special place in children’s hearts. The romance of piracy is in creating a fantasy world in which children can be swashbuckling heroes, setting sail on a catalogue of adventures and taking on mighty foes. This has long been exploited by KS1 teachers to provide rich and creative learning experiences, but drawing on and extending this prior knowledge in KS2 will both motivate and support deeper learning.

You can create a sense of mystery the moment children walk into the classroom. Scatter some sand and shells in a prominent location. In the centre of your beach scene, place a corked glass bottle, which will contain a hand drawn map of Skull Island and a note you have prepared earlier – ideally written in code and signed by ‘Captain Stormface’.

Explore this scene as a class and together make predictions of what might have happened.  Use a KWL grid (What I Know/What I Want to find out/What I have Learnt) to organise these thoughts and offer ways forward. In the Know column, list the facts you’ve gleaned from the evidence; use the Want column to record questions you would like answered, and revisit the Learnt column as you explore the topic further and find the answers you seek.

Before embarking on this topic, make sure you get hold of The Usborne Official Pirate’s Handbook – Everything a beginner pirate needs to know, by Captain Indigo Stormface. It’s a fantastic example of writing in role for a specific audience and provides a user-friendly entry into the world of piracy. Wannabe pirates will learn essential skills such as how to ‘Talk like a sea dog’, ‘Keep your ship unwrecked’ and ‘Rogues to respect’.

1. Working with the text

Creating characters
One of the writing challenges for children in their junior school years is to use detail to engage the reader and communicate personality through ‘showing not telling’. Film editors do this by ‘zooming in’ to a character, and children can replicate this in their writing. Another way to avoid ‘telling’ is to describe a characters actions.

First, put together a generic vocabulary place mat to which children will be able to refer whenever they are writing. This could have sub-headings such as: Physique; Stance; Hair; Complexion; Facial features. Explore new vocabulary with the class and ask children to annotate their individual place mats with notes / pictures to help them recall what the words mean.

Now select a short clip from Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (typing ‘Jack Sparrow’s intro’ into Youtube gives a nice example). Model writing an opening sentence that describes Captain Jack’s stance – ‘He stood strong and proud, as confident as a wealthy prince’ - and ask children to substitute language into this model to compose a sentence of their own. Repeat this, ‘zooming in’ to describe facial features. Now stress the importance of choosing powerful verbs and high quality adverbs to describe Captain Jack’s actions as he moves around the boat. Encourage different sentence starters, such as beginning with an action verb ‘(Leaping high into the air, Captain Jack unfurled the sail’) or an emotion (‘Confident, he gazed purposefully towards the horizon’).

Being Jim Hawkins

BBC Schools has developed an animated version of Treasure Island, which is told in 10 short chapters. Begin by exploring some piratical language. (The ‘Talk Like a Sea Dog’ section of the Pirate Handbook offers some phrases that you could challenge children to translate.) Organise the class into mixed-ability pairs and watch chapter one of Treasure Island. One child in each pair should bullet point the main events, while his / her partner should note the names of all of the characters. The two children will then use these notes to orally retell the story. Once confident, break the class into groups and ask them to act out the scene, before returning to their original pairs to practise retelling the story from Jim’s point of view. 

You could do this as a ‘babble gabble’ activity, where one child begins the story and then, on the command ‘change’, the other child picks up and continues – until ‘change’ is called again.

Develop a check list of diary writing features the class can access to help them write diary entries in role as Jim.

How to attack a merchant ship

So how does a landlubbing cove become a marauding pirate? A great place to start is Captain Stormface’s book. Unfortunately, he has failed to provide sufficient guidance on how to attack a merchant ship, so there is a gap in the market for an explanation (actually, he did write one, but you’re not going to show the children those pages). To achieve success, the children need to write like Captain Stormface, so analyse his writing style using other pages from the handbook to identify the use of the second person; present tense; sub-headings (often with alliteration); using questions to ‘hook’ in the reader; use of the dash punctuation mark to add additional comments / explanation; pirate vocabulary; time connectives and cause and effect connectives.

Now provide a list of basic attack options: use the ‘Blood and Thunder’ chapter of the book to help you with this – you need to strip out all the features mentioned above and use these to create short notes. Children will use these notes as the basis of their writing, referring to the check list to support appropriate style and organisation.

Piratical poetry
Everyone knows that pirates hoard precious treasure. In classrooms, words are equally precious and poetry provides an opportunity for children to hone their skills in choosing the perfect words to carry meaning. Start by getting the children to create individual treasure chests, either by providing them with a 2D net to fold and decorate, or getting them to create their own nets, linking to shape work in maths.

Explain you are going to think of 10 precious things to place in the treasure chests. Explore Ten Things Found in a Wizard’s Pocket by Ian McMillan to get across the idea. Now apply this to the pirates. What would they really have in their treasure chests? A map to an island nobody knows? A silver cutlass sharp as a razor? After completion, the 10 items could be written onto strips of paper to be hoarded in the children’s treasure chests, forming part of a display.

2. Exploding the pirate topic

Pirate morals

The word ‘pirate’ comes from the Latin ‘pirata’, which means robber. Ask children to use the internet to discover facts about Sir Francis Drake on the understanding that they will use their notes to support them in a class discussion on whether or not Drake was a pirate. Develop this into a court room scene with witnesses for the defence (maybe you have someone in your class who would make a convincing Elizabeth I?) and the prosecution (a Spanish Captain whose goods Drake acquired). Having explored the topic thoroughly, children could then write their own persuasive piece that could be delivered by the defence / prosecution barrister in court.

Code of honour

Many of the traits people associate with pirates hark from the 16th and 17th centuries – the period often considered the golden age of piracy. Records from the time include examples of the strict code of honour to which pirates adhered on board ship (a much simpler version can be found in Captain Stormface’s Handbook). Lead the pupils in a discussion of why the different rules would be necessary on board ship. How would they maintain order and help keep the men alive and out of trouble? What if your classroom were a pirate ship? Who would be the Captain? What are different people’s roles in keeping the ship (classroom) running smoothly? How do the crew (children) help to do this? Use this as a chance to review your own class rules. Could some aspects of pirate life be integrated? If the children are engaged by the idea, you could bring pirate language into your daily routine – instead of asking the children to stop and listen, you could agree the command ‘Listen up m’hearties’, to which they will respond ‘Aye, Aye Captain’ and salute.

Foul food

Inevitably, it’s the gory details that intrigue children most about history. Compare the diet of a pirate at sea to what we would consider a healthy diet today and make posters for a pirate ship on how to avoid falling foul of scurvy. The recipe for ‘hard tack’, the pirate’s staple diet, is a simple one that children will enjoy making, although probably less so eating… To serve eight brave souls you will need to mix 1tsp of salt with 1lb of flour. Add enough water to make a very stiff dough and flatten until it is about half an inch thick. Cut the dough into four-inch circles and punch holes in the middle of each biscuit with a fork. Bake at 250˚C for two to three hours and, once cool, attempt to eat. At this point the life of a pirate might seem significantly less glamorous (especial since the biscuits would likely be crawling with weevils). To develop the survival theme, link to work in science on separating mixtures – set your pirates the challenge of removing sand from water, or separating salt from sea water.

3. Bringing the topic to a close

By now your class should be aspiring cutlass-rattlers, ready to fill their pockets with gold and leave behind their landlubbing lives. Create a test, covering the skills and knowledge you have developed through the unit, entitled ‘Everything a self-respecting sea robber should know’. Obviously, those reaching the required standard will expect (or, if they truly are pirates, demand) a reward. Stage a graduation ceremony rewarding them with pieces of eight (chocolate coins make an excellent substitute) and a Certificate of Piracy, complete with an authentic pirate name. And for those that fail to qualify? There’s only one option…time for them to walk the plank!