Pirate-ology

Now that we're in the Wednesday-ology swing, I decided to go this time with pirate-ology. Yar har!

I set the mood with a few CDs by the incomparable Captain Bogg & Salty, a pirate-themed children's band from the Pacific Northwest. Like last week's Spyology, I brought back the nametag idea. This time, I pre-populated a sheet of 20 nametags with pirate names, and had the kids pick them at random from a bag. My personal favorite was a little kindergartener who totally owned the name "Muscle-Arm Jones". Other examples of names were Sloppy Skipper, Happy Shoes, Rusty Boot, and Gilly Grog. Yes, I made these up from the top of my head. It took a disproportionately short time to do. But hey, when you're listening to Captain Bogg & Salty....

In case you were wondering, I also had a nametag; I am a cheeseball, after all. My name was Cap'n Pegleg, of course, as Pegleg is my undergrad nickname and remains, for the most part, the only name I will respond to in a crowded place (do you know HOW MANY PEOPLE are named "Sara[h]"?! My best friend in undergrad shared my biblical name, which I'm sure would've confused a whole lot of people if my name wasn't actually Pegleg instead).


So here's the rundown of the program:
1. We made newpaper pirate hats, naturally.
2. Together, we practiced our pirate laughs and then I told a few pirate jokes (not this one, but it is my favorite...). A favorite of the group was, "why did the pirate buy an eyepatch? Because he couldn't afford an iPad!"

Completed pirate flag craft with a bandana and a package of chocolate coins

3. I had them make Jolly Rogers out of old-looking tissue-y paper I found in the basement, felt, feathers, and any other random junk I could find in the recesses of The Ghosts of Craft Days Past. In case you were wondering, I did toy with the idea of printing out a skull template, but then decided that as the Cap'n, I could convince them they didn't need a skull if my example was without one. Just to clarify, it wasn't that I thought skulls were inappropriate, but that they're so freaking hard to cut out/make. What the hell is polymer clay? I have Kirkus reviews to read here, people.

4. I created a makeshift "treasure map" and had them use it and clues to find pirate-themed books around the library. Forced check-out was once again a success, and one of the buccaneers came back in on Friday and cleared out of the rest of our Pirate School series.

In the future, I might do this as a stand-alone program for National Talk like a Pirate Day.