This is an easy reader- but full of action and adventure!
Pirate Pete goes to school on a ship. A Pirate ship! He is learning how to be a good Pirate. Lessons like "don't cry over spilled milk and finder's keepers loser's weepers".
But when on a treasure hunt- he has to choose to act like a pirate or work as a team?
I warned parents in advance- to have kids prepared to get wet!
I held our book club outside today.
As far as prep goes:
- we filled about a 100 water balloons
-I bought chocolate candy coins and candy necklaces
-my youngest son helped by making a treasure box (out of a shoe box) and drawing a treasure map.
The boys arrived and we sat in a circle and briefly talked about the book.
Mainly: What was the lesson you learned? They all agreed: TEAMWORK!
So our first game: was a water balloon toss.
They partnered up and threw water balloons to each other. If they caught it successfully- they took a step back. If they dropped it.. they had to grab another water balloon and start again- standing close to each other.
THEN: I told them for the next game... they could earn water balloons by answering questions about the book. (I just looked through the book and made up questions along the way.)
Questions like:
Who is the main character? Pete
How did his parents make breakfast? Caught fish
How did he get to school? he rowed the "bus" which was actually a row boat.
What was his school called? PS1 "Pirate School"
Name one rule of school. (Finders Keepers loosers weepers, Don't cry over spilled milk, Last one there is a rotten egg.)
How did he learn to add? counting coins
How did he learn to subtract? having classmates walk the plank.
You get the idea. Just questions to reward the boy who read the book.
(I did help out- if they needed a clue)
When all the water balloons were depleted we pulled out the treasure map!
(My son drew the map- but I hid the treasure.)
We talked about working together as a team.
Bringing the treasure box back to the house
And THEN dividing the treasure---- "even steven" just like the book.
For the remainder of book club, they played with water guns, more water balloons.
I passed out our next book.
I encouraged the boys to pick up popped balloons- while I got the otter-pops ready.
Sweet and simple.
(I also keep it short: only an hour long! That way boys know this is a "book club" something special, not just hanging at my house. It helps that I encourage them to take the books home- right away. So that books don't get lost. I put a book mark inside each book with a reminder of the next book club (date and time) and a hint to what we will do at the next book club- to get them excited.)
Next week we are going to be out of town. So I'll post our next book club July 5th!
Happy reading!
