Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE – The second annual Presque Isle Middle School Pirate Adventure took place recently giving sixth-graders the opportunity to have fun and learn about pirates all at the same time.
Among the tasks the students were challenged with included learning pirate jargon, making Jolly Roger flags, making both pirate ale and ARRRRigami hats, pirate battleship, and a jump rope activity.
“We learned to speak like piratey … like what they used to say,” said student Allison Jimenez of pirate jargon. “For example, ‘grub’ is food and ‘ahoy mate’ is like hi.”
“I liked the Captain’s Orders activity,” student Carol Plaud said. “You had to have a teammate and you went back to back. My captain designed something with blocks and he had to tell me how to put it together. It was really hard to do, but it was a way to help us with communication.”
The girls said they both enjoyed making Pirate Ale.
“It was a smoothie with papaya, pineapple, sugar, ice and lemon juice,” said Plaud. “It was really good.”
The Pirate Adventure was the culmination of a unit about pirates.
“We were studying about the Caribbean in social studies,” said Jimenez, “which is where most of the pirate activity occurred.
“I kind of knew a lot about pirates already because my family is from the Caribbean,” she said, “so I’ve always had an interest in that part of the country. I had researched the Caribbean before we even started the unit in school.”
Sixth-grade science teacher Elaine Hendrickson said the Pirate Day was “very exciting for the students.”
“Gail Hagelstein, library/media specialist, has done a lot of work with them on research, and they’ve used those research skills to learn about pirates,” she said. “As a culminating activity, we have them do nine different activities that pertain to what they learned about pirates.”
Last year, students who successfully completed the activities got to select items from a treasure chest. This year, the students who finished all nine tasks done correctly got the first choice of pie-rate pie in the cafeteria.
“The parents were very generous and sent in pies for us,” Hendrickson said. “That was a big help.”
While the pirate tasks were fun, the students especially liked being able to dress the part.
“We dressed up as pirates,” said Jimenez. “I wore a lot of makeup to make myself look tan, and I wore baggy pants and furry boots. I put on a bandana, too.”
“My Mom made my costume,” said Plaud, who said she was dressed like Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp’s character in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie. “I named myself Capt. Jack Elaine Sparrow … I was supposed to be his sister. I wore black eyeliner like he did. I wore short pants with a puffy T-shirt and a black vest with a bandana. I also wore some Indian stuff because that was the closest thing that I have to dangly things. Jack Sparrow did have a real bone in his hair, so I had real bones in my hair, too.”
Hendrickson said this year’s event was very successful.
“The students had a really good time,” she said. “We tried to make the tasks a little bit harder this year because last year’s students felt they were too easy. Many of the teachers dressed as pirates, too, so we all had fun with it.”
Contributed photo
DRESSING LIKE PIRATES during the recent Pirate Adventure at Presque Isle Middle School are sixth-graders, kneeling: Trevor Levesque. Middle row: Josh Jones, Arianna Forbes and Meghan Hebert. Back row: Kaleb Dampf and Peggy Kelley, sixth-grade social studies/English teacher.
Contributed photo
SHANNON SWEENEY, left, and Jacqueline Lambert, sixth-graders at Presque Isle Middle School, work on their pirate jargon activity during the recent Pirate Adventure at the school.
Contributed photoAMANDA CHARETTE, left, and Kelsie Spooner learned a lot about pirates recently as sixth-graders at Presque Isle Middle School took part in a Pirate Adventure. Among the tasks the students were challenged with included learning pirate jargon, making Jolly Roger flags, making both pirate ale and ARRRRigami hats, pirate battleship, and a jump rope activity. Here, the girls work diligently on their pirate jargon activity.
