Explore Like a Pirate - A Book Study Linky!

I am so excited to be a part of this linky. I mean.. who wouldn't want to teach, learn, and explore like a pirate? I've wanted to read these books, but haven't got around to it yet. What better time than to start now? A big shout out to Rachael over at Sweet Sweet Primary for putting this together! 

Part 1: Plotting the Course 

Chapter 1                The Call of the Explorer: Discover the Adventure that Waits

This chapter was short and sweet, and exactly what I've been thinking about for the past year. Last summer I was inspired to get creative with engagement and work to design fun and adventurous lessons that will get my kiddos excited about learning. Which is what gamification is all about!

This chapter gave an example of a day when the author was in middle school and he looks around at his classmates and instead of seeing students, sees CIA agents. These CIA agents (AKA classmates) are working to uncover a plot to destroy the world. Their CIA captain, teacher, has charged them with the mission of shutting down the plot. If this had academic content tied to it, how exciting would that be?! 

In the past, I've done very brief lessons like this, and want to dive into it 100%. In the past the lessons were kind of spur of the moment so I didn't have a ton of time and resources to get t hings put together. I've done going on the Oregon Trail and took my students on a journey in a "wagon train" across the school. Simple and fairly easy, but the kiddos were so engaged and loved the activity!

Last year, I transformed my classroom into the Bat Cave while we learned about bats. I don't want to go into too much detail since I am working on a whole post about that, but within seconds of the students entering my classroom I had students coming to me to tell me that it was fun! Who knew that working in the dark with flashlights would be so engaging?

I'm so excited to read the rest of the book and read what other teacher bloggers have to say in the linky. I'm all for adding creative play that's deep in content acquisition into my day, and would love to find the easiest way to do so! 

Click the image at the top to go back to the linky!