Pirates Don’t Change Diapers

Author: Melinda Long

Age: Early Elementary

Description: While Jeremy’s mom is running an errand, his old pirate friends come for a visit and are forced to help Jeremy take care of his baby sister.

Goals/Concepts:

Narrative Language and Retelling
Reading Body Language
Figurative Language
Prediction

Why I like this book: The illustrations are amazing. Kids love the humorous story. Who doesn’t love silly pirates?

Ideas for use:

Great narrative structure for the discussing and teaching the Story Grammar Marker elements(clear characters, setting, initiating event, events, resolution, etc.)
Use with “Braidy” (www.mindwingconcepts.com) to help students retell the story. A good example of multiple “kickoffs” (1)pirates show up, 2)can’t find the map) See the Mindwings concepts website for more information on this amazing narrative tool.
Examples of multiple meaning words/figurative language (rock, babysitter). See if kids can come up with other similar words (i.e. duck, carpool, etc.) Have them draw “both” meanings.
Discuss the amazing body language in this story (i.e. boy holding stinking diaper). Draw thinking bubbles- what are they thinking? Why? How can you tell?
Have kids act out the body language and the story. Could use a pretend play boat and people, or have the kids act themselves.

Submitted by: Meghan G. Graham M.S. CCC-SLP

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