Why are pirates called pirates? | Blog

Comprehension activities for children can be activities they just have to work through. Solid, worthy, laudable.

Or they can be so exciting, dynamic and enjoyable that they are the first thing they tell their parents about as they leave school.

So what makes a dynamic story? An octopus? Maybe. An octopus attacking a ship? Quite possibly. A talking octopus attacking a pirate ship? Well, now you’re talking (or rather, now the octopus is talking).

Of course, one could just stop at that point. A talking octopus attacking a pirate ship. Enough to keep most children thinking.

But Charlotte Makhloouf (an author and London primary school teacher with a mission to make language and literacy classes exciting) is made of sterner stuff. For her a talking octopus attacking a pirate ship – well that’s nothing.

Our talking eight-legged chum also has the ability to throw ships so far upwards that they leave the Earth’s atmosphere and find themselves floating in outer space.

Now, that does lead to certain problems such as the lack of wind to power the pirate ship’s propulsion system (generally known as sails), and the widespread lack of spacesuits on the average pirate ship.

However, we like to leave some points unresolved. If the children pick up on them, all well and good. If not, well, there are plenty of resolvable issues within the story to help the children get into a discussion that will extend their knowledge and understanding.

And besides, you can always ask them what problems the pirates will face.

The Pirates and the Octopus is just one of the stories by Charlotte Makhlouf from Brilliant Activities for Reading Comprehension. This is a series of six books providing a systematic progression of comprehension skills through the primary years.

Not only does each book have 31 comprehension pieces specially written to engage pupils, there are also activities to probe children’s understanding and develop their comprehension skills:

• The Questions sections require factual recall.

• The Word work activities will help to develop and stretch pupils’ vocabulary.

• The Extension work sections require more open-ended answers, enabling pupils to provide a more personal response.

For teachers wishing to stretch their children further, there are also cross-curricular opportunities in the form of newspaper articles, dialogue, plays, stories and poems.

And in case you wondered, the answer to ‘Why are pirates called pirates?’ is, “Because they just arrrrrrrrrrh”.

We are delighted that the Brilliant Activities for Reading Comprehension Series is now available from Badger Learning…