read aloud suggestions for sea/ships unit study

[woolybear]

I'm thinking of doing a mini version of Winter Promise's Sea and Sky. Actually, it's just using the general idea of theirs. My boys would not want this every day or lasting all year. So, I thought focusing on the sea--studying explorers, pirates, various kinds of ships and navigation, etc.

What I'm looking for are some suggestions for read alouds for my 6 and 8 yo. My 8 yo has very mature listening skills,but my 6 can be iffy unless it's a really great book. Here's where you guys can help...I'll tell you what I've thought of and then maybe you can give me some new ideas. First of all, I'm looking for fiction here. Chapter books, but maybe some easier reads and some longer more complex ones.

We've read an abridged Treasure Island.
Swallows and Amazons--I think my little one might not handle this
Dolphin Diaries--maybe one of this series
The Voyage of Patience Goodspeed
Lighthouse Family series
The Odyssey by Mary Pope Osbourne

So any ideas? Thanks. Looking forward to some thoughts....

[Lovedtodeath]

DD really liked the Barefoot Book of Pirates. It is 63 pages and has pirate stories from around the world.

The captain's goose (Scandinavian) -- Robin Hood and the pirates (English) -- The kobold and the pirates (German) -- Pirate Grace (Irish) -- Music charms the pirates (Japanese) -- The abbey bells (Scottish) -- The ship of bones (Moroccan).

What about Dolphin Treasure and Dolphin Adventure? They are read alouds from SL K.

Here is a thread on the WP boards with book names (http://www.winterpromise-forum.com/showthread.php?t=4954) for the Young Learners Guide. They kind of gave it away. LOL

[King Alfred Academy]

I was going to mention Treasure Island, but I see that you already read that.
A word of caution...We loved The Odyssey by Mary Pope Osbourne. We listened to it on CD. However, if your kiddos are sensitive to monsters, killing, and that sort of thing, there are times when it appears. My oldest (7) loves dragons, mythological creatures and that sort of thing, but he couldn't handle hearing about the cyclops biting the heads off the men and slamming their bodies against the wall.

[woolybear]

Thanks, Loved! It's good to hear from you.

[Alana in Canada]

I haven't read these yet, but I've heard good things.

Carry on Mr. Bowditch by Latham

and Stowaway by Karen Hesse
and I found this in the Sonlight catalogue today:


The Dark Frigate ①+ 7A01 $9.99
❑Hawes. Newbery Medal. Philip Marsham flees
London and joins the Rose of Devon, a frigate
bound for Newfoundland. When the ship is seized by
a cruel band of pirates, Philip is forced to accompany
them on their expeditions. Filled with bloody battles,
brutal buccaneers, and bold, spirited heroes. Starts
slowly (you have to get used to the language!), but will
grip you in the end. Pb. RA: 6-A; R: 8-A

[Lovedtodeath]

Hi friend! Are you not doing the sky portion? There are a couple of good books about hot air balloon trips that SL has too.

Oh, and you could check out the readers for the WP LA program that are for 6th graders:

Voyage of Ice, The Strange Intruder, True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Shanghaied to China, Star in the Storm, White Star, Wild Trek, Everything Kids Shark Book, Fate of the Yellow Woodbee, Wonderful Flight..

[woolybear]

Brittney- I cringe when the cyclops or some other monster does some brutal thing. However, as far as I can tell it's fine with my boys.

Alana--I'm going to check those out. Thanks.:)

Loved--I'm going to hold off on the sky portion for now. Maybe a month or two later I'll get to it. I'll check out those WP readers, but I am wondering if they are for 6th grade if they won't be too advanced for us.

[Caroline4kids]

We really, really like Carry On, Mr. Bowditch. My hubby just purchased his book tonight on ebay, The New American Practical Navigator. This is the second time we have read it and the kids really like it.

[Alte Veste Academy]

We LOVE this one! It's a great picture book with a nice amount of text. In fact, I bought all of Richard Platt's diary books because we like them so much.

http://www.amazon.com/Pirate-Diary-Journal-Jake-Carpenter/dp/0763628654/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232256049&sr=8-1

[Lori D.]

NON FICTION -- READ ALOUD
- Ships, Sailors & Seas (Usborne)
- Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki Voyage (Philip Steele) -- 1950s; 6 men cross the Pacific on a raft


SEA EXPLORER BIOGRAPHIES -- READ ALOUD
- Ferdinand Magellan: Circumnavigating the World (Katharine Bailey)
- Magellan and the First Voyage Around the World (Nancy Levinson)
- A Long and Uncertain Journey: the 27,000 Mile Voyage of Vasco de Gama (Joan Goodman)
- Beyond the Sea of Ice: The Voyages of Henry Hudson (Joan Goodman)


STEPPED READERS (for grades 1-4)

Sailing/Sailors
- The Men Who Sailed the Seas (Victor Mays) -- a great look through history of sailing and specific seafaring explorers
- Pirates: Raiders of the High Seas (Christopher Maynard)

Specific Ships/Voyages
- The Story of Old Ironsides (Tom Dunnington) -- 1790s-1820s; famous early US warship; a Cornerstones of Freedom book
- The Story of the Barbary Pirates (Conrad Stein) -- 1800-1805; a Cornerstones of Freedom book
- Amistad: The Story of a Slave Ship (Patricia McKissack) - 1830s
- Titanic: Lost and Found (Judy Donnelly) - 1912
- Titanic: A Survivor's Story (Linda Martin) - 1912
- Titanic (Mark Dubowski) - 1912
- Sea of Ice: The Wreck of the Endurance (Monica Kulling) - 1914 ship wreck at Antarctica
- Disasters at Sea (Linda Martin)
- Civil War Sub: Mystery of the Hunley (Kate Jerome) - 1862/present day
- USS Monitor: Iron Warship That Changed the World (Gare Thompson) - 1862/present day

Biographies of Sea Explorers
- Who Was Ferdinand Magellan? (S.A. Kramer) -- first to circumnavigate the world
- Meet Christopher Columbus (James T. deKay) -- 1492 discoverer of the New World
- Christopher Columbus (Stephen Krensky) -- 1492 discoverer of the New World
- Captain Cook: The Great Ocean Explorer (Haydn Middleton) -- What's Their Story series (or other biography of Captain Cook)

Other
- Keep The Lights Burning, Abbie (Peter Roop) -- stepped reader; based on real girl who kept the lighthouse light burning



HISTORICAL FICTION (reader level: gr. 3-4)
- Brendan the Navigator (Jean Fritz) -- fictional account of the c.500 discoverer of the New World
- Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky (Barbara Schiller) -- fictional account of the c.1000 Viking sea-going explorers
- Viking Adventure (Clyde Bulla) -- historical fiction of sea faring Vikings
- Pedro's Journal (Pam Conrad) -- historical fiction of a journal by a fictional cabinboy aboard Columbus' ship
- Boy on the Mayflower (Iris Vinton) -- historical fiction account of the 1620 Mayflower sea voyage
- Dolphin Adventure (Wayne Grover) -- ocean scuba diving with dolphins
- Dolphin Treasure (Wayne Grover) -- ocean scuba diving for sunken treasure
- Light at Tern Rock (Julia Sauer) -- fiction of a boy who spends Christmas in a lighthouse
- Call it Courage (Armstrong Sperry) -- South Seas islander boy must overcome his fear of the ocean by sailing on it


HISTORICAL FICTION (read aloud level: gr. 2+; reader level: gr. 5+)
- Seabird (Holling C. Holling) -- follows 100 years of sea voyages by a carved seabird on whalers, clipperships, etc.
- Carry On Mr. Bowditch (Jean Lee Latham) -- 1790s US sailor who self taught and revolutionized navigation
- All Set Sail (Armstrong Sperry) -- 1840s: maiden voyage of the clipper ship The Flying Cloud
- Born in the Year of Courage (Emily Crofford) -- 1850s Japanese teen fisherboy is shipwrecked, rescued, travels to US and back to Japan
- By The Great Horn Spoon! (Sid Fleischman) -- 1849: fun tall tale of a boy and his man servant traveling by clipper ship
- The Cay (Theodore Taylor) -- boy and an old man are shipwrecked and must survive a hurricane on an island
- Adventure on the High Sea! (Susan Blair) -- a family spends a year sailing around the world

[Lovedtodeath]

Wow Lori! Did you do all of that?

[Lori D.]

Well, over our years of homeschooling we've read all but about 6-8 of the books on that list. My boys have always loved non-fiction, so we tore through a TON of those stepped readers in those early years! : ) And I probably read aloud 2 hours a day, up through 6th grade, so we did manage to read an awful lot! I threw on some newer books and some other titles for variety. But why I did such a big list was to give people a list to *choose* from -- personal interest, what's available locally, etc. Happy sea-reading! (lol) Warmly, Lori D.

[mcconnellboys]

I'll add Seabird, by Holling to the list, too!

[Lori D.]

Here are 4 more I forgot -- I added them to the original post, but also have them here:

- Pedro's Journal (Pam Conrad) -- historical fiction of a journal by a fictional cabinboy aboard Columbus' ship
- Call it Courage (Armstrong Sperry) -- South Seas islander boy must overcome his fear of the ocean by sailing on it
- Light at Tern Rock (Julia Sauer) -- fiction of a boy who spends Christmas in a lighthouse with
- Keep The Lights Burning, Abbie (Peter Roop) -- stepped reader; based on real girl who kept the lighthouse light burning
- Captain Cook: The Great Ocean Explorer (Haydn Middleton) -- What's Their Story series (or other biography of Captain Cook)

[woolybear]

Wow! You guys rock! I knew this was the right place to ask this question.:) Thank you all. And Lori, thanks for that awesome list. I should be all set.Woo hoo! I was thinking to buy these small wooden chests from the craft store that the boys could paint or decorate. That would be their sea chests. Then they can put all their projects in there--maps, rope tying practice, home made navigational tools,drawings, etc. Together with some wonderful read alouds I think we'll have a lot of fun.

[Lori D.]

I was thinking to buy these small wooden chests from the craft store that the boys could paint or decorate. That would be their sea chests. Then they can put all their projects in there--maps, rope tying practice, home made navigational tools,drawings, etc. Together with some wonderful read alouds I think we'll have a lot of fun.


Ooo! How COOL! What a great unit you're creating -- enjoy! Warmest regards, Lori

[matroyshka]

Here are some others that we really liked that I haven’t seen mentioned (our favorites of those already mentioned are Patience Goodspeed and Seabird ):

White Sails to China by Bulla, Clyde Robert – early chapter book
Shipwrecked! The True Adventures of a Japanese Boy by Blumberg, Rhoda – this is just an outstanding book
Nightbirds on Nantucket by Aiken, Joan – captain is chasing the great pink whale. great fun.
Goodbye for Today by Roop, Connie
Cooking on 19th Century Whaling Ships by Draper, Charla - My kids loved making these recipes
Whaling Days by Carrick, Carol – non-fiction picture book
Wooden Ship by Adkins, Jan – great non-fiction picture book with woodcut illustrations
Peggony-Po by Pinkney, Andrea
The Great Ships by O'Brien, Patrick
Mayflower, 1620 by Arenstam, Peter, et al
Inside the Titanic: Giant Cut-away Book by Marschall, Ken
I was There: On Board the Titanic by Tanaka, Shelley

[Alessandra]

There are a couple of books in the You Wouldn't Want to ... series that should appeal to your age group -- Sail with Christopher Columbus, Sail on the Mayflower, one about living on the space station. Lots of stuff kids like -- how they went to the bathroom, things like that. They are not the most literary books, but they can be attention grabbers.