Pirate, Viking, and Scientist by Jared Chapman is an engaging book about a scientist who is friends with a pirate and a Viking, but the pirate and the Viking are not friends. Follow the scientist as he tries to help the Viking and the pirate become friends. It is a favourite for boys, especially those who are hard to engage. This book also provides excellent opportunities to work on speech and language goals with children from the first grade through second grade and onto the first half of third grade.
Social Language Goals
The story is about making friends, so it lends itself to talking about the different ways the scientist tries to help the pirate and the Viking become friends. It is an excellent opportunity to talk about what worked and what did not. As well, you can discuss why you think the pirate and the Viking were not friends at the beginning of the story? What other ways could the scientist have tried to help pirate and Viking become friends? Finally, the two become friends when they discouver how much they have common. Again, you could talk about questions to ask others when getting to know someone. As well, talk about proper behaviour at a birthday party. What is wrong with the pirate eating cake with his hands? Should the Viking have pushed the cake onto the pirate? What could they have done instead?
Language Goals
Pirates and Vikings have a lot in common. Use a Venn diagram to talk about what is the same and different. Another fun activity is to have the children dress up like a pirate or a Viking and have them describe what they are wearing.
The scientist uses a slew of scientific words such as hypothesis, experiments, and calculations. Other tier two words in the story include pillaging, plundering, fuming, seething, and foes. This can also be a great book to talk about synonyms.
Articulation Goals
Many of the tier two words are two and three-syllable words. This book contains many /s/ words in all positions including scientist, seething, instinct, smooth, and answer. The word Viking is frequently repeated throughout this story. This story contains many /r/ terms such as friends, pirate, Saturday, mornings, favourite, experiment, observe, and laughter.
It is a great addition to a pirate theme, and at the same time, it works on more functional science vocabulary. It has been a hit in my therapy room so if you are looking for a fun book to read during treatment, this would be an excellent candidate! (As usual, this post does not contain affiliate links.)
