A Pirates Guide to the First Grade...Arrgh!

Children's books are such a fantastic way to introduce a project especially to the little ones.  I read a lot to my Kindergarten and 1st graders.  One of my favorite stores is Half Price Books.  My sister often goes with me and we sit in the little chairs while we hunt for good books.  A good children's book must have a fun store, good message, and fantastic images in my opinion.  For the project above I read "A Pirates Guide to the First Grade" by James Preller.  The kids giggle through the whole store because of all the silly pirate talk.  The day before I read the book we go over the proportions of the human face and do a practice self portrait.  After reading the book we talk about what the pirates look like, their clothes and such, and we review the proportions of the human face.  Then they turn themselves into pirates.  I so look forward to this project every year!  They make me smile every time I walk past them in the hallway.  Ms. Kings class really gets into it because her room has a mermaid/pirate theme.

*Disclaimer: Ignore the corner suns!  I do not allow my students to put the sun in the corner but this class was almost finished and their teacher offered to let them work on them in her room so we could hang them quickly.  They came back with the suns:(