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JillyBoo's Piratenchef

 In a recent newsletter from JillyBoo's German Kindergarten, the teachers shared that for their current unit, they are studying pirates! Arg! I talked to one of JillyBoo's teachers about the unit, as I tried to translate the portions that made any sense to me, and she stated that the kids will study the elements as they study pirates, too. They are working on understanding water and the things that water does, and also animals and plants that live in the water.

This information about their new unit of study really excited me, as up to now, their studies seemed random and only related to German holidays. Don't get me wrong-learning about German holidays from Germans themselves whilst living in Germany-that's academic! JillyBoo attends a Catholic Kindergarten (they are all Catholic or Evangelische), and therefore JillyBoo has been introduced to many new concepts. "Uh, mom, am I allowed to go in the church?" We consider world religions an important part of her education, however, we were also wanting to see some more academic content.

While pirates may not seem very academic, the idea that they are studying the elements brought a little joy to my teacher-heart. Friday morning when we arrived at school, the teachers had set up a Playmobil pirate ship for the kids to enjoy. I was in awe of the toy with all of its details and grandeur. Prior to living in Germany, Playmobil seemed like another junky plastic toy company. I now know that Playmobil toys are excellent imaginative play toys, and I love that they offer kids the opportunity to use the toys flexibly. For example, JillyBoo has a set from the Magic Castle line that includes princesses with interchangeable hair, etc, to make the princess into Rapunzel, a fairy, or even a queen.

JillyBoo was very excited to go to school on Friday, as she was able to see a movie....at school! She couldn't believe her luck. On Thursday, the students watched part of one of the Pippi Langstrumf movies, and JillyBoo was dazzled by Pippi's horse carrying abilities. We had actually read the first Pippi book together, however, she acted as if she didn't remember any of the book! JillyBoo loved the fact that there were pirates in the movie, and wanted to meet one immediately. As usual, she didn't trust her dad when he told her that pirates still exist, but that they aren't the same sort of pirates in the movie.

On a side note, we purchased JillyBoo some movies that are both in German and English at Globus a few weekends ago, but had not attempted to watch them yet. First, we learned that DVDs have different regions (totally didn't know that!) and that they will only play on devices set for a certain region. The U.S., it seems, is set to region 1 and European DVDs are region 2. You are only allowed to change your laptop's region code 5 or so times in its life, but we thought it was worth it to change it so that JillyBoo could continue her ability to understand German even when we move away.

Besides watchinig movies, JillyBoo created an awesome pirate ship, complete with a Jolly Rogers' flag. (pic will be added soon!). We've learned that "skull and crossbones" in Deutsch is "totenkopf," and JillyBoo wrote a "Captin's Song" (sic) about pirates! (I would also add that, but it was lost somewhere in the house cleaning yesterday!) I'm in the market for at-home extensions of the pirate activities, so if you have any, please share!

Here are some links I have already encountered:
Pirates at familyfun.com  (Check out that boat cake? Do I offer to try and make it for the school?)
Kaboose Pirate games and crafts
Pirate Treasure Map