Captain Clawbeak, Children's Book Series by Anne Morgan

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Clawbeak for Teachers website!

 

Clawbeak in Classrooms

 

Grade 3 mini-pirates from Gidgegannup Primary School, WA, with the Flying Dutchman, WA children's author, Mike Lefroy, at the HeARTlines festival, June 2007.
Photo Louise Schofield.

The Clawbeak  books are funny, pacy adventure stories. With a treasure trove of illustrations by Wayne Harris, Clawbeak has been known to capture and hold to ransom the imagination of even the most reluctant of readers. Even a shipload of bloodthirsty, octogenarian pirates have been known to trade in their rusty cutlasses for library cards after getting hooked (?!) on reading by the Clawbeak books.

Children's author, David Rish, has this to say about the second book in the Clawbeak series:

 

Captain Clawbeak: The One and Only, written by Anne Morgan, illustrated by Wayne Harris, Random House Australia, 2006

  Perhaps you’ve already met Captain Clawbeak, the loud-mouthed salty macaw, in Anne Morgan’s previous book ‘Captain Clawbeak and the Red Herring’ in which the irascible pirate bird adopts Jack’s family (Dad the home-maker/pirate ship builder and vet Mum) and then wreaks his own particular brand of havoc.
In this, the second in the series, Jack is horrified to learn he is to become a big brother. He knows about the problems caused by baby siblings from his best friend Joey who has a lot of them. (‘Babies are yuk!’)
            And indeed things are different. Mum and Dad, busy with preparations for the birth (rather than the berth!) don’t seem to have the time for him. Even Captain Clawbeak’s got all broody. Loud-mouth salty macaws, however, are extremely rare and Jack’s bird may possibly the last of the species. In his desperation to be a father, Captain Clawbeak brings home and egg. It hatches into a crocodile, Whippersnapper. Jack knows they can’t keep it and he has the problem of trying to find a home for it. Problems galore ensue from the baby croc biting Jack’s teacher on the rear end, to Big Bertha, the mother croc, charging Jack and the zoo’s education officer. Happily, it all ends up well. There’s even another loud-mouthed salty macaw and it is love at first sight, ahhh!
Anne Morgan is a very good writer who knows how to hold a young reader. She provides lots of fun and fast-paced action, along with thoughtful doses of familiar family angst. Her clear, clever prose is stronger supported by the humorous illustrations of the ever-excellent Wayne Harris.
Aimed at a middle-primary audience, there’s plenty to offer the hammy teacher who like to “Argh-argh” while reading aloud to a class, though the book(s) also work well as read-alones. There’ll be the pleasant hum of laughter from the beanbags in your book corner.
Morgan is developing into an Australian version of Margaret Mahey and I look forward to the next installment when babies, human and macaw, will be sure to create further disruption to Jack’s life.
“Captain Clawbeak: The One and Only” is a little gem and if you haven’t already unearthed it, go panning at your local bookstore soon.

 

David Rish

http://drish.customer.netspace.net.au/

           

Written by a qualified and experienced teacher, the Clawbeak books build on the adventure stories of yore in a way that will appeal to today’s beginning readers and inspire them to embark on a lifetime of reading adventures. They also provide fertile ground for the development of inter-disciplinary classroom activities in literacy, numeracy, society and environment, science, technology, visual arts and crafts, music, health and physical education, dance and drama.

The pirate theme works brilliantly with primary school children from grades 1-5, and teachers can find a wealth of piratey ideas and teaching resources elsewhere on the web, beginning with the infamous 'Talk Like a Pirate website:.

Here are two literacy-based pirate-based classroom activities.

Readers’ Treasure Chest

  • Make or procure a ‘sea chest’ for the classroom.
  • Oganise a ‘doubloon-making workshop’. Each ‘doubloon’ will be a circle of cardboard, painted gold or silver.
  • Whenever the kids read a book, they write their name and the title and author of the book on a ‘doubloon’ and drop it into the treasure chest. For younger children, a silver coin can represent a picture book and a gold coin can represent a chapter book.
  • When the treasure chest is full, the class can dress like pirates and have a pirate party.

As the children to write pirate profiles, and then write a story about a how a pirate and parrot ran away to sea.

Pirate profiles:

  • Ask the children to give themselves a pirate name.
  • Ask them to draw a picture of themselves in pirate clothes.
  • What’s the name of their pirate ship?
  • What does the pirate wear?
  • What does the pirate eat?
  • What musical instrument does the pirate play?
  • What does the pirate love doing more than anything?
  • What does the pirate dream about?
  • Describe the other pirates on board.
  • What is the name of the ir parrot?
  • Why did the parrot fly away to sea?
  • What does the pirate fear most?
  • What does the pirate want most?

 

Clawblog

The class can set up their own Clawblog of their day to day classroom adventures reading the Clawbeak books.This can include their stories, drawings and photographs of their arts and crafts, drama etc.

When your Clawblog is complete, you can send a link to Anne so she can link this webpage to yours.

You are also invited to send in your comments and ideas for other Clawbeak-based classroom activities, for the use of other teachers.

 

Ideas from Jenny Webster, Grade 3 teacher at Gidgegannup School , WA.

PIRATES: Captain Clawbeak and The Red Herring
LANGUAGE (verbal linguistic)
Before reading Captain Clawbeak and the Red Herring, brainstorm nautical terminology and any information or ideas children already know about pirates. During reading, add new terms and ideas.
Descriptions
Pirate wanted poster : description and drawing. Wanted for ...
Pirate literature
  • "The Jolly Rodger" poem
  • "Treasure Island" by R L Stevenson (modified version for younger children).
  • "Adventures of Skull Island"
Character Web
  • Write the name of the character in the middle of the web.
  • Write character's traits and character descriptions on web lines leading away from the web.
Research
  • Compare old nautical with modern eg ways words are no longer used as technological changes are made. eg galleon - frigate, cannon - rocket launcher .
  • Research new innovations eg life jacket , satellite pictures
Drama/Art (visual spatial)
  • Other treasure: Collect objects to spray paint in gold or silver. To use as treasure
  • Dramatise parts from story.
  • Dress up as characters.
  • Create a backdrop for pirate boat. (develop ideas through story descriptions)
  • Make a diorama or paint a favourite scene
  • Make models of pirate ships.
  • Draw a large pirate ship on large cardboard eg use recycle fridge box.
  • Add collage pieces to create realistic setting. Eg glue on ropes and
  • cloth for sails. Dowel or popsticks for masts. Strips of card painted
  • brown as planking for boat.
  • Create a wax resist crayon painting of favourite scene.
  • Career as a children's book illustrator: Select parts of the story to illustrate. Study different types of illustrations artists use in creating children's books. Eg collage, black and white, cartoon, exaggeration, cut and paste photos, paint, simplification.Each child chooses a way of illustrating for selected part of story and put together as a display. (eg big book)
Music (rhythmic)
  • Listen to ditties, songs etc relating to pirates. Eg Yo HO HO and a bottle of rum
  • I am a pirate king (Gilbert and Sullivan) Sing parts and act out pieces.
Maths (logical)
  • Treasure Chest:Coins : money (maths) sort gold and silver coins.
  • Make tallies of each type. Match Australian coin to picture on face. Eg platypus 20c
  • Make own coins. Use chocolate money coins to put in treasure chest.
  • Play money bag game: who has the most money after selecting coins from the bag.
  • Design on picture for new coin.
  • Co-ordinates (see Soc & Env)
Science
  • Parrots: Research macaws. eg where they live, foods eaten.
  • Sinking and floating : plasticine shapes.
Technology
  • Research major changes to water transport. Paddle- sails - steam engine - petrol engine. Cut out pictures or view pictures and compare and contrast design changes.
  • Design and make a chest for own treasures using "hinges" eg use shoe boxes.
  • Place in pirate belongings Eg photo of mum, feather, letter etc. recipes, maps, photos of Mum telescope, pictures of ships, pirate games etc.
  • Make large treasure chest for "special objects". Paint and glue pieces of card or balsa wood on outside of chest to make authentic.
  • Make a model of the two boats to go in a tub of water.
  • Read description eg Stormie Lou : glows red shredded sails
Society and Environment
  • Look at different pirate flags. Eg Jolly Roger - Blackbeards. Compare and contrast (similarities and differences) Discuss why flags were needed.
  • Look at use of flags generally eg flags of the world (sport events)
Mapping (logical)
  • Create own island and coordinates eg where the treasure is hidden.
  • Use descriptions from the story to create own treasure island maps.
These approaches to the Clawbeak books are based on Gardener's Multiple Intelligences : a thematic approach. Gardner bases his ideas on that traditional western teaching concentrates on mathematical and linguistic teaching. Gardner's theory values a range of intelligences therefore accepting and widening the range of children's talents and abilities.


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