Yesterday I shared how we added several activities to my End of Year Pirate Unit

We did several other activities BESIDES the party and the presentation/ readers theater.  We also worked it into our behavior system.  It worked like a *charm* BUT we did spend a good bit of money out of our pockets to do this.  The good news- we have it for this year :)!

My partner and I ordered several things from Oriental Trading Company.
Sadly,one items is no longer available but I will share what we did
use that is currently available.

We ordered a class set of these.  Each child got the velvet bag and we kept the coins. The students earned the gold pirate coins (or jewels because we had one parent that did not like the skull and bones) for good behavior.  They LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this.  I was so surprised at how nuts they were about the coins and bags.  The jewels were the all time class favorite, I will say. Why did they need coins, you ask?

To buys goodies of course!

Students were able to buy crafts that we competed the last week of school.  We ordered these crafts:

We took their picture with a bandanna on their heads, and eye patch over their eye and Mardi Gras  (is that how you spell it??) beads around their neck.  It was a HUGE hit.  If the student did not have enough coins, they did not do the craft and they read.
Another craft we did was these foam hats.  Students had the option to wear them at the presentation. Students used their coins to buy this craft as well.  This was so great for students because some did not have enough money for all the crafts.  They had to pick and choose what to buy with the money they had earned- economics anyone?!? 
We also had eye patches that the students could decorate, but I can’t find them this year. For this school year we bought the frames and these super cute bandannas.
We also splurged and bought  these:
Acck!  How much fun will these Pirate Shrinky Dinks be?  We actually got these off of Amazon (I know, somewhere OTHER than Oriental Trading Company?!?).
We will do these in the afternoon the last few days of school to keep the kids under control. Between these crafts, pirate coins, and the readers theater the kids are really well behaved. Because you can’t be a part of the readers theater if you are acting crazy because it is a BIG responsibility, right?  And you have to earn the crafts with good behavior, right?  They eat out of our hands and we LOVE it!  And not to mention it is a fun and engaging way to end the school year.  They are happy, we are happy, and we end the year with good memories.