Literature Units | His Treasure Seekers

Category Archives: Literature Units

A New Coat for Anna

Posted on February 5, 2023 by Deanna

This week the little ones and I rowed A New Coat for Anna by Harriet Ziefert, part of Five in a Row, Vol. 2. This is one of the books I never got to with my older children when we did FIAR, so it was fun for me to get to explore a new story with Nathaniel and Clara. I chose this book because it is set in Europe after World War II, a time period we are just about to cover in Classical Conversations Cycle 2.

As we went through our week, we learned about weaving using paper (even 7th grade Elijah was inspired listening from across the room and took a break from his Challenge A work to weave a bit).

We also watched this video for kids about how wool is made into fabric, which went along with the story perfectly.

This is a great book for practicing putting events of a story in order. By the end of our week, both Nathaniel and Clara had absorbed so many details. They retold the story to Grandma, reciting who they went to, what item they traded, and what they received in return.

There are so many great rabbit trails you could take with this book. If you want some ideas, check out HomeschoolShare.com, where you can find a free lapbook to create as you explore some of the topics found in A New Coat for Anna.

Posted in FIAR, Literature Units

The Elephant from Baghdad (a story about Charlemagne)

Posted on September 2, 2022 by Deanna

Discloser: Affiliate links help support our homeschool.

This week the littles and I took a break from Five in a Row to read The Elephant from Baghdad by Mary Tavener Holmes and John Harris, illustrated by Jon Cannell. Like The Giraffe That Walked to Paris from FIAR Vol. 2, it tells the true story of an exotic animal sent as a gift to a European ruler. (This writing team also told the giraffe’s story in their book A Giraffe Goes to Paris.) I’m hoping to “row” that one later this year when we’re learning about France, but The Elephant from Baghdad was perfect for this week as we kicked off Classical Conversations Cycle 2 with a history sentence about Charlemagne.

We treated it as an ordinary “row,” reading it every day this week except the day we went to CC. There are so many great discussions to come out of this book, so I’m just going to list some suggested topics:

Geography (many places we learn about in CC Cycle 2)

Aachen, Germany
Baghdad (review from CC Cycle 1)
Italy
Alps
Mediterranean Sea
Cairo (review from CC Cycle 1)

Science and Technology

elephants
albinism
clockmaking
St. Bernard dogs (briefly referenced in an illustration)

History

Charlemagne
monasteries/monks/abbots
Muslim world (review from CC Cycle 1)
Hannibal

Art

integrating photographs with drawings
museum pieces

Expanding with older elementary students

Since I also have a 4th and 5th grader in Foundations with CC, I read the book to them one time as well. We also have been reading through Our Little Frankish Cousin of Long Ag o, a chapter book about a 12-year old page at the court of Charlemagne. Not only did the fictional story offer many details about what life would have been like in the time and place, Chapter VIII “Presents for the King” tells of the elephant arriving in Aachen and helps the reader imagine what it must have been like for the Franks to witness such an amazing spectacle.

I’m fascinated by genealogy, so I also showed them how we can trace our family line back to Charlemagne several ways. I explained that it’s not actually that special to be descended from Charlemagne; it’s just not as common to be able to trace exactly how one is connected. Along with my 7th grader, we watched this video, “Is Everyone A Descendant of Royalty?“, which explains that everyone alive today who has at least one European ancestor probably is a descendant of Charlemagne.

All in all, we a had a fun week with The Elephant from Baghdad, and I hope we’ll explore similar books as we make our way through Cycle 2 this year.

Posted in Classical Conversations Cycle 2, Homeschool Resources, Literature Units

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World (Take 2)

Posted on August 28, 2022 by Deanna

It’s been almost ten years since I wrote about rowing How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman with my oldest two boys. Now those rowers are in high school and junior high, but I’m revisiting as many Five in a Row books as I can with my youngest two children (and occasionally a few older ones who like to lurk in the living room to listen in).

With my older kids, I had so much fun doing lots of extras, but now I’m homeschooling a 9th, 7th, 5th, and 4th grader on top of the 2nd grade and Kindergarten rowers, so I’m pretty much just sticking to the original Five in a Row manual (Vol. 1), which means there hasn’t been much to write about. Many of the resources found online and shared in my older post are no longer available, and we had a completely different experience this time around.

With this book, however, we had such a neat experience that I just had to share. Unlike last time, we didn’t go apple picking, make our own butter, or make salt crystals, but somehow I got it into my head that I really wanted to show my kids what sugar cane looks like. I went onto a local Facebook group and did a search for “sugar cane” to see if anyone had ever talked about it. Lo and behold, there were two old posts. The first mentioned four stores where people had sometimes seen it, and the second, from about four months ago, was from a neighbor who had cut several stalks of sugar cane and was offering them up to anyone who wanted them. After leaving the third store empty-handed, I sat in the parking lot and texted the neighbor to see if by any chance she might still have some she could share. Then I drove to the fourth store hoping the results would be different.

As I walked into the store, my phone alerted me to a new text. The neighbor had responded saying I could come by right then to get some sugar cane! I hopped back in the car and drove over. As I pulled up to the address, I was greeted by a tall man with a Jamaican accent, who helped me load several stalks into my car! He hadn’t just cut one branch for me to show my kids, he had cut enough for us to have some to plant to grow our own! AND he had stripped several branches already and put them in a baggie so the kids could chew on them right away. He told me he had brought the plant over from Jamaica and gave me instructions on how to plant it. I wish my kids had been with me to meet him!

They were so excited when I showed them our sugar cane. They all tasted some of the sugar cane, amazed at how juicy and sweet it was, and then we planted the stalks we’d been given, hoping to cultivate our own little sugar cane patch in the corner of our yard (although since I have a pretty black thumb, I’m not holding my breath).

We also watched a video on YouTube about turning sugar cane into sugar at home, and of course, we finished our week by baking a pie, which almost everyone in the family enjoyed (just not the two main rowers and my oldest)

Oh well, at least they had fun making it!

To see what other FIAR books we’ve rowed, see my “Index of FIAR Posts.” Also, a great place to see what other people have done with FIAR books is the FIAR Blog Roll at Delightful Learning.

Posted in FIAR, Literature Units, Preschool

Preschool Fun with the Three Bears

Posted on July 15, 2016 by Deanna

The Three Bears Preschool This week I planned Arianna and Nico’s preschool activities around the story of “The Three Bears.” The kids have been going crazy with the library’s summer reading program, and among the huge stack of books Arianna picked out last week I found Paul Galdone’s version of this story. I remembered how much fun Ian had with this story a few years ago, so it seemed like an easy way to keep the little ones entertained. We did a lot of different activities this time, so if you’re looking for ideas, be sure to check out that post as well.

In addition to reading The Three Bears, Arianna and Nico did several activities throughout the week. One day we did a number 3 art idea I got from A Spoonful of Learning. (First the used three colors to trace the 3. Then they used triangles to fill in the other 3.)

Another day they colored, sorted, cut and glued pictures from smallest to largest (using one page from some coloring and sorting activity sheets I found free on Teachers Pay Teachers). For Nico it was enough just to work on coloring and gluing (I cut his out and let him glue them any way he wanted), but Arianna did the whole thing by herself the way it was intended.

Arianna also used another page from that set, coloring the picture and cutting out the words to make a sentence, which she was very proud to read herself.

They both enjoyed playing with the Melissa & Doug Wooden Bear Family Dress-Up Puzzle. This is one of those toys I keep out of reach most of the time to keep it special. We pull it out to go with books (it’s great with Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?), or other special occasions, which makes it extra fun.

At the end of the week, I let the watch the James Marshall version of the story on a Storybook Treasures DVD. We also watched the first Salsa Spanish video from Georgia Public Broadcasting, which has puppets acting out the story in Spanish. (I used this series with Ian through Kindergarten and into first grade, but it was new for my little ones.) The vocabulary in this video went along great with what all the kids have been learning in a different curriculum, so I thought we’d kill two birds with one stone by reinforcing the Spanish lesson and going along with our preschool theme.

I’m really glad I’ve started doing this preschool time with Arianna and Nico. It has helped them to have something productive to do in the mornings, and they are both so proud to be doing their own “school work.”

Posted in Literature Units, Preschool

Preschool Week With Corduroy

Posted on July 7, 2016 by Deanna

Corduroy Activities Last year my plan to do more with my preschoolers ended up being a flop, so as we started school this week I was determined to find time each day to be intentional with Arianna (4) and Nicholas (2). This may look a little different from week to week, but right now that means going back to Before Five in a Row.

For our first book, I chose one of their favorites, Corduroy by Don Freeman. I had a lot of activities in my file from when I rowed this book with the older boys a few years ago, so we pulled those out. (I don’t want to repeat myself, so check out that post for more ideas!)

Both kids really enjoyed playing with buttons all week. I have a big jar full of all kinds of buttons, and I let them play with them in egg trays. Nico just had fun moving them around and exploring, but Arianna chose to sort them by colors.

I thought she might like a “sewing” activity since Lisa sews on Corduroy’s button, but I wanted to keep it simple. I threaded an embroidery needle with string and let her string buttons onto it. She worked on this for about half and hour and was very proud when she finished. (I forgot to take a picture and of course the string ended up breaking later. So we’ll get to do that again another day!)

As a reminder of our fun week with Corduroy, I cut out construction paper pieces using a pattern I found on Serving Pink Lemonade. Then Arianna and Nico made their own bears and proudly hung them in their rooms.

They really loved Corduroy, so we also read A Pocket for Corduroy and Corduroy Lost and Found, and we’ll finish off tomorrow by watching the live action movie of the original story on DVD from the Scholastic Storybook Treasures 2 collection. (I guess this collection is no longer sold new, but the Corduroy DVD is also part of the 20 Animal Tales collection.)

Posted in B4FIAR, Literature Units, Preschool

Literature Guide: The Drinking Gourd (Crew Review)

Posted on June 14, 2016 by Deanna

One of my favorite things about being a parent is reading great books with my children. There are so many benefits to sharing quality literature, especially having the opportunity to point out biblical truth and engage my children in discussion. Progeny Press makes this easy to do with their multitude of literature guides. We recently had a chance to go through The Drinking Gourd E-Guide, which goes along with The Drinking Gourd by F.N. Monjo, a book about the Underground Railroad.

About this Progeny Press Literature Guide

I first discovered Progeny Press two years ago when I had a chance to review their literature guide for Frog and Toad Together. I loved the experience of reading through a favorite book while also looking at biblical concepts we found in the story. Since then, I’ve bought several of their other guides, both for younger elementary students, and for high school level books that my husband and I read together for fun.

The Drinking Gourd E-Guide is intended to be used with lower elementary students. Monjo’s book could easily be read by most 2nd or 3rd graders, but it also works well as a read aloud. The literature guide itself could be challenging for some students to read alone; strong readers could read the questions and write in their answers, but others could answer the questions with someone leading them through it.

The 35-page literature guide features the following:

Synopsis of the story
Background information
About the author
Before-you-read Activities (books to read to better help understand the time period, learning the “Drinking Gourd” song, identifying the Big Dipper, a map activity, and research prompts about historical figures whose names appear in the story)
vocabulary worksheet
The main section, with questions for 1-3 chapters at a time. Some of the questions help make sure the student understood what they read, and others help the student process what they read and consider the themes (such as bravery, honesty, and justice.)
A “hidden message” worksheet
After-you-read-Activities (Creative writing prompts, suggestions for learning more about constellations, instructions for making a drinking gourd)
Suggestions for Further Reading (other books by the author as well as more books about subject discussed in The Drinking Gourd)
Answer Key

Like many of the titles from Progeny Press, The Drinking Gourd Study Guide is available in print, CD-ROM, or instant download as an e-guide (what I received). (Some are also Interactive, where the student can type the answers right into the document.)

Our Experience

Before diving into the book, we went through some of the pre-reading activities suggested in the E-Guide. Then the boys and I took turns reading from The Drinking Gourd, but since my purpose was really just to enjoy the book together, I ended up taking over completely. We kept our time short, just going through one or two chapters a day (six altogether), following up by discussing the questions in the literature guide. I printed it out because I find it easier to use a hard copy, but we really only wrote on a few pages. I wanted to have a good discussion, rather than making the boys labor over writing in as short an answer as they could come up with, so if the page just consisted of questions, I used it to lead our conversation rather than making them do it as a worksheet. When they’re older and can work more independently on guides like this, I’ll probably have them write in their answers and THEN discuss.

I love the way Progeny Press study guides send readers to the Bible as they consider the themes in the literature they are reading. For example, Tommy and his father break the law by helping Jim’s family escape. His father talks to him about why he can’t obey a law that treats people as property. The study guide has students look up the definitions for “just” and “justice,” then looks at the story of the Magi in Matthew 2 and talks about how they disobeyed Herod’s instructions. “Was this the right thing to do? Why?” I’m so thankful for these literature guides that not only prompt our family to think more deeply about the story, but also look to God’s Word in processing right and wrong.

We enjoyed The Drinking Gourd and this study guide so much, we ended up spending several weeks Exploring the Underground Railroad. Also, members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew went through several other Progeny Press guides, so click on the banner below to read their reviews.

Literature Study Guides from a Christian Perspective {Progeny Press Review}

Posted in FIAR, Homeschool Resources, Literature Units, Product reviews

A Day in Paris (without leaving home!)

Posted on October 17, 2015 by Deanna

This past week we took a “Fall Break” to celebrate finishing our first 12-week term, but we did have some learning fun one day. Out of the blue, Arianna asked to watch Madeline, and I told her I would only put on the video if we could read the book first.

So began our “day in Paris.” The illustrations in Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans show many wonderful landmarks of the city, and I wanted my children to be able to recognize them as real places rather than just pictures in books, so I set out to see how many ways I could expose them to Paris in one day. Since it was a spur of the moment decision, I was limited to what we already had (or could access from home).

After reading Madeline I made the boys find Paris on the globe and drilled them on the country and continent in which they’d find it. Then while they all watched the original “Madeline Special,” I printed out Paper City Paris on cardstock and started cutting out the pieces. I wanted to keep the little blurbs about each piece, so I cut those out as well and glued them to the back of each one.

They were fascinated by something new to play with and enjoyed “driving” the little paper car through the Arc de Triomphe and under the Eiffel Tower. The three older kids played with the set as we watched Travel With Kids: Paris.

Then at lunch we practiced using “S’il vous plaît” and “merci,” and watched Ben and Jessa’s “European Honeymoon” on 19 Kids and Counting. (The BBC has a fun site to help them explore the language a little more.)

After naps, the kids flipped through other books we have about Paris, including more books about Madeline, another Five in a Row book, The Giraffe That Walked to Paris, and a book about Notre-Dame de Paris (good for the pictures).

Ian’s been begging me to to take him to Paris ever since we first “rowed” Madeline years ago. I’m afraid our day didn’t lessen his desire, especially when he heard about the sewers. Someday I’ll have to have him read Les Miserables. Then he’ll really be itching to go!

Resource Links At a Glance

Books

Videos

Other

Posted in FIAR

Looking to the Bible with Frog and Toad (Crew Review)

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Deanna

When I was offered the chance to review a literature guide from Progeny Press, I didn’t know much about the company. The list of available titles included many of my favorite children’s books,

however, so I figured they were a company with which I should get acquainted. I decided that Ian would probably enjoy Frog and Toad Together by Arthur Lobel (a Newbery Honor book), so we printed out the downloadable e- guide and got started. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the experience ended up being an absolute delight.

Progeny Press puts out study guides to go along with children’s literature for students ranging from lower elementary though high school. In addition to exposing children to wonderful books, what makes these studies particularly worthwhile is their uniquely Christian perspective. I remember enjoying the Frog and Toad books as a child, so I looked forward to sharing them with Ian. When we first read through some of the books in the series, it didn’t occur to me to go any deeper than the simple meaning of each story. However, this study guide turned a classic children’s storybook into a chance for Ian and I to spend time digging in the Bible together for God’s eternal truths regarding things we face in everyday life. As we read through the simple stories in Frog and Toad Together, we experienced them on a deeper level as we looked at what the Bible has to say about the theme of each story.

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What’s in the Study Guide

The first few pages of the guide include a note to the instructor about how to use it, followed by a brief synopsis and a page about the author. Then the study begins with a section of “Before-you-read Activities,” which consists of a discussion about friendship and what the Bible says about it. Then it goes through the book chapter by chapter.

We went through a story at a time, first reading the chapter and then spending a day or two going through the study guide for that story.

I won’t go through the entire book, but each chapter had some valuable lessons. I loved the way we were pointed back to the Bible with each one. We spent time looking at Scriptures on things like letting God direct our steps, how He cares for us, how to handle temptation, trusting God when we are afraid, and considering others above ourselves.

In addition to Bible study and thought-provoking questions, there were also suggestions for fun projects like planting seeds, baking cookies, and singing songs to memorize related Bible verses.

At the end of the study there were pages to extend the lessons more with extras like creating a Venn diagram comparing the characters Frog and Toad with real frogs and toads and a word search. There were also suggestions of other books to read, either by the same author or about similar subjects.

The Frog and Toad Together Study Guide is intended for children in grades K-2 and is available as a printed workbook, or digitally as a download or on CD. (All formats are sold for $11.99.) Much of the guide consists of questions with space to write down the answers, but I didn’t want Ian to be limited by his fine motor skills, so I let him tell me his answers and then I would write them down.

Both Ian and I really enjoyed going through this study together. He liked it so much he kept telling me to get the study guide for some of his friends in our homeschool group so they could do it too. I definitely plan to purchase more of the study guides to use with other books we will be reading in the future.

Check out Progeny Press on their website or social media pages:

Facebook –  https://www.facebook.com/progenypress
Twitter –  https://twitter.com/progenypress
Pinterest – http://www.pinterest.com/progenypress/
YouTube –  https://www.youtube.com/user/ProgenyPress

Posted in Homeschool Resources, Kindergarten, Literature Units, Product reviews

Little Red Riding Hood

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Deanna

Little Red Riding Hood, Isabel Oakley Naftel (1862)

It’s been a while since we spent time focusing on a fairy tale, so we took a break from Five in a Row to have fun with Little Red Riding Hood. (See posts we’ve done on other classics.) I love this story, maybe because it has a redeeming ending. The little girl makes mistakes and certainly suffers the consequences, but in the end things work out and she learns important lessons, like the importance of obedience and not talking to strangers. Hopefully our children can benefit from her mistakes!

Part of the reason I chose to do the story now is because it corresponded with our Salsa Spanish lessons. We just started the second unit, which has six videos related to “Caperucita Roja,” so we were able to learn some vocabulary words to go along with our story. (We use the Salsamaterials from the Wyoming Department of Education to get the most out of the videos.)

We looked at several versions:

Little Red Riding Hood by Trina Schart Hyman (my favorite)
Fairy Tale Classics (Easy-To-Read Collection)
Red Riding Hood by James Marshall
“Little Red-Cap” from the Brothers Grimm
Lon Po Po by Ed Young (a Chinese tale with many similarities).

We’ve talked before about how sometimes old stories like fairy tales are told differently by different people, so I asked Ian to find differences in two versions and we listed them.

We watched a Super Why episode that features the story of Red Riding Hood (Season 1, Episode 9) and enjoyed a free Kindle Fire App. By this point Arianna was pretty familiar with the tale and had lots of fun wearing part of an old Red Hiding Hood costume I had as a child.

We had a blast going through many of the activities in the FREE Little Red Riding Hood Pack from 123homeschool4me.com! I loved that there were several pages simple enough for Arianna (2), but also several pages that challenged Ian (6). I went crazy with my laminator and then we spent a whole morning playing with all the goodies in this pack. (I also put some of the pages in sheet protectors in the boys’ notebooks.) So much fun learning!

Posted in Kindergarten, Literature Units, Preschool

When I Was Young in the Mountains

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Deanna

Last week Five in a Row took us to Appalachia with When I was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant. It’s a sweet story that sparked several questions from Ian and Elijah. So in addition to the lessons we did from the Five in a Row (Vol.) 2 manual, we took a few rabbit trails, which led to lots of learning!

Every time we read the first page, about how the little girl’s grandfather would kiss her on the forehead because he was so dirty from working in the coal mines that only his lips were clean, Ian asked, “Why was he so dirty?” Finally I went hunting for a video on coal mining. The best thing I could find was an episode of the show Dirty Jobs, which was available to watch streaming on Amazon (free for Prime members). Episode 30 features a segment about coal mining. (PARENT ADVISORY: the first half of the episode is on a different job and contained some rough language. It was really too bad, because I think my boys would both really enjoy this show, but with a few bad words thrown in occasionally, it’s just not suitable for children. I did end up letting my boys watch the coal mining segment with me, but we talked about using pure words and not copying people who don’t. I know many parents would choose not to show it to their children, so definitely watch it first. If you know of a better video to learn something about coal mining, please comment below!)

At one point in the story, the girl talks about hearing the call of a bobwhite. The boys wondered what that was, and since I knew nothing beyond the fact that it was a bird, we did a little research together. The boys enjoyed seeing pictures of bobwhites and especially listening to recordings of a bobwhite’s call. After that, every time we read this part of the story, Ian would imitate the birdcall.

The children’s lives in this story are very different from ours in many ways. After we had read through the story a few times, I had Ian point out differences. We talked about how the girl was poor and yet she seemed very content with her life. I wanted to find a video that brought the Appalachian world alive for the boys, so we watched the pilot episode from the old television series Christy. It’s about a young woman who goes to teach in a one-room schoolhouse (which doubles as a church, like in When I Was Young in the Mountains) in a small community tucked back in the hills of Tennessee. Elijah lost interest after a while, but Ian enjoyed watching it with me.

For our last activity, Ian wrote his own story in a style like Cynthia Rylant. I asked him to share about things remembers from when we lived with Grandma and Grandpa in their house in the hills. I typed out his memories and then he illustrated the first one.

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