Our Co-op is using books as part of the Five in a Row Curriculum.
In Five in a Row, the idea is to read the book to the child for five days in a row. Each time the child gets more familiar with the book and illustrations. When done in a co-op setting, the parent reads the book to the child four times, and then we read it for the last time in class and do projects and follow rabbit trails related to the book.
The Lesson Plan:
About the book:
The Wild Horses of Sweetbriar is a children’s fiction book based on the true story of horses stranded on Tuckernuck island just off of Nantucket. Set in 1903, the young girl in the story tells of the year she and her mother spent on the island all alone while her father served in the coast guard. The girl loved the smell of the ocean and all of the many flowers and plants that grew on the island. She especially loved the ten horses that ran wild and free all around. But when winter came, the suffering of the starving horses made the cold and loneliness almost unbearable.
Bible:
The book spends a lot of time talking about the plants and animals of the island. A special nod is given to the birds migrating south for the winter. This would be a good opportunity to study these verses with the children:
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
And a verse about horses!
Do you give the horse its strength
or clothe its neck with a flowing mane?
20 Do you make it leap like a locust,
striking terror with its proud snorting?
English:
This book is written in the first person. Most kids of this age like to tell stories and anecdotes in the first person, so it’s nice for them to know that there is a name for that!
The book uses an interesting simile comparing the thickness of the salty sea smell combining with the fragrant island to spreading jam on bread! It’s delightful!
Geography:
Sweetbriar is a fictional island off of the coast of Nantucket in Massachusetts. Productive Homeschooling has a great printable map of the area in its Massachusetts state study.
Culture:
This story is set at the turn of the 10th century. There is no refrigeration or widespread electrical power like we know it now. The girl and her mother work hard to preserve food for the winter, especially jam. We made refrigerator jam in co-op using plastic jars and frozen fruit.
We also talked about father bringing home fresh fresh and salted cod for the family to eat.
My grandmother was born in 1902 and I had a family picture of her circa 1911. I thought her mother looked very much like the mother in the book, so I shared that photo with my class and we talked a lot about how different life must have been for them, then it is for us.
Science:
The horses became stranded on the island when their sand bridge to the main island eroded. We brought in some sand and showed the kids how water would just gradually wear it away.
We also talked about horse care and how horses are mammals. Horses love to travel in packs with other horses. Usually there is one male with several females, but the oldest female with the most experience will be the leader of the herd!
This book had a lot of useful information!
We talked briefly about bird migration and we did a flora and fauna identification exercise.
History:
The father in the book works for the early Coast Guard. History of the Coast Guard/ The coast guard was started in 1790 by George Washington with only 10 cutter ships to stop smuggling. It became the Cutter Service during the Spanish-American War. Now it is part of Homeland Security. It protects all of our seas, lakes, and rivers, protecting and rescuing citizens and preventing terrorism.
Activities:
Activities:
As mentioned above, we did make refrigerator jam in class and each kid got to take home a little jar.
We also made horse puppets with paper bags based on the one from this web site.
All together we had a pleasant and full class day!
