Grandfather’s Journey





If you’ve stumbled here from Pinterest, or some other site … welcome! While each of these books/lessons can stand alone, they are also a part of a year-long series that we have taught at our homeschool co-op. Each lesson builds in part on the one before. Some stories also have similar themes with the books that go before/after them. If you are interested in more information, or to see the complete booklist, check out our main page, More FIAR – Inspired Literature-Based Homeschool Lesson Plans, especially for homeschool and homeschool co-ops. Thanks for looking around, and welcome to the site! 

Grandfather’s Journey

by Allen Say

Things I Need for Class

Grandfather’s Journey Book
Grandfather’s Journey Handwriting Sheet
Grandfather’s Journey Across the Ocean Sheet
Map of the World
Globe (Optional, but helpful)
Continent Cards
Scissors
Glue Sticks

Homework for the Class (to do ahead of time):

Tell us something special about your grandfather or grandmother? Is there something they like to do that you like to do also?  If they grew up in a different place than you, what was something different about the place they grew up?

 

Preview the Story

If you’d like to preview this story, my favorite recording is available on YouTube, here:

 

Review:

(This book is a continuation of the “family” theme started last week in our lesson around, They Were Strong and Good by Robert Lawson. Each of these lessons can stand alone, of course, but the themes compliment each other well, so we chose to teach them back to back.)

Who remember’s our story from last week? (They Were Strong and Good)
Can anyone remember what we talked about last week? (Family, Family Tree, etc)

Pull out the map. Pass out these great continent cards, located at HomeSchool Share. (They also have a great Grandfather’s Journey lapbook). See if the kiddos can take turns finding the Continent they are holding in their hand on the map and tell you its name.

Mention that today’s story takes place in a continent to our EAST. (or west, depending on what direction you travel. This may be a good time to pull out a globe if you have one and illustrate more in detail East and West

Introduce the Story:

Today’s story is called, Grandfather’s Journey, and just like last week, this is the story of a family, and of things that are passed down from one generation to another.

The setting of today’s story takes place in two places. First, in California, a state to our West
Secondly in Japan, typically referred to as the East, but in the United States we could say Japan is to our West as well. Explain this more in detail to the class.

Read the Book: Grandfather’s Journey

There are so many gems in this story, you may choose others than the ones mentioned here – but these three points are good things to bring out.
Take a moment to find each landmark he saw on the United States map.
A special point to take note of is, “he shook hands with black men and white men, with yellow men and red men.”
Also WWII, not said by name, but alluded to at the end of the story. This could be referenced briefly, or in depth, if you choose to bring out the first atomic bombs, Pearl Harbor, and destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If you are following along with this year’s plan, More FIAR – Inspired Literature-Based Homeschool Lesson Plans, next weeks book, All Those Secrets of the World, is a child’s perspective of war. Because of this connection, the reference to WWII is at least worth mentioning briefly.

After the Story:

Notice how the little boys says, “I think I know my grandfather now. I miss him very much”

Take a moment to share a personal story about one of your grandparents.

I shared a personal story about my grandmother who died last summer. …When I was little … my grandmother seemed so old. She spoke french and hosted all our family gatherings without thinking twice. I loved her deeply, but I didn’t think I was much like her.  But as I got older, I began to host many gatherings too. I realized I was a bit like my grandmother too. She loved to have big family gatherings. I loved to host big family gatherings. She hosted easily, without flinching at the big crowds, I also did the same. When my grandmother died, I asked for her mint jar and her ice cream box, because going to my grandmother’s, she always offered us ice cream when we arrived from our long trip, and let us visit her mint jar repeatedly during our visit. Now my kiddos love a trip to the mint jar, for one of “Memay’s Mints”.


Take a moment to share one of your own personal stories or precious passed down memories from a grandparent. Then ask the class to share their stories that they brought in from home.

  • What about your family?
  • What have you received from your grandparents?
  • Do you have any special stories about your grandparents?
  • Is there anything you like to do that their grandparents also like to do?

 

Geography and Language Arts “Order-the-Story” Project:

  1. We used this worksheet to find Japan, California, and our own State / Country.
  2. We cut out the ships / trains / steamboats, and discussed which happened first, second, etc
  3. Then, we glued the ships and trains to the map.
  4. If your kiddos are adept at writing, have them label, Japan, California, and Pacific Ocean.

Handwriting:

This week’s verse is taken from the Grandfather’s admiration of the beautiful lands, both in California and Japan, the beautiful seas, and his admiration for the beauty of the earth in general. I struggled with a verse for this book (and didn’t really like the suggested ones in the Five in a Row Bible Study Supplement). But I finally settled on an abridged version of Psalm 8, for the reasons mentioned above.  Remember we’re trying to keep it short (so the smaller kiddos won’t get discouraged), and so that it is able to be completed in class in less than 10 minutes, hence the words pulled out (even though I would have loved to have them memorize the verses in their entirety)

Click here for printable version

 

That’s it for this week! To see what we’ve done so far in our Homeschool Co-op’s Literature Series this year, click here. Each lesson  builds on the one before and seeks to cover basic geography within the book, historical contexts, a handwriting sheet and a language arts lesson, as it applies to the book. 

Or, you can check out the complete Learning the ABC’s through Literature Series, which is a similar series that we did with this same group of kiddos a year earlier. Both of these series of books have been inspired by the Five in a Row curriculum, with many of the books being the same. The ideas, implementation of it for a co-op, and printables are all my own, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for stopping by to check it out!