Welcome! The following is the 8th in a series of 24 lesson plans, Learning the ABC’s through Literature, the 1st year. It was written especially for classroom use within a homeschool co-op, and was designed to teach the alphabet, over the course of a school year, using classic children’s literature. The books are primarily taken from the Five in a Row Curriculum by Jane Lambert, with several others added as well. The plans were designed to give just a little bit more, so it could be more usable within a classroom setting. Teacher’s questions, printables, craft ideas, classroom handouts, etc are included within all the lessons. This is geared towards a K-1st grade class. If you are interested in something similar for older children, the Learning through Literature series uses more Five-in-a-Row (FIAR) books and is a more developed concept of this same idea and also uses mostly Five in a Row books. You can find it here, Learning through Literature, the 2nd year, geared for 1st-3rd and Learning the USA through Literature – the 3rd year, geared for 2nd-4th and using books from Volume 4 of Five in a Row.
H: Hedge of Thorns
What I Need:
- Hedge of Thorns
- Hedge of Thorns Handwriting Sheet (printable version here)
- Vocab List
- H: Hedge of Thorns
This book may be a little hard to track down at a library, but if you can’t find it, it is worth the purchase. It is rich in content and full of deep lessons. When I was choosing the book to go with H, I very briefly pondered Harold and the Purple Crayon (as there is so much stuff on the internet about it), but if you want a lasting lesson, this is your book. Because this book is a little unique, we also chose a unique approach when introducing the lesson.
Review:
If you’re following along with the curriculum from A-Z, take a moment to review the last few titles you’ve done. The book list may be getting a little long to go all the way back to A, but if you have time, it can’t hurt to do this. If time is short, just review the last few titles, or a specific point you wanted them to remember from last time.
A is for … B is for … H is for Hedge
If you can get a piece of thorn or a thorny bush, it would make an excellent prop to use in introducing the story.
Introduce Book & Questions for Discussion
Our story today is an old old story that was written in 1611 by a man named John
Carrol.
How long ago was 1611?
(United States still not a country, not even colonized. Settlers had just landed in Jamestown a few years earlier. (1607).
But … the lesson in it is still valuable for us today, so someone, rewrote the story for us recently (2009). Just a few years before you guys were born.
Why would we need to rewrite a book?
Language changes slightly over time.
Vocab:
This could be discussed ahead of time, or during a pause while the story is being read
What is a Hedge? (a natural wall made of bushes or trees, sometimes for decoration, but often for projection)
Other famous place we hear about thorns? (Jesus has a crown of thorns, probably made from the thorns of an Acacia or Carob tree – lookup for pictures of these stunning thorns.)
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| photo courtesy Wikipedia, Honey Locust Thorn |
Read Story
Handwriting Sheet
(Together, make H’s in the air)
We have borrowed this catchy song from “Handwriting without Tears” fairly often in class (sung to the tune of If You’re Happy and You Know It)
Where do you start your letters? (At the top)
Where do you start your letters? (At the top)
If you want to write a letter, then you better better better
Remember, to start it at the top
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| Click here to print |
Click here to return to the Learning the ABC’s through Literature complete booklist and see the general instructions for each lesson.
