The Hatmaker’s Sign

The Hatmaker’s Sign

Welcome to the third year of Learning through Literature’s Homeschool Co-op Curriculum. If this is your first time here, this book:  The Hatmaker’s Sign, is the tenth of 13 books that will be covered as part of our homeschool co-op year, Learning through Literature: Exploring the United States. The class has been created for 2nd – 4th graders and is the culmination of three years of Learning through Literature together. If this is your first time looking around, please check out our first year, Learning the ABC’s through Literature. Or the second year, Learning Snippets of History through Literature for Homeschool Co-op.

 

Each year was inspired by Jane Lambert’s Five in a Row Curriculum and uses many of the same books, but with lessons, discussion questions, and printables reworked to be more useful for a homeschool co-op.

For this third year, Learning through Literature: Exploring the United States, we will take TWO classes to cover each book. If you are using this for a co-op, you will find “Class One” and further down the page, “Class Two”. 

Thanks for stopping by!

The Hatmaker’s Sign – A Story by Benjamin Franklin

Retold by Candace Fleming

Class 1

Things I Need:

Before the class: set out the new journal pages and The Hatmaker’s Sign copywork page on their desk as you are setting up the class. Have your class helper(s) help the kids punch their new journal pages and add them to their binders.

Homework:

  • Write one sentence about something you feel strongly about. Rewrite the sentence 3-5 times, changing synonyms, adjectives, or combining words until you think it is just right. Ask a parent or older sibling for suggestions. Then, decide if you want to use their suggestions as you draft your final sentence.
  • Begin learning the 11 States of the Northeast and come up with a mnemonic device to help you remember them. Write your mnemonic device in your co-op journal.

If you’ve never read The Hatmaker’s Sign and would like a preview of the book, this is one read-aloud version from YouTube.

 

As the Class is Arriving:

Encourage the students to complete the copywork on their desks. Those who are more proficient can trace and copy. Beginners, just trace. Usually, I give the class about 5 minutes (during which we play the quiet game) and just see how much they can get done. This is also a great time to prep any last-minutes notes and review your plans for the class.

The Hatmakers Sign 1st Class Copywork

Review:

A few questions will help refresh memories and get the class talking, as you review concepts:

  • What was the book we’ve been reading for the last two weeks? (Snowflake Bentley)
  • Where does Snowflake Bentley take place? (Vermont)
  • And Vermont is located in what part of the country?  (Northeast)
  • What are some things the Northeast is famous for? (History and many early historical sites, Maple Trees, maple syrup and beautiful fall foliage (predominately from the brightly colored maple trees, mountain range, lobsters, pilgrims, blueberries, apples, higher snowfalls, etc)

Remind the class that we are studying the Northeast region of the country. Take a moment to review and recite all of the states out loud. Ask for volunteers to recite all of them.

Review the Homework:

Tell the class to take out their binders and homework. While minds are still fresh, it’s a good time to review their own research from some of these Northeast Landmarks.

Ask: What is a landmark? (Something that is easily seen or recognized, especially in connection with a specific location or historical event)

Go around the room and let each student share what landmark they chose to write about. It may be good to familiarize yourself with the landmarks on the homework so you can add any extra details needed. The list from the homework is here:

  • Plymouth Rock
  • Niagara Falls
  • The Liberty Bell
  • The Statue of Liberty
  • Brooklyn Bridge
  • Old North Church / Freedom Trail (If your class read Paul Revere’s Ride last year, you can reference this.
  • The White House / Lincoln Memorial / Washington Monument
  • the White Mountains / Mt. Washington

Remember, with all of these landmarks and with the homework, the goal is only exposure to the stories, places, ideas, etc. If you don’t cover some of these landmarks, or they only barely get mentioned, no problem. This is just meant to be an introduction to the Northeast and a little of the history of our country.

As you go around the room to review the landmarks, you can also ask if anyone

  • Memorized Proverbs 24:16
  • Found someone who invented something, but didn’t succeed right away
  • Continued their new thing learned for a second week
  • Learned all the states in the Northeast? (if so, I had my class come tell me at the end of class.)

Introduce the Story

Tell the class we’re going to start a new book today that takes place in Boston during the late 1700s.

Write these four words on the board as you begin to talk about the new story:

  • The Declaration of Independence
  • Ben Franklin
  • Thomas Jefferson
  • The Revolutionary War

Ask the class: Does anyone know what was going on in Boston, and in America in the late 1700s?

Does anyone known when America declared that they were a nation, separate from England (July 4, 1776)

You can quickly summarize that in the late 1700s … America was only 13 Colonies, who were ruled by England, across the sea. Actually, much of the world was ruled by England at that time. But across the Colonies, more and more people thought they were being treated unfairly. They were being taxed, without having any government representatives. They had to host and pay for soldiers. There were a lot of little fights. And through a long series of events, they decided they really didn’t want to be ruled by England anymore. (You can get a more lengthy summary here)

So the wanted to write an official document, and finally, they asked Thomas Jefferson (the 3rd president, but it wasn’t then) to do it. But Thomas Jefferson wanted it to be perfect! He wrote and rewrote and rewrote. And then just when he thought it was perfect, everyone wanted to change it again!

So … Ben Franklin, like a kind older brother, wants to comfort him, and he comforts him by telling him this story:

Read the story:

According to Best Little Stories from the American Revolution, this story is true.

For a deeper look at the Revolutionary War and much of what was going on in our country at the time, the Liberty Kids series (free on YouTube) is a wonderful reference.

If you have time to view it in class, this 3-minute clip from Episode 114 shows a bit of Jefferson’s struggle to get just the right words.

What about your class? Do they like to get things just right? Have they ever done something, and immediately someone comes along and tells them another way to do it? Do they take their advice? Should they take their advice?

(Proverbs tells us in a multitude of counsel this is wisdom, but if you listen to everyone, you may go crazy :).

Their homework assignment is to come up with one sentence that they feel strongly about. It could be:

“I think everyone should eat chocolate on Fridays.”

The Hatmaker's Sign 1st Class Homework

They don’t have to prove their sentence (yet)… but they need to examine it. Like Jefferson, examine the words of the sentence. Could they write it better? Could they use a different word? Could they use fewer words?

Jane Lambert quotes this saying in the Five in a Row Volume 4 Handbook,

“The written word should be …

Clean as bone,

Clear as light.

Strong as stone.

Two words are not as good as one. 

Share the above with your class if you feel it is appropriate.

Then go through a sample sentence. Using SYNONYMS, WORD COMBINING and READING ALOUD as you write, try to work together as a class to improve your sample sentence.

That’s it. If there’s time, go through the States

Next Week: Take the sentence that was written and support it with proof. A closer look at the Declaration of Independence, the way it was sorted, and how we need to prove what we think.

Class 2

Things I Need:

Before the class: set out the new journal pages and The Hatmaker’s Sign Bible verse page and packet on their desk as you are setting up the class. Have your class helper(s) help the kids punch their new journal pages and add them to their binders.

Homework:

  • Using the strong opinion sentence that the wrote last week, add 2-3 additional sentences to prove their opinion. Try to find a source to quote within one of the sentences (because the topics vary so widely, Mom and Dad were also admissible sources to quote). As before, ask a parent or older sibling for suggestions. And be sure to read, reread, and read aloud to check your word.
  • Memorize Proverbs 11:14
  • Memorize the first sentence of the Declaration of the Independence (in the packet)
  • Continue learning the 11 States of the Northeast 

As the Class is Arriving:

Encourage the students to complete the copywork on their desks. Those who are more proficient can trace and copy. Beginners, just trace. Usually, I give the class about 5 minutes (during which we play the quiet game) and just see how much they can get done. This is also a great time to prep any last-minutes notes and review your plans for the class.

The Hatmaker's Sign 2nd Class Verse

While their Journals are out  …

Go ahead and have them cut out both the NORTHEAST block of states from the back of the binder (If you don’t have this, you can find this in the first set of papers handed out at the beginning of the year, here, The Raft)

Also, go ahead and find the book cut out of The Hatmaker’s Sign, and cut that out. Find that small map that was passed out with the pages from the Snowflake Bentley lesson, and glue the New England states there.

 

Review

As you are finishing up the gluing and pasting, ask the class some questions to get thoughts back to the book …

  • Do they remember where the Hatmaker’s Sign takes place? (this could be either Massachusetts or Pennsylvania. The story told takes place in Mass, the Declaration was signed in Philadelphia, PA.) 
  • Where the declaration of Independence was signed?
  • Can anyone give a summary of the book read in class last week?

Have the class take out the copywork they just did, and ask one student to read the verse out loud.

Use the some/all of discussion questions below to further discuss the book / their homework / or the verse, according to your preference.

  • Why do you think this verse was chosen?
  • When you did your homework, was it hard to receive correction?
  • Did you accept the correction?
  • Do you think listening to others gave you a better final sentence? Why / Why not?
  • What are the helpful thing about listening to counsel?
  • When could it be damaging to listen to others?

 

Homework Review

We went around the room, asking each person to read their first sentence, their last sentence, and how they got there.

Depending on what questions you used (above), you can continue the discussion as you go around. Be sure to encourage with things like, “good, nice changes, nice added synonym”, or other ways you can tell they improved their work.

Other questions to ask:

  • Was the process hard?
  • Did anyone reject some corrections?
  • Why did they decide to keep/reject the suggested corrections?

 

Show a small clip of a summary of the Declaration of Independence:

Both of the clips below are short and simple. This will serve as an introduction to their next assignment.

The point to make is this: Jefferson began the Declaration of Independence with a strong opening thought. 

This is an optional homework assignment that we gave, you may want to have it out as you share about his first strong opening thought.

The Hatmaker's Sign 2nd Class Declaration Memory

He then supported that thought with MANY reasons and specific examples as to why their current state of government did not allow them Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

It will be helpful to at least skim a copy of the document.

 

 

 

Main Lesson / Writing Assignment:

For their next assignment (homework) they are going to use the first sentence they just created, and add supporting sentences.

  1. All ideas need to be supported
    • In good writing, it’s not enough to say, “I think we should eat chocolate every day” – you need to tell me WHY. (Chocolate makes you happier, and we all need a little enjoyment in our day)
  2. Your argument will be stronger if you use a SOURCE.
    • If you want others to support your idea, you will usually strengthen your argument by showing others who agree with you. (remember the copywork verse). So consider doing a little research and adding a sentence that supports your main idea. (The Chocolate Company of America even has shown that 1 ounce of chocolate each day is good for your heart!)

 

Homework

  • Using the strong opinion sentence that the wrote last week, add 2-3 additional sentences to prove their opinion. Try to find a source to quote within one of the sentences (because the topics vary so widely, Mom and Dad were also admissible sources to quote). As before, ask a parent or older sibling for suggestions. And be sure to read, reread, and read aloud to check your word.
  • Memorize Proverbs 11:14
  • Memorize/Color the first sentence of the Declaration of the Independence (in the packet)
  • Continue learning the 11 States of the Northeast 

The Hatmaker's Sign 2nd Class Homework