The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett - Novel Study

 

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a great way for Middle School students to explore themes of compassion, friendship, mental and physical health and how nature is transformative.

Here are the questions for The Secret Garden. I have included critical thinking, theme exploration, character analysis, literary analysis, writing prompts, extension activities and Christian application.

This classic story gives students so much to ponder on!

I hope that you enjoy it!

Blessings,

Natalie

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr - Novel Study

 

All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is a great book for students to learn more about WW#2 and all of the struggles people have to survive. It is even more challenging for one who is blind. 

This novel helps us to learn about resilience, free will and the importance of human connection. 

                                 

Here is the novel study handout for All the Light We Cannot See. I have included literary analysis, character analysis, critical thinking questions and theme exploration. There are also essay topics (with an essay rubric) and extension activities. 

This is a heavier novel for High School students. Be cautious and read it first if you are concerned. 

Blessings,

Natalie

Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery - Novel Study

 

Rilla of Ingleside is a wonderful novel by L.M. Montgomery and a great opportunity to study life in Canada during WW#1.

Rilla is an excellent character we see transform over the course of the novel. She matures and learns from her experiences during the war. She faces responsibility, copes with loss and learns to believe in herself. 

This handout is for a Grade 9 student but could easily be adapted to older students. I have included Chapter studies with literary analysis, critical thinking questions, character analysis and theme related questions. At the end of the study are extension opportunities, essay prompts and Christian applications. 

This is an in-depth opportunity to study a Canadian classic! Enjoy!

Blessings,

Natalie

Fatty Legs - Pick and Choose Literature Study

www.amazon.ca

Fatty Legs Pick and Choose Literature Study 

Fatty Legs shares about a time in Canadian history when there were Residential Schools for Aboriginal students. These schools took Aboriginal students far away from their families, their language and their culture. Fatty Legs is a true story about a young Aboriginal girl who attends a residential school. It is an opportunity to learn about her experience first hand. I hope that it will be both challenging and enlightening to you! This is a ‘pick and choose’ literature study, has many cross-curricular opportunities, so I suggest that you choose the activities that interest you the most. Blessings, Natalie

Pride and Prejudice Session #3 - Society, Marriage and Theme

This was by far my favourite session with our students thus far!! I was amazed at their depth of insight and maturity despite the fact that they are all 15 and under! 

To start with I had them get into groups do this chart comparing society in the 1800's to now. Then we came back together and discussed it.
They did a great job finding the reasons behind the differences during our discussion - we touched on everything from the class system in Britain to the limited ways that women could make money. These students took this discussion beyond what I had hoped!

Next I had them get in groups again and answer the questions on marriage from this sheet. All I can say is WOW - if they can apply their thoughts on marriage to their lives they will have very happy marriages! I asked them many other questions when we got back together and they expanded on the discussion.

Finally I used a list of themes and I had get into pairs and circle the ones they saw in Pride and Prejudice. We then went over the many themes and why they thought they applied to the book.
What a rich study!!! 

The students did a dress rehearsal and then put on Pride and Prejudice for us moms! What a joy it is to see them acting with their peers! They certainly are willing to be vulnerable with each other and laugh!

These performances not only help solidify the piece of literature, but they help to solidify the time period, the language, the culture and so much more! What a blessing this session was!! 

Pride and Prejudice Session #2

Oh, what a great session we had exploring the rich characters of Pride and Prejudice! First I had up on the board a character web of some of my own family and friends. 

I then had the students get into groups of 4 and do their own character web for Pride and Prejudice. I got the idea from Wikipedia and this visual. 

Some of the students were very detailed in remembering every one of the characters and their names! I was very impressed!!

Next, I had the students work in pairs and look at the Character Traits and Actions of any one character from the book/film/tv series. We discussed that characters have many traits and therefore their actions should reflect many different traits. I had them use a resource similar to this one to get the ideas flowing on character traits. Then they used this chart to write their answers.

Finally, our last exercise was to go over Round/Flat, Static and Dynamic as well as Protagonist, Antagonist, Foil and Stereotypes. We discussed them instead and I had the students shout out their answers. 

After this, it was time for another run-through of Pride and Prejudice! What an excellent play that our talented drama mom wrote!

I am ever impressed by these students and their passion for learning! Blessings, Natalie

Yarr me Matey's or Studying Treasure Island

Last year we had a great study using Treasure Island. I read this aloud to our daughter and explained some of the vocabulary along the way. We had some great discussions about the rich characters that Stevenson wove into this novel. We did another author study. 

I suggested this book as I thought it was a way to compare stories to movies (and the fact that our daughter thought swashbuckling was very cool - doesn't every 12 year old girl?). There are so many different movie versions of Treasure Island. We also did a more traditional novel study using a Core Knowledge unit as a base. We used many of the ideas in this study to make comparisons, round out the learning.

Here is the link to the materials we used.
http://www.coreknowledge.org/mimik/mimik_uploads/lesson_plans/265/Treasure%20Island.pdf

We also used these lap book pieces to add to our notebook.
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/pirates.php

We watched two very different versions of Treasure Island while we were studying the book. The first version was the Disney Movie from so long ago.

I had our daughter compare Muppet Treasure Island with the other book Treasure Island. The questions I asked were:  What was similar about the book and the movie?  What things were different than the book? Did you enjoy this movie and why?

I wanted her also to be able to give her opinion on a piece of media. In this case it was the Disney Treasure Island. I asked... Who was her favourite character in the movie? Was the set realistic? What were the themes of the movie? Was the movie exciting? What was the climax of the plot? Why did Jim Hawkins shove off the boat in the end? How many stars would you give this movie? Did you like this movie better than Muppet Treasure Island?

Finally she did some art based on the lesson in the Core Knowledge Study. A parrot mosaic.

 This was a great study on so many levels - comparisons, media, opinions, art, writing, learning history of another time, learning about an author and his writing and the list goes on. I hope you have a great time on the high seas!! Yarr me Matey!! Blessings!

Using Smilebox and Playmobil for Book Report Fun!

This is another one of those If I had been blogging when... posts.

I read to our daughter Apple Bough by Noel Steatfield and she decided to do a project using www.smilebox.com and Playmobil.

On Smilebox there are many templates that you can use for school projects. For this book "Little one" decided to do a newspaper for one and a photo collage for the other. She gathered the playmobil and made many different scenes of the book. This was a lot of fun.

After she did these projects she forwarded them to our teacher. 

Since this creative endeavour our daughter has made many other educational Smileboxes. They are a great way to do a project!
Blessings!