A graveyard visit

Our second reading group session on Tom Sawyer originally included a field trip to an old family cemetery.  It used to be located near a town, but the town was flooded out numerous times and was abandoned.  It’s a perfectly located cemetery for the kids to experience a bit of what Tom and Huck did.  (No, we didn’t plan a middle-of-the-night with a dead cat to try to get rid of warts!)  But the cemetery is about a 30 minute (one mile) hike from the trailhead, and Tom and Huck walked about that far in the book to get the St. Petersburg cemetery.  I’d also hoped to give them the experience of an old, small family cemetery that would look more similar to the cemetery of Tom and Huck’s day.

Then those vagaries of life kicked in, and we ended up short on time to make the drive to the trailhead and the hike in to the cemetery.  So, we settled for a stop at the cemetery just on the edge of town.  (Reading group hint:  always have a back-up plan!)  As it turned out, the kids enjoyed this cemetery immensely and were quickly engaged in reading old stones, trying to get clear rubbings, and figuring out how families might have been connected.

Again, we started off the session with a number of discussion questions, ranging from basic comprehension (e.g. why were Tom and Huck going to a graveyard at midnight?) to questions that required more interpretation (e.g. how much time did Tom spend on his own – in one case, around 8 hours – and what would happen today if a child his age disappeared for that long?).  Once again, I was amazed at how well the readers understood and remembered the events in the book.

One of the things we talked at length about before going into the cemetery was how different cemeteries today look.  The graveyard in Tom Sawyer was unkempt – waist-high grass, a “sagging” plank fence, stones arranged in no particular fashion, etc.  Cemeteries today are generally very well maintained – the grass is cut and trimmed regularly, stones are placed in orderly rows, if there is fencing it’s perhaps chain link or an aesthetically pleasing wood or metal, etc.  We also talked about how flowers and other decorations are very common today.  (Even the language is different – Twain used the word “graveyard” whereas we tend to use the term “cemetery.”)

No one in the group had done rubbings before, so it was initially a labor intensive process.  I heard “I need help!” quite a times and was happy to have my husband along to help with this one.  (I was also thrilled that a friend and I had traded my two younger kids for one of her older ones.)  The kids were fascinated to find stones memorializing infants (so young an age wasn’t given) up to a 102-year-old woman.  One of the first stones we looked at was actually an eight year old child, which made a marked impression on them since several of the readers are eight years old.

Before we left, I asked everyone to share one thing that particularly struck them about the cemetery visit.  No single answer was duplicated – with comments ranging from the curiosity of old stones (for people who died in the early 1900s) still having relatively new silk flowers by the graves (someone must be still caring for the stones), to an interest in the artwork on the stones, and everything in between.  I can’t help but wonder whether the group participants will remember this cemetery visit as adults.  As part of a cemetery visit I made around the age of 10, on a reading group field trip, I saw this poem:

                Listen, my children, as you pass by.

                As you are, so once was I.

                As I am, soon you shall be.

                Come, my children, and follow me.

Slightly morbid, perhaps, but it always fascinated me and I still recall the poem clearly.  As an adult I can see how clearly it earmarks that stone as significantly older – I can’t imagine someone putting that on a grave marker today.

And do you suppose I remembered the camera?  Or that anyone else thought about taking photos?  Of course not!

Our next field trip will be to the beach at a nearby state park, where we’ll play pirates, read pirate books, make a pirate craft for use at our fourth group session, swim and build sandcastles.

Whitewashing fences

Since my mom created wonderful summer reading group experiences when I was younger, it's always been my intent to organize the same activity.  This summer, with my oldest a soon-to-be-third-grader, I took the plunge.  The two goals of the summer reading group are to encourage kids to read and also take some time for special field trips that are book-related.

I selected the Usborne Classics Retold version of Tom Sawyer, a favorite story of mine growing up.  Then I set up the basic schedule – the weeks we would meet, the chapters assigned to read before each meeting, and the accompanying activity and approximate times for each session.  Next we invited a number of classmates, “advertised” it by setting up a Facebook event, and also shared the group through the public school’s Summer AR Club and the public library.

Our reading group is now seven strong and our first get together was a fun, engaging discussion and activity.  As usual, I forgot to take photos during the event itself – but did task my eight year old to take the “after” pictures of the whitewashing that was accomplished.

Each participant had a list of discussion questions to think about as they read the first three chapters of the Tom Sawyer, and I was impressed that everyone – even with short notice in a couple cases – had read each chapter and was prepared to talk about them.

The conversation ranged from basic comprehension questions – such as who Tom lived with in the story and why – to questions that required a bit more analysis, including what kinds of games Tom played with his friends and how they’re the same or different from what kids play today.  We also took a long tape measure to get a visual on how big the fence was that Tom was supposed to paint (if it’s been awhile since you read the book, the fence was 90 feet long and 9 feet high!).

The kids had also been asked to bring “treasures” to share – and each brought some, including stickers, rocks, an apple, a toy car, ticket stubs, a flower, a Fourth of July themed star, a few links from a metal chain, and many, many more!  So, after the discussion, we stirred paint and got right to work whitewashing some door frames, an outdoor table and a garden fence.  But there were fewer paintbrushes than painters, so in order to get their hands on one of the precious paint brushes, they had to trade a treasure.  We had a couple stubborn painters who required us to think strategically and offer special incentives to relinquish their painting rights, but eventually the paintbrushes were passed around multiple times.

I showed the kids how to dip the brushes, scrape extra paint on the inside lip of the can and brush in a single direction.  After that, for the most part they operated independently.  Amazingly, the whitewash ended up primarily on wood … and apparently the ends of my eight year old’s braids.  :)

 

After a snack and some free time to run around, we settled down again to think about the activity and how it related to the reading they’d done.  For example, I asked how long they’d painted.  (They estimated correctly – between 30 and 45 minutes.)  We talked about surface area they’d painted – and they immediately recognized it was nowhere near Tom’s fence in the book.  They could really see how ingenious Tom was to engage his friends in a task that would have taken him at least a whole day – if not two – on his own.

Overall, I really enjoyed watching the kids interact with literature on a number of different levels.  And it was neat to see how a 136 year old book still resonates with us today.

Stayed tuned for reports on the next four reading group sessions!

The Highest Compliment

I think this is the highest compliment that a parent can have from their child:

You know mom, if you didn't make me read that book from the library I would have never known how much I liked all of the Secrets of Droon books!  I want to read them all now!


I have been having my 8 year old choose one book from the 3rd or 4th grade recommended list** each time we visit our local library.  He wasn't thrilled about not choosing all of his own books (don't worry he gets plenty of those as well), and almost refused to read the book at all.

And then he did.... and loved it.

Loved it so much that he found another book from the series in the waiting room at the clinic and started that one too.  The clinic nurse noticed him reading it and told him to keep it because no one ever reads the chapter books.  The next time we were at the library, he headed straight to the shelf he had found the first one and checked out more.

I imagine it won't be long until he has read them all.

The Secrets of Droon Series

**The Knights of the Ruby Wand was on the list of recommended chapter books for 3rd graders.

A few discoveries of interest

While trolling for new blogs in the cool quiet of my basement this evening, I came across a few posts that might be of interest to Work, Play, Read followers.

Literature Extension to Leonardo the Terrible Monster at School Time Snippets.




Read a thon 2012 is into it's second week, but it is not too late to join in the fun.  Be sure to check it out if you are looking for something to keep you busy this summer!

Therapy Reading

If you keep up with my family blog, you may realize that a big part of the reason for less posting from me this summer is a very busy therapy schedule for our 6 year old with Autism Spectrum Disorder.  During our last speech session, however, I realized that we are doing just as much or more reading this summer!

We have been working on understanding idioms and figures of speech and were introduced to a great series of books by Tedd Arnold on funny body related sayings that were quite enjoyable for us to read as well.  What is a broken heart and what does it mean to lend a hand?  This little boy thinks his heart will break into pieces and his hand will be chopped off!  We will be looking for more of these at the library for sure.



I was also reminded of the Amelia Bedelia series of books, which are perfect for reviewing the same thing!  We have been taking turns reading these before bedtime which doubles as both review of the figures of speech and enunciation/oral fluency practice.



It is always a good thing when everyone can enjoy speech-at-home work!

From A Reader

Thanks Angie, for participating in the April Work, Play, Read Challenge!

April Challenge- Catch Them Reading

Email your photos to WorkPlayRead@gmail.com or upload to the Work, Play, Read Flickr group and we will feature your photos here throughout the month!