Home Geography for Primary Grades · Lesson VI · Unit 1: Finding direction
6. What the winds bring (poem)
Goal: Your child enjoys the poem, tells what each wind brings, and writes a few sentences about the wind.
You'll need
- The book open to the poem
- Colored pencils
- A geography notebook (any notebook kept just for these lessons) and a pencil
What's in the book
A poem by Lillian Cox about the north, east, south and west winds and the gifts each brings, then a short verse ("Whichever way the wind doth blow"), and a writing task: write all you can tell about the wind, with three questions.
The lesson, step by step
Read the poem aloud
Read the whole poem to your child slowly, then read it again while your child follows along. It begins:
Comes the north wind, snowflakes bringing
Robes the fields in purest white,
Four winds, four gifts
Go stanza by stanza and ask: What does the north wind bring? (snow, frost pictures on the window) The east wind? (chilly, driving rain) The south wind? (heat that ripens apples, pears and grapes) The west wind? (flowers, butterflies and bees)
The little verse
Read the short verse at the end together.
Whichever way the wind doth blow,
Some heart is glad to have it so;
Ask: Who might be glad of a north wind? (children with sleds) Of a south wind? (a farmer with ripening fruit)
Draw the four winds
Your child folds a page into four boxes, labels them N, E, S, W, and draws what each wind brings in the poem.
Write about the wind
The book says:
Write all that you can tell about the wind.
Ask your child to write three or four sentences. A 7-year-old might dictate and then copy one sentence. Gently fix spelling by writing the word correctly underneath, not by crossing out.
Questions
Ask the book's questions: What was the direction of the wind during the last snowstorm? Why is the north wind cold? Why is the south wind warm?
Afterwards
Read the poem again on a windy day and decide together which wind is blowing.
Answers to the book's problems
The north wind is cold because it comes from the cold lands of the north, where ice and snow have their home. The south wind is warm because it comes from warm lands to the south. The direction of the last snowstorm's wind depends on where you live; often it is from the north or northeast. A good written piece might say: "The wind is moving air. We cannot see it, but we can see it move the trees and feel it on our faces. The north wind is cold. The south wind is warm."
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.