McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson XXX · Part 4: Lost Lucy, the Town Pump and the bobolink
36. Good-night, by Peter Parley
Goal: Your child reads a quiet evening poem with a soft voice and notices how its details create a mood.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- A notebook and pencil
What's in the book
A short poem about nightfall in the country, in which birds go quiet, dew falls, and night creatures stir, with the refrain "Good-night." A note about Peter Parley (Samuel Griswold Goodrich) comes first.
The lesson, step by step
About the author
The book says Samuel Griswold Goodrich was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and is best known as "Peter Parley," the name under which he wrote many books for children starting about 1827. He edited Parley's Magazine and was U.S. consul at Paris.
Read aloud
Read it in a soft, slow voice, as if it were bedtime.
The sun has sunk behind the hills,
The shadows o'er the landscape creep;
The dew is falling soft and still;
Talk about it
SayWhat do you see and hear in the poem as night comes?
SayWhich creatures stay awake?
SayHow does the poet make the poem feel sleepy?
SayWhat does the last line say will sleep?
Tell it back
Your child describes the evening scene in prose, in order.
Memorize
Learn the first stanza, which begins:
The sun has sunk behind the hills,
Write (optional)
Write a few lines about nightfall where you live: what you see and hear.