McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson XLIV · Part 5: Courage, kindness and the village smithy

50. Forty Years Ago

Goal: Your child reads a nostalgic poem addressed to an old friend and talks about how memory and change are pictured.

⏱ About 25 minutes · 6 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗

You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • A notebook and pencil

What's in the book

A poem, with no author named, in which the speaker writes to his old friend Tom about returning to their village, school and spring after forty years, and finding much changed.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Read aloud

    Read the poem to your child in a warm, thoughtful voice, then let your child read it.

    I've wandered to the village, Tom,

    I've sat beneath the tree,

    Upon the school-house play-ground,

    That sheltered you and me;

  2. Talk about it

    SayWho is Tom? What places did the speaker visit?

    SayWhat had happened to the names they carved in the tree?

    SayWhat happened to their old classmates?

    And none are left of our old class

    SayHow does the speaker feel? Sad, glad or both?

  3. Ask an older person

    If you can, ask a grandparent: What would you find changed if you went back to your old school?

  4. Tell it back

    Your child tells, place by place, what the speaker found on his return.

  5. Memorize

    Learn the first stanza, which begins:

    I've wandered to the village, Tom,

  6. Write (optional)

    Imagine yourself forty years from now. Write a few lines to a friend about a place you both know.

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