McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson VI · Part 2: Perseverance, fairy tales and kindness

10. Smiles

Goal: Your child reads a longer story aloud, tells it back, and talks about how small kindnesses help.

⏱ About 30 minutes · 6 steps

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You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • A notebook or lined paper and a pencil

What's in the book

A story about lame Jennie, alone at her window in a narrow city street, and George West, a schoolboy who smiles at her and brings her flowers. Definitions and Exercises follow.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Words and meanings

    The new words are at the end of the lesson, under Definitions. The small number in front of each word is the paragraph or verse where it is used. Read them together before the lesson. A few of them:

    Dismal, gloomy, cheerless.

    Wishfully, with desire.

    Rickety, imperfect, worn out.

    Contrive, to plan.

    Ask your child to find two of these words in the lesson and read the sentence each one is in.

  2. Read it aloud

    Your child reads the story aloud, a few paragraphs at a time. It is a long lesson; you can split it over two days. It begins:

    Poor lame Jennie sat at her window, looking out upon the dismal, narrow street,

  3. Talk about it

    SayWhy was Jennie lonely?

    SayHow did George West make the day pleasant for Jennie?

    SayWhat did Jennie tell George about her life before the city?

    SayWhat did George's mother say about kind words?

    Let your child look back at the page to find answers.

  4. Tell it back

    Close the book.

    SayTell me the story from Jennie's side. What did she see and feel?

    For a written narration, your child writes a short paragraph about what George did.

  5. Copywork

    Your child copies Jennie's wish exactly as printed. (Notice that the book writes every body as two words.)

    I wish every body who goes by would look up and smile.

  6. Words to learn

    Learn: dismal, wishfully, rickety, dingy, glancing, dreary, contrive. Spell each aloud, then write it with its meaning.

Afterwards

Ask your child to think of one person who could use a smile or a kind word this week, and plan how to give it.

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