McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson XXXV · Part 4: Riches, eagles and good neighbors

39. How Margery Wondered, by Lucy Larcom

Goal: Your child reads a gentle story aloud and talks about the things Margery wondered about.

⏱ 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: little Margery, trusted out alone for the first time on a March morning, walks by the sea, hears her first bluebird, and wonders about the sun, the waves, the grass and the buds. 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:

    Hues, colors.

    Calyx, the outer covering of a flower.

    Horizon, the line where the sky and earth seem to meet.

    Warble, a trill of the voice.

    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. Read it slowly; it is full of pictures. It begins:

    It was the first time she had been trusted out alone, for Margery was a little girl;

  3. Talk about it

    SayWhat did the sun look like to Margery?

    SayWhat did Margery hear from the cedar tree? Why was it a surprise to her?

    SayWhat did she wonder about the grass and the buds?

    SayWhat did her mother say about her? Do you like to wonder?

    SayWhat is still more wonderful than all that at which Margery wondered? (The book's own question; the last paragraph gives an answer.)

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

  4. Tell it back

    Close the book.

    SayTell me Margery's walk, everything she saw and heard, in order.

  5. Copywork

    Your child copies this from the book, slowly and neatly, minding every capital letter and mark of punctuation:

    It was only a bluebird, but then it was the first bluebird Margery had ever seen.

  6. Words to learn

    Learn: trudging, hues, calyx, horizon, warble, spears, sheaths. Spell each aloud, then write it with its meaning.

Afterwards

Take a "wondering walk" together. Your child writes down three things they wondered about.

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