McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson XXXVI · Part 5: Work, wonder and the world
40. The Child's World
Goal: Your child reads a short poem about the wide world aloud and explains how a child can be "more than the Earth."
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- A notebook or lined paper and a pencil
What's in the book
A short poem in which a child speaks to the great, wide world, with its water, air, wind and hills, and then hears the world's answer. No author is named.
The lesson, step by step
Read it aloud
Read the poem aloud to your child first, then let your child read it. Read it with wonder in your voice. It begins:
Great, wide, beautiful, wonderful world,
Then have your child read it a second time, more smoothly: the first reading is for the meaning, the second for the sound and rhythm.
Talk about it
SayWhat things in the world does the child name?
SayHow does the child feel about being so small?
SayWhat answer comes at the end? What can a child do that the Earth cannot?
Let your child look back at the page to find answers.
Tell it back
Your child says, in their own words, what the poem means.
Copywork
Your child copies the poem's closing lines as verse:
You are more than the Earth, though you are such a dot:
You can love and think, and the Earth cannot!
Words to learn
No Definitions are printed for this poem. Choose four words from it to learn, for example beautiful, wonderful, world and Earth.
Afterwards
Learn the first verse by heart.