McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson XLII · Part 5: Work, wonder and the world

46. Coffee

Goal: Your child reads an informational piece and tells how coffee spread around the world and how it is grown.

⏱ 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 piece about coffee: its first home in Africa and Arabia, how one plant sent to Amsterdam led to coffee in South America and the West Indies, what the tree and fruit are like, and the kinds of coffee. 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:

    Pliable, easily bent.

    Translucent, permitting the passage of light.

    Pruning, trimming.

    Aromatic, containing aroma, fragrant.

    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 it aloud, a paragraph at a time. Here is a line about the plant:

    The plant is an evergreen, and is from six to twelve feet high.

  3. Talk about it

    SayWhat country first supplied coffee? How did the plant come to be grown in other countries?

    SayDescribe the plant. What is said of the fruit?

    SayWhat is said about the roasting of coffee?

    SayWhat are the three principal kinds of coffee used, and how are they valued?

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

  4. Tell it back

    Close the book. Your child tells the journey of the coffee plant from Arabia to South America, using a map if you have one.

  5. Copywork

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

    Arabia produces the celebrated Mocha, or Mokha, coffee, which is the finest in the world.

  6. Words to learn

    Learn: afforded, offspring, pliable, translucent, pruning, aromatic. Spell each aloud, then write it with its meaning.

Afterwards

Smell some coffee beans or ground coffee together, and find Arabia, Java, Holland and Brazil on a map.

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