McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson LX · Part 6: Honesty, Crusoe and good-will

64. The Giraffe

Goal: Your child reads an informational piece about the giraffe and retells the naturalist's hunt.

⏱ 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 the giraffe, or camelopard, of Africa: its long neck, spots, horns and food, how it defends itself, and the French naturalist Le Vaillant's long chase, which ends when he shoots one to study it. 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:

    Diversified, made various.

    Naturalist, one who is acquainted with objects of nature.

    Specimen, a sample.

    Romance, a story without truth.

    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 are some lines:

    They have short, blunt horns, and hoofs like those of the ox.

    It never employs its horns in resisting the attack of an enemy.

  3. Talk about it

    SayOf what country is the giraffe a native? To what height does it attain when full grown?

    SayOn what does it live? How does it defend itself?

    SayWho was Le Vaillant? What did he want so much?

    SayRelate the story of Le Vaillant's giraffe hunt.

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

  4. Tell it back

    Close the book. Your child tells what they learned about the giraffe, then tells Le Vaillant's chase.

  5. Copywork

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

    He could not rest contented until he had seen the animal alive, and had secured a specimen.

  6. Words to learn

    Learn: brilliant, diversified, peculiar, naturalist, specimen, baffled, fatigue, conjectured, carbine. Spell each aloud, then write it with its meaning.

Afterwards

Look at a picture of a giraffe and compare it with what the lesson says.

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