McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson LXXI · Part 7: Lost and found

75. The Rainbow Pilgrimage, by Grace Greenwood

Goal: Your child reads an adventure story and explains what the rainbow means at the end.

⏱ About 30 minutes · 7 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 true-to-life story told by a girl: her brother Rufus teases her that pots of gold lie at the end of the rainbow, and she runs into the woods to find them, gets lost, meets a porcupine and is found by her brothers. A note about the author and Definitions are included.

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:

    Winter-green, a creeping evergreen plant with bright red berries.

    Pilgrimage, journey.

    Quizzing, making sport of.

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

  2. About the author

    The book's note says the author is Sara J. Lippincott, born at Onondaga, N. Y., of New England parentage. Under the name of "Grace Greenwood" she wrote many charming stories for children; some of her best sketches are in "Records of Five Years."

  3. Read it aloud

    Your child reads the story aloud. It begins:

    One summer afternoon, when I was about eight years of age, I was standing at an eastern window,

  4. Talk about it

    SayWhat did Rufus tell her about the end of the rainbow?

    SayWhy did the rainbow's end keep moving away?

    SayWhat scared her in the woods? How was she found?

    SayWhat did her eldest brother and her mother say the rainbow really means?

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

  5. Tell it back

    Close the book.

    SayTell me the whole adventure as if it happened to you.

  6. Copywork

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

    I think God's Promise would be a beautiful name for the rainbow!

  7. Words to learn

    Learn: recovering, winter-green, imposed, drabbling, porcupine, pilgrimage, moccasins, quizzing. Spell each aloud, then write it with its meaning.

Afterwards

Read Genesis 9:12-17 together, the promise the eldest brother means.

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