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

76. The Old Oaken Bucket, by Samuel Woodworth

Goal: Your child reads a famous poem of memory aloud and explains what feeling it expresses.

⏱ About 20 minutes · 7 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗

You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • A notebook or lined paper and a pencil

What's in the book

A poem in which a grown man remembers his childhood home, the orchard, pond, mill and dairy, and above all the old bucket at the well. A note about the author, Definitions and Exercises 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:

    Cataract, a great fall of water.

    Exquisite, exceeding, extreme.

    Nectar, the drink of the gods.

    Reverts, returns.

    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 Samuel Woodworth was born in Massachusetts in 1785. He was both author and editor, and this is his best known poem.

  3. Read it aloud

    Read the poem aloud to your child first, warmly and a little wistfully, then let your child read it. It begins:

    How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood,

    When fond recollection presents them to view!

    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.

  4. Talk about it

    SayWhat does the poem describe?

    SayWhat places from his childhood does the poet remember?

    SayWhy did the water from the bucket taste so good to him?

    SayWhat feeling does it express?

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

  5. Tell it back

    Your child describes a place from their own early childhood they would remember the same way.

  6. Copywork

    Your child copies the opening lines as verse:

    How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood,

    When fond recollection presents them to view!

  7. Words to learn

    Learn: cataract, overflowing, exquisite, poised, goblet, nectar, intrusively, reverts. Spell each aloud, then write it with its meaning.

Afterwards

This poem was a well-known song. If you can, find a recording and listen together.

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