The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Sec. 145 · Part 1: Part First
42. Hiawatha's Sailing
Goal: Your child can tell how Hiawatha built his birch canoe and what each tree gave.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- Paper and pencil (a notebook kept just for this book works well)
What's in the book
Section 145 is a long passage from Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha" in which Hiawatha asks the birch, cedar, tamarack, fir and hedgehog for their gifts and builds a birch-bark canoe. Questions ask what each tree gives; the last eleven lines are to be learned by heart.
The lesson, step by step
Set the scene
SayIn this part of the poem, Hiawatha builds a canoe. He asks each tree in the forest for something, and each one gives.
The "hedgehog" in the poem is the animal we call a porcupine.
Read the passage
Read it aloud together, taking turns by stanza. Enjoy the repeating pattern.
Give me of your bark, O Birch tree!
Of your yellow bark, O Birch tree!
Talk it over
Ask the book's questions:
- What does each tree give for the building of the canoe?
- What virtue (good quality) passes into the canoe from the birch? from the other trees?
Tell it in order
Your child tells how the canoe was built, step by step, using their fingers to count: bark, then the frame, then binding, then sealing, then decoration.
Write a short paragraph
Your child writes 5 or 6 sentences: "How Hiawatha Built His Canoe", in order.
Check it gently
Is the order right? Does each sentence start with a capital? Fix one thing.
Start learning the ending
Begin learning the last eleven lines, starting:
Thus the birch canoe was builded
What a good result looks like
Example (written for this guide, not from the book):
How Hiawatha Built His Canoe
First Hiawatha stripped the yellow bark from the birch tree. Then he cut cedar boughs and bent them into a frame. He sewed the bark together with the tough roots of the larch. He sealed the seams with the fir tree's balsam. Last of all he decorated the canoe with colored porcupine quills.
Answers to the book's problems
Birch: its bark, for the covering (lightness). Cedar: its boughs, for the framework (toughness). Tamarack (larch): its fibrous roots, to sew the bark and bind it (supple sinew). Fir: its balsam and resin, to seal the seams so water cannot enter. Hedgehog (porcupine): its quills, dyed and worked in for a girdle, a necklace and two stars. The last lines name the virtues: the lightness of the birch, the toughness of the cedar, the larch's supple sinew.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.