Guided Reading Level Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel

If you've stumbled here from Pinterest, or some other site … welcome! While each of these books/lessons can stand alone, they are too a function of a yr-long series that we have taught at our homeschool co-op. Each lesson builds in function on the one earlier. Some stories also have similar themes with the books that go before/after them. If you are interested in more data, or to see the complete booklist, check out our principal page, More FIAR – Inspired Literature-Based Lesson Plans, peculiarly for homeschool and homeschool co-ops. Thanks for looking effectually, and welcome to the site!

Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel

past Virginia Lee Burton

Things I Demand:

• Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel volume
• Mike Mulligan handwriting sheet
• Map of the World, especially showing N and South America, and the Panama Canal
• Laptop or Phone if yous wish to show videos

Review:
Language Lesson Review: Have a moment to review the final couple classes. Find out if anyone can tell you something new they learned from Little Nino's Pizzeria, or concluding weeks book, Storm in the Dark.
     Who can name a few onomatopoeia words?


Geography Review:
     Where did Pizza originate?
     Where did last weeks Storm take place?

(we merely so happened to have a storm going on when nosotros did this book. If possible, try to incorporate some tempest that has gone on near you and the geography effectually you.)

Introduce the Book (and the time period)

This story takes place in modest town America, probably nearly 100 years agone, just every bit the "steam age" was coming to an end. Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel had been faithfully doing their task for a long time. They had even done actually big things (similar dig the Panama Canal) But now electricity and gasoline are beginning to power trucks and trains. These one-time steam powered engines are no longer needed. What are they going to practice? How would you lot feel?

Take the opportunity to explain what the Panama Culvert is. This is a great time to pull out the map and review the seven continents, and particularly draw attention to North and South America. This is the time catamenia where most people are traveling large distances by boat. And so if you want to get around the Americas, or even if you wanted to get from the East Coast of the U.s.a. to the West Coast (recall California Gold Blitz), some people were still taking boats all the way effectually the lesser of South America. When the Panama Canal was dug, this was a HUGE thing that impacted people everywhere.

Steam Shovels as well were used greatly across the world in the coal industry. Their power to dig down the side of a mount made the way for trains to travel through to the mountains and coal to be dug and transported much easier.

Here is a great video of some of the original footage of the Steam Shovels digging the Panama Canal. I constitute it interesting to notice that the original steam shovels that dug the Panama Canal (and in the The states) were mostly made by a visitor chosen, Marion. Perhaps the inspiration of the name Mary Anne in this book?

And another video of a steam shovel in general. If y'all cull to show these, be sure to indicate out that it is much slower than today'southward excavators and other diggers.

Read the Story

As you read the story, see if the course tin can pick out things that show us this book was taking place almost 100 years ago. What types of things to do y'all see that aren't effectually anymore? (milk truck, wagons, ladies in dresses and hats, men in overhauls, sometime cars, human reading a newspaper, smoking of pipes, etc).

Afterwards the Story

What were some nifty qualities of Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne?
Skilful worker
Diligent
Flexible / Adaptable

Sometimes in life, things aren't the style we expect them to exist. Sometimes yous're with your family and they say, "we're going out for ice cream" and and then your sis gets sick and all of a sudden y'all can't. Has anyone had anything like that happen to them? What happens when plans alter? Are you able to be flexible? It'southward skilful to be flexible. What if Mike Mulligan just stayed upset because they weren't using his steam shovel anymore? What if he just got mad at anybody when he got stuck in the cellar? Considering he was able to exist flexible, he stayed happy and was able to savor life more.

Language Arts Activity – Parts of a Story

Parts of a Story.
I thought my class was a tiny bit young to learn about the parts of a story, as many of them still can't compose a complete sentence. Still, this is a perfect story for introducing the parts of a story. It has a very easily identifiable story components. They don't accept to accept this concept mastered, remember the bespeak is a lite introducing of writing a story.

Hash out that while every story is different, nigh stories usually include these same parts. Afterwards you introduce the parts of the story (or as you are introducing them), enquire the course if they can figure out the respective part in Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel.

Characters – who is in the story?
(Mike Mulligan, Mary Anne, Henry B. Swap, Little Boy, Townspeople, etc)
Setting – where the story takes place
(Popperville, a fictitious small town in America, almost 100 years ago)
Conflict – Uh-oH, there is a problem
(Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel don't seem to be needed anymore, secondary problem, he
boasted that he was faster than 100 men)
Climax – What'due south going to happen?!?!?! This is very exciting, I'thousand on the edge of my seat
(He'southward digging and the whole town is watching – can he do it?!?)
Resolution  – Ahh! It worked! I tin relax now …
(They did! And, not simply dug the hole faster than 100 men, but as well filled a new need of a boiler for the boondocks hall)

(if y'all wanted to intermission it downward further, in that location is a secondary mini conflict / climax / resolution when he gets stuck in the hole he dug, but lets go on it elementary for k-1st graders)

Because most of our course is not writing well yet, I opted to have them use their ain drawings and these cut-outs to paste them in the sail beneath.

Handwriting Canvass

Use this canvas for additional handwriting practice, and a real-life Bible poetry application from the story.

That's it for this week! To meet what nosotros've done so far in our Homeschool Co-op's Literature Series this year, click hither. Each lesson  builds on the one earlier and seeks to cover basic geography inside the book, historical contexts, a handwriting sail and a language arts lesson, as it applies to the book.

Or, you tin can check out the completeLearning the ABC's through Literature Series, which is a similar serial that we did with this aforementioned group of kiddos a year earlier. Both of these series of books have been inspired past the Five in a Row curriculum, with many of the books beingness the same. The ideas, implementation of it for a co-op, and printables are all my ain.

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Source: https://www.chroniclesofmomia.com/mike-mulligan-and-steam-shovel/

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