Photo Source: Scanned image of cover of A revolutionary field trip: poems of Colonial America.
Summary: This is a wonderfully written and illustrated book for younger students learning about Colonial America. It takes students on a field trip with a teacher, Mrs. Brown. While reading this book, I was reminded of field trips I have actually taken to historical sites where the people are dressed in period clothing and are recreating the daily lives of people who lived during that period of time. Students who have never been on that type of field trip will miss that connection with previous events in their lives but the book will be meaningful to them nonetheless.
The book begins with a table of contents that is very helpful for a teacher looking for one or two poems about specific events in colonial life. The first poem, “The Revolutionary Mrs. Brown”, lays the foundation of the book; that is, the idea that the students in the book are going on a field trip with their teacher, Mrs. Brown. The remainder of the book does not appear to have any sort of special order to it, with the exception of the last poem, “History”. The poems are simply ones that delve into the daily lives of people living during the early part of our American history. “History” wraps it all up in the last line by stating in the words of a student “I’m ready to go back again!”.
A wonderful feature of the book, especially when thinking of this as a book that will support the curriculum, is the glossary at the back of the book. It contains over 75 definitions for words used in the book. The glossary will be an invaluable tool for students using this book. Many of the words are unknown to students. For example, “scuppernongs” is native grapes. Who knew?
Quality: All of the poems have a good rhythm to them that children will like. For the poems that rhyme, the rhymes seem natural, not forced. There is more than rhythm and rhyme in these poems. There are actual sounds that students will recognize and enjoy. Some examples include:
- “Clang, clang! the anvl rings.” from “Blacksmith Shop”
- “to drum rat-ta-tatting, up and down--“ from “The Revolutionary Mrs. Brown”
- “boom boom boom boom” from “Powwow”
Appeal: This book will appeal to teachers and students alike. Teachers can use it as a teaching tool and children will enjoy the poems that take them on a mini adventure. With the help of the glossary for unfamiliar words such as “pickadill” and “flummery”, the language of the poems will be understood by children. The meanings of words children are unfamiliar with can be decoded by focusing on the accompanying illustrations as well. An example is found in “Ann at the churn”. Most children will not know what it means to churn butter. The illustrations showing the children churning the butter will be sufficient to give students the information they need to truly understand the poem.
The poems will especially enhance the knowledge of the students. For example, the students will learn from reading “Signing the Declaration” that writing with quills was difficult. They will learn from “Searing Poor George” and “Sarah Spins” that Colonial people had to get the wool from sheep and spin it into yarn in order to have yarn to make garments. All of the poems in the book provide some information about Colonial life that children can learn from.
Use: When reading this book, I littered the pages with sticky notes and suggestions of ways teachers can use this book. My first sticky note was placed on the poem “Wooden Horse”. In this poem there is a line where Mrs. Brown says “I wonder what this horse has seen”. The children then respond with a few ideas. I can just envision a teacher bringing in a toy horse of some kind into the classroom at the end of a unit on Colonial times and asking students to pretend this horse was a toy during that time period and asking students to write a paper on what they think this toy horse has seen.
Other examples of ways teachers can use this book:
- Using “Blacksmith Shop” to introduce vocabulary words like anvil, blacksmith, forge, bellows and poker.
- Combining “Corn Planting” with other Native American poetry or pulling it from this book as a stand alone poem to use during a unit on Native Americans. It could also be used with a unit on spring planting.
- “Muster Drum” with its strong sound of the drums going “Rat a tat tat RAT TAT” simply screams out for a choral reading while “Dream Catcher” screams out for an art project - dream catchers, of course.
- “James Eats Chomp” would be a wonderful poem to use to finish up a unit on Colonial American life. The teacher can bring it various foods mentioned in the poem such as snickerdoodles, hush puppies, scuppernongs (grapes), and pemmican (jerky).
Overall, I think this is a wonderful book. I don’t have it in my library but hope to add it soon.
References:
Katz, Susan. 2004. A revolutionary field trip: poems of Colonial America. Ill. R. W. Alley. New York: Simon Schuster. ISBN: 0-689-84004-7.
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