Paul Revere’s Ride

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

Paul Revere’s Ride

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Things I Need:
Paul Revere’s Ride Book
Paul Revere’s Ride Handwriting Sheet
Simple Poetry Worksheet
Paul Revere’s Ride Handwriting Sheet
Map of the United States, showing 13 colonies
Map of the Massachusetts
Lanterns / Candles / Matches
Pencils
*Popcorn – If you’re using this as a final class, like we did, and want something fun to go along with the class, pop some popcorn and let them watch Liberty Kids’ “Midnight Ride”

Preview Paul Revere’s Ride:

So – I wasn’t able to find this specific book on YouTube. The Poem, however, is – in a variety of styles and recordings. The one below stood out among the rest. The illustrations are excellent (not sure where they are from), the music and reading is clear, and the whole thing is very well done, and makes it easy for young readers to understand what’s going on, even with the larger vocabulary.

If you have extra time, and want to show your class a wonderful, history via Cartoon, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Liberty Kids – and they did a great job on this episode. I like this one because it has very limited adds.

 

Review

If you’re following along with our Learning through Literature Homeschool Co-op Curriculum, this is the last week. Our local co-op finished the last week of April. Paul Revere’s Ride happened on April 18th, 1775 – so the story was timely and relateable. I also thought it was great to end the year with something a little different.  Longfellow’s famous poem, and the timeliness of it, worked out perfectly. We also concluded our 1st semester with Robert Frost’s famous poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, so it was good to go back to Poetry again.

There is no need to do much of a review – except two things may be helpful to remember together. Whether you work them in here, or when you are teaching the lesson doesn’t matter – just refresh the class on these two things:

  • Poetry – Do they remember Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening? Remind the class that poetry can rhyme, but doesn’t have to. It sometimes uses the same sound in a row (alliteration). It sometimes has the same number of sylables, or is read with a certain rhythm.
  • What is an Adjective? Do they remember making the Lion’s Paws while studying Andy and the Lion by James Daughterty? How did they describe the Lion’s Paws? Remind them that an adjective is a desriptive word.

 

Introduce the Story

Now, take out a map of the United States. If you have a map showing only Colonial America, and the 13 Colonies, this would be helpful. If your current state was part of the 13, find it on the map together. Otherwise, point out Massachusetts and discuss:
  • Was America always a counry? (Yes, people lived here before (the Native Americans), but was America as we know it today a country?) – Not until 1776.
  • The 13 Colonies were trying to get their Independence. They didn’t want to be under British rule, and taxed for things they didn’t have a say in.
  • America was beginning to come together to fight the British. The British were coming to attack America. Word was spreading around that they were going to come attack the amory where the guns where, and to arrest their leaders. (Whether this was all true or not is uncertain).
  • So Paul Revere and some others came up with a secret code

Discuss “Codes”

This was so fun, and the class really enjoyed this. I took out lanterns as a prop, and we talked about the famous line, “one if by land, two if by sea, and I on the opposite shore shall be.” The class said this line together a few times, which was helpful to reference throughout the story.

Then, we discussed codes.

  • Morris Code (a series of beeps, long and short that communicated messages),
  • SOS (taken from Morris Code, three long, three short, three long (lights or sounds) to signal help
  • Smoke Signals (you may light a fire if you were lost on an island or on a mountain to alert someone you were there)
  • the Ichthus / “Jesus Fish” symbol (the top part was made to say “Christians are meeting here or Christian’s nearby”, another would come by and make the bottom part to show they had received the message)
Finally, we emphasized that this was a code to communicate – so that the man standing on the other short would know – which way to go.

Read the Story

Remind the class that this is a poem, and that if you listen closely, you can hear the cadence, or rhythm, almost like hoof beats, as he speeds from town to town sounding the warning.
As we read through, we discussed,
  • The Old North Church – why would you shine the lights from up here (high up, visible)
  • The vocabulary. The vocab is definitely above this age level, but if you read it slowly and deliberately, the pictures are significant and they will still understand what is going on.
  • The route. We discussed it was not only Paul Revere who made this journey. He actually started out with William Dawes, going opposite routes in case someone got caught. They also met up towards the end with Dr. Samuel Prescott. It was these two, not Paul Revere, who finished the course after he was stopped (they got away). They travelled 18 miles, on horseback, through the night, stopping at many homes along the way. They knew who was friend and foe, and especially knew the houses to avoid (those who supported England)
  • Below is a picture of the route from the Paul Revere House. (This also has some great additional historical information, if you’re interested)
Map and More Details Found Here:

Class Activity: Poetry Practice

We discussed how you don’t need to be a famous poet to write poetry. These two poems, described below, make an excellent place to start. We showed a simplified Diamante Poem on the board, and an Acrostic Poem on the board.
The Diamante Poems are especially fun because they actually really sound neat. They also built on our concept of Adjective / Descriptive words that we had introduced a when we did Andy and the Lion by James Daughterty. 
 
If you’ve never seen one of these before, this is a simplifed version for smaller kiddos. (There is a slightly more complex version that you could use for olders, but our class is barely writing, so this worked well for us).  Here’s how it works:
 
Your Name
Adjective that Describes You ,  Another Adjective that Describes You
Verb that ends with ING, Verb that ends with ING, Verb that ends with ING,
Adjective that Describes You ,  Another Adjective that Describes You
Your Name
 
example: 
 
Teacher
Fun, Happy
Singing, Teaching, Hugging
Joyful, Friendly
Teacher
 
Of course you can fill in other words, but since some of my class doesn’t know how to write well yet – something where they could write there name was a fun place to start. Also, everyone likes to write about themselves. 🙂  For the kiddos that didn’t know how to write well, we worked with them to help them spell or thing of adjectives and verbs to describe themselves. 
 
You’ve probably done an Accrostic Poem waaaaaay long ago … but if you need a refresher, it goes something like this:
 
T   –  Terrific
E  –  Enjoy’s her class
A – Always
C – Calls your name
H – Happy
E  – Everyday
R  –  Role Model
 
We used this great printable below. If you only have time to do one (we only did), I personally think the Diamante is more fun, but pick whatever one works best for your class.
Click here for printable version

 

Handwriting & Bible Memory:

“Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith. Be men of courage, be strong” 1 Corinthians 16:13. This lesson was a great time to encourage that class to be courageous, do hard things, and stand up for what’s right.
Take a moment to share this with the class, and give practical,
real life examples that they can relate to when sharing.
(Do they remember anyone in the Bible who had to be courageous? Do you think Paul Revere and his friends were tired when they traveled through the night? But did they give up? No, they pressed on, even when tired and weary, for the sake of others.
Take a moment to remind everyone “where do we start our letters.” (at the top)
They complete the handwriting verse, and receit the verse together as a class several times.
Click here for printable version

Extras

If you have extra time, pop some popcorn, and watch the Liberty Kids Episode, Midnight Ride to finish the class.
 
That’s it for this week! To see what we’ve done so far in our Homeschool Co-op’s Literature Series this year, click here. Each lesson  builds on the one before and seeks to cover basic geography within the book, historical contexts, a handwriting sheet and a language arts lesson, as it applies to the book. 

Or, you can check out the complete Learning the ABC’s through Literature Series, which is a similar series that we did with this same group of kiddos a year earlier. Both of these series of books have been inspired by the Five in a Row curriculum, with many of the books being the same. The ideas, implementation of it for a co-op, and printables are all my own, unless otherwise indicated. 
 

Also – I would love to hear from you! If you have feed back, suggestions, or questions … or if you have used this in some way … please, share a picture, post a note, or just say hi.  Especially if you’re using this for a co-op … it’s great to get ideas and share them around to help each other! 

 
Thanks for reading!