As part of Calvert's Third Grade plan, Little Son read the book Smiling Hill Farm, by Miriam E. Mason. This is a book that has been read and enjoyed by generations of Calvert third graders. It is a very sweet chapter book tracing the history of the Wayne family from the time when they settled in Indiana, and everything that happened on and around their property through several generations. It also described how their lifestyles changed over more than 100 years, beginning with carving out their lives from a wilderness setting, and up through much of the 20th century. It is written in a very sweet, simple and innocent narrative style with plenty of dialogue, much of it from the point of view of the children in the family. I recommend it to any child who wants to learn about American history in a warm and interesting way.



One of the assignments was to create puppets of many of the characters from the book. There were so many characters! So Little Son came up with his own way of depicting the myriad characters of this book. Here are some of the results:


Today, as part of his lesson plan, he is to act out select scenes from the book with his puppets. Should be cute!