{"id":459026,"date":"2010-03-22T11:50:30","date_gmt":"2010-03-22T15:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/archives\/2498"},"modified":"2010-03-22T11:50:30","modified_gmt":"2010-03-22T15:50:30","slug":"teaching-geography-with-children%e2%80%99s-literature-a-river-ran-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/459026","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Geography with Children\u2019s Literature: A River Ran Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"river.JPG\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Introduction and Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

A River Ran Wild<\/a>, written and illustrated by Lynne Cherry, tells the story of the Nashua river in New England.\u00a0 Children opening the book will see a map of New England in the 1500’s on one side and another map of New England in the 1900’s focusing on the states of New Hampshire and Massachusetts which is where the Nashua flowed.\u00a0 The “Nash-a-way” got it’s name from the native American tribe Nashau who settled on it seven thousand years ago.\u00a0 Cherry points out that the Nash-a-way river and it’s surroundings gave the Nashua people everything they needed in life.\u00a0 “The Nashua people saw a rhythm in their lives and in the seasons.\u00a0 The river, land, and forest provided all that they needed.”\u00a0 In the early sixteen hundreds, the white settlers of New England began to settle by the river which they named the Nashua.\u00a0 They built sawmills that used the river’s current for power and dams to make millponds to store water.\u00a0 The white settlers cut down the forest and used the lumber to build houses and furniture.\u00a0 During the industrial revolution, the river was used for paper mills and other factories where all of the waste was dumped into the river.\u00a0 In a short amount of time, the river was clogged with pulp, dyes, chemicals, and plastics.\u00a0 The river smelled and all of it’s wildlife, and the wildlife that used it as a resource, “grew sick from this pollution.”\u00a0 In the end, a descendant of the Nashua people known as Oweana and Marion Stoddart formed a committee to stop polluting the Nashua river.\u00a0 In the 1960’s, they finally succeeded.\u00a0 Now the Nashua has been cleared of it’s pollution and the wildlife has returned to it.\u00a0 “We, too, have settled by this river.\u00a0 Pebbles shine up through clear water.”<\/p>\n

The illustrations in this book are beautiful and most of the pages with print have miniature illustrations of objects and historical events that were a part of people’s lives through time, such as clay pots, bows and arrows, and wooden bowls during the native American settlements through airplanes, automobiles and the Vietnam war in the late twentieth century.<\/p>\n

Curriculum Connections<\/strong><\/p>\n

The book opens with a map showing where the Nashua river is located. \u00a0 This book would be great for Kindergarten through second grade.\u00a0 The student would see the shape of the northeast part of the United States to include New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island (VA SOL 1.4 c) and will be able to locate land and water features. (VA SOL K.4 c)\u00a0 Students will also learn about how two different cultures of people affect their immediate surroundings.\u00a0 The Nashua community took only what they needed from the river and the surrounding environment for food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and recreation.\u00a0 The white settlers polluted the river thus limiting it as a natural resource.\u00a0 Through the effort of the community, people were able to bring life back to the river so it could be e resource again. (VA SOL 1.6 and 2.4 d)<\/p>\n

Additional Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n

Geology.com <\/a>is a website that contains maps and geography classroom activities as well as lesson plans for elementary school students.<\/p>\n

United States Geography, including Capitals, States, and Landscapes can be found at the Sheppard Software<\/a> website.\u00a0 This site has fun and free games children can play.<\/p>\n

K Bears<\/a> has a great site for world geography.\u00a0 An animated bear will take children on a tour of the world.<\/p>\n

General Information<\/strong><\/p>\n

Book: <\/strong>A River Ran Wild<\/a>
\nAuthor: <\/strong>Lynne Cherry<\/a>
\nIllustrator: <\/strong>Lynne Cherry
\nPublisher: <\/strong>Harcourt Brace & Company
\nPublication Date: <\/strong>1992
\nPages: <\/strong>30
\nGrade Range: <\/strong>K-2nd
\nISBN: <\/strong>0-15-200542-0<\/p>\n

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  Introduction and Summary A River Ran Wild, written and illustrated by Lynne Cherry, tells the story of the Nashua river in New England.\u00a0 Children opening the book will see a map of New England in the 1500’s on one side and another map of New England in the 1900’s focusing on the states of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4215,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-459026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4215"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459026\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}