Down Down the Mountain and When I was Young in the Mountains

Title: Down Down the Mountain

Author/Illustrator: Ellis Credle

Copyright: 1934 by Thomas Nelson & sons, Copyright renewed 1961 by Ellis Credle

Summary: The Wisdom of granny sends Hetty and Hank on an adventure that reveals their industriousness and generosity.

Title: When I was Young in the Mountains

Author: Cynthia Rylant

Copyright 1982

Award: Caldecott Honor book

Summary: Reminiscing about mountain life brings back a feeling of contentment.

I thought both of these books are excellent stories about the Appalachian Mountain system. I couldn't decide which one to use for our curriculum, so I decided to use both. The kids enjoyed all the activities that went along with these books especially the field trips.

Social Studies-

We located the Appalachian Mountain Range on both the World Map and the United States Map. We placed our story disk on the Appalachian Mountains on the World Map. Lily and Aj did a worksheet and read a couple books about life in the Appalachian Mountain Range. We also went on a field trip to a general store so we could compare and contrast the way of life from the early 1900's and present day.

Field trip to a general store in Dennis, Ma.

Science (crops, cooking, turnips, animal science)-

In the story Down Down the Mountain Hetty and Hank gardened and planted turnips. This is way we wanted to learn all about turnips by investigating, doing a worksheet and drawing a picture of them. We also made a book about crops. Then we learned how to combine ingredients to make vegetable stew and corn muffins. (This yummy dinner was a typical dinner made by people who lived in the Appalachian Mountains) We also played a card game with animal picture cards.

Learning about Turnips-

Making Stew and Corn Muffins-(We ate the corn muffins with honey just like in the stories.)

Playing a matching game using animal cards-(The animals on the cards are found in Appalachia)

Books we made about different kinds of crops-

Language Arts(handwriting, onomatopoeia,similes, poetry)-

Both Lily and Aj copied a paragraph from the book Down Down The Mountain in their best handwriting. We also talked about what an onomatopoeia is and made up some of our own similes. I  also read two books of poetry about night, mountain life and a poem about a general store to the kids that went along with both stories.

Mathematics (money, counting, weights and measuring, word problems)-

In a general store their is a scale and you must purchase items using money. We learned how to way items on a digital scale. Lily and Aj also reviewed money by watching a movie, completing a worksheet and coloring in a book we got from the bank. Then Lily did a worksheet of word problems that related to the stories.


Weighing items using a digital scale-

Reviewing money and word problems-

Art (art and crafts, log cabins)-

In both books the characters lived in log cabins so we decided to make our own.We made our log cabin out of construction paper and recycled materials.

Step one-

Step two-

Rolling and gluing construction paper to make logs

Step three-

Gluing them on the milk carton

Step four-

Finished product and having fun playing with our log cabin

Field Trip (Blue Hills)-
We went to Blue Hills Trail side museum in Canton for a hike and to explore the wild life found in the New England Region.

Exploring the outside exhibits-

Indoor exhibits-

Taking a hike-