A Guide For Using Farmer Boy In The Classroom

Teaching literature unit based on the popular children's story, Little house on the prairie.

Back in the 1830s, who was a young blacksmith from Vermont, about to make his mark on American history? John Deere, that’s who! Who moved to Illinois, where farmers were struggling to plow through the thick, rich soil they called gumbo? Who tinkered and tweaked and tested until he invented a steel plow that sliced into the prairie easy as you please? Long before the first tractor, who changed farming forever? John Deere, that’s who! Beautiful illustrations—including spectacular landscapes—reflect the time period and bring John Deere's remarkable story to life.

Almanzo Wilder is almost nine years old, and is the youngest of four children. He's a farmer boy, living and working on his family's large farm in northern part of the state of New York. He goes to school in a one-room schoolhouse when school is in session, but when there's work to be done - and there almost always is on the Wilder farm - Almanzo does his part to help his family make a living. Each season has its own special chores on the farm. In the winter the Wilder family hauls wood and cuts ice from the river. Spring is the time for planting and tending to the crops. Summer is time for picking berries and fishing and a trip to town on Independence Day. Harvest time brings lots of hard work, but it also means a trip to the County Fair. Then it's time to prepare for winter all over again. Almanzo is old enough to feed and milk the cows and to help with the planting and harvesting. He even has a pair of young oxen he is teaching to obey commands; but he isn't old enough to care for the young horses. Although the temptation to go in by them and handle them is great, Almanzo obeys his father and leaves them alone. Throughout the year the Wilder family works hard, and Almanzo seems to eat as much as he works! As the older children leave for school and begin to think about their futures, Almanzo knows what kind of future he wants. He wants to be a farmer for the rest of his life, and dreams of the day he will have a colt of his own to train. Interactive CD-rom.

Eager young readers can now discover and experience Laura Ingalls Wilder's books like never before. Author Annette Whipple encourages children to engage in pioneer activities while thinking deeper about the Ingalls and Wilder families as portrayed in the nine Little House books. The Laura Ingalls Wilder Companion provides brief introductions to each Little House book, chapter-by-chapter story guides, and "Fact or Fiction" sidebars, plus 75 activities, crafts, and recipes that encourage kids to "Live Like Laura" using easy-to-find supplies. Thoughtful questions help the reader develop appreciation and understanding of Wilder's stories. Every aspiring adventurer will enjoy this walk alongside Laura from the big woods to the golden years.

"Little House on the Prairie" is an autobiographical children's novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder, published in 1935] It was the third novel published in the Little House series, continuing the story of the first, Little House in the Big Woods (1932), but not directly related to the second, Farmer Boy (1933). It chronicles the months the Ingalls spent on the Kansas prairie around the town of Independence.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Little House on the Prairie" by Laura Ingalls Wilder. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.