Paddle to the Sea

We started reading Paddle to the Sea last week.  Here is our plan to follow along with reading book:

• Retrace the route by following satellite images of the region. Learn what times of the year and what portions of the journey would be affected by ice cover.
• Compare the water temperature at different locations mentioned in the book for July and January.
• Discuss how Paddle-to-the-Sea's journey corresponds to that of water flowing through a watershed, which is an area of land that contributes water to a particular water body, like the Great Lakes or the Atlantic Ocean. It took four years for Paddle to travel through the Great Lakes, but it takes water much longer.
• Document Paddle's journey on a timeline with events marked off by different seasons.
• Illustrate his adventures.
• Find a map of your community.
• Find a stream that flows through our town, trace the stream as it merges with other streams to become a river, and then to the ocean.
• Learn about Salmon and Eels:
• Salmon and eels spend part of their lives in rivers and part in the ocean. Track their migration and determine the distance each travels. Discuss how dams built for hydroelectric power can effect their migration routes.
• How big are they?
• Compare water surface areas of the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Maine. Use satellite images of the same scale to compare. Discuss the effect the Great Lakes have on local weather patterns and how this compares to the effect of the ocean on coastal weather patterns.
• Find our own Northwest Passage.
• Using an atlas of the United States and Canada, see how far across the continent we can travel over water routes. Determine what portion of the trip would be over land?
• Discuss how the history of the exploration of our continent would have been different if Champlain and Lewis and Clark had had satellite images to guide them.

Materials
Paddle-to-the-Sea, a map of North America, a state or community map, timeline of the journey, pencils, paper

Here are our specific plans for the next three weeks:
Vocabulary list and Comprehension Questions.
(Ch. 1-3)

• cackle
• hollow
• whittling
• rudder
• ballast
• Nipigon
• crept
• swooped
• wolverine
• weasel
• arbutus
• plunge
• crest

1. How did Paddle-to-the-Sea come to be?
2. Why the returning geese are significant to the boy.
3. Start a list of all the animals and people Paddle encounters
4. Find out what the tracks of the animals look like that visited Paddle.


 



Emily's Track





Ashley's Track





Jake's Track

5. Go on a nature walk to look for animal tracks and identify them.
6. Explain the Indian boy's theory about the water in Nipigon country.
7. What did the boy do that helped the canoe float upright in rough water?
8. How do you think the boy felt when Paddle set off on his journey?
9. Find and color Canada and Nipigon Lake, draw mountains, and draw Paddle to the Sea on our map.