Swiss Family Robinson Unit – Chapter 2

Chapter Two, entitled The New Country, continues the unit study of the Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss

For a complete copy of The Swiss Family Robinson online, check out http://www.ccel.org/w/wyss/swiss/swiss.html.

Suggested Vocabulary:

capering
inaccessible
cascade
excursion
precipitous
promontory
strategem
wine
ford
butter
sailcloth
ballast
maize
damask


Suggested Questions:

1. What did the family have for breakfast the first day on the island?

2. What did father insist on searching for any sailors that may have been washed ashore when those same sailors had abandoned them in the storm?

3. How did father use the monkeys to get coconuts?

4. What unusual bird did the family have for their dinner?

5. The second breakfast was much less sumptuous than the previous dinner. Ernest brought something back from the shore. What was it?

6. What did father and Fritz chose to bring back from the ship?

7. How did father and Fritz get the animals from the ship to the shore?



Suggested Activities:

1. Try pitching a tent. If you don’t have a tent at home, try making your own from a rope and blanket.

2. Learn about coconuts. You may even want to try some coconut milk or make a recipe that calls for coconut.

3. Learn about sugarcane. How is it used? How is it processed? Where in the world does it grow?

4. List all the animals in the second chapter. Learn about these animals and what geographic regions these animals would live in. Do they live in any of the same regions where you could find coconuts and sugar cane?



Online Lessons:

http://www.suhsd.k12.ca.us/mvm/netlinks/1swiss/1swiss.html
Island Survival
http://www.penguinreaders.com/downloads/0582426642.pdf
Teach With Movies


Sites You May Find A Good Resource:

Swiss Family Robinson Fan Site

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