Swiss Family Robinson Unit:
Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen entitled We Start a Pigeon Post, 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.
I’m adding a note here that will be true of all of the parts of this unit study. There are several versions of The Swiss Family Robinson. This started back to its original publication some 200 years ago when it was written originally in German. There are various translations and even alternate endings. The edition that I am using was published in 1968 by Classic Press, Inc. in Santa Rosa, California. Other editions may be different. There are several modern versions that have removed all references to prayer and God which are so prevalent a theme in the original work. You may use this unit as a guide, and if your edition of The Swiss Family Robinson is slightly different, simply adjust it to meet your needs.
Suggested Vocabulary:
clove
pemmican
sugar mill
hyena
tapir
swan
exquisite
millet
elephant
cacao
jaguar
hippopotamus
tea
Suggested Questions:
1. What animal did Fritz harpoon?
2. What were father’s reasons for being worried by the animal that Fritz harpooned?
3. What did father “value above a thousand such creatures”?
4. In many modern editions of The Swiss Family Robinson an important piece of the family’s behavior has been removed. -- [the family’s spirituality] -- In this chapter if you were to remove the mention of prayer and thanksgiving from the storm scene sequence, do you think that it would have the same emotional impact on the reader? Do you thin that the family’s spirituality plays a significant role in the development of the characters personalities? Would removing this spirituality from all parts of the story affect your perception of the characters in any way?
5. Why do you think the boys grew restless? What did they do to relieve their restlessness? Who all went?
6. What was the “pigeon post” that was mentioned in this chapter?
7. What was making the “hysterical sound of laughter” the boys heard? [Answer: hyena]
8. How did the boys deal with the monkeys that had destroyed one of the family’s outlying farmsteads?
9. Why did the boys ask their father to hurry and come to them?
10. What animal was it that had broken down the barrier and trampled everything?
11. How did father propose to keep the animals from returning and causing even more damage?
12. What was the “moist secret”?
Suggested Activities:
1. Draw a picture of what you think Fritz looked like once he was in the kayak and his “swimming costume” was inflated.
2. Learn about the life-cycle and habitat of the walrus.
3. Research the spice called clove. Where does it grow? How does it propagate? What is it used for? Etc.
4. Try and make pemmican. You may use the following recipes if you so wish:
http://www.melborponsti.com/first/first021.shtml
http://www.melborponsti.com/camping/camp0030.shtml
http://www.ediblewild.com/pemm.html
5. Research sugar mills and how they work.
6. Research the life-cycle and habitats of animals mentioned in this chapter.
7. Draw pictures of animals mentioned in this chapter.
8. If possible taste sugar cane and/or cane syrup. Compare the sweetness to one or several of the following: maple syrup, sorghum, molasses, processed sugar, hone, brown sugar, artificial sweetener.
9. Learn how chocolate is made.
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
