(Half a) Story Hour - Episode 5
Episode 5, “The Secret Garden: We Finish Reading Chapter Two and Read ALL of Chapter Three!”
In this episode, we finish Chapter Two of The Secret Garden and then read Chapter Three. Mary and Mrs. Medlock’s train ride from London ends with their arrival at Thwaite Station, but their rainy journey continues by horse-drawn carriage across Missel Moor… at long last, they arrive at Mary’s new home: the mysterious Misselthwaite Manor.
Tough stuff in this episode: loneliness, death
⭐️ Bonus ⭐️
Follow along here: The Secret Garden at Project Gutenberg Online
(Inter)active reading suggestion: Visualise!
For teachers: Students can do a good old “Draw What You Saw” – on a piece of paper, draw anything that you see in your mind’s eye during today’s reading (stick figures are fine!)… or describe other sense impressions: what you hear, touch, taste or smell in your imagination. ✏️🗒️🎨
Musical interlude: “Kangaroos” from Le Carnaval des animaux by Camille Saint-Saëns
Other Stuff…
Our next illustration by Ernest H. Shepard, from Chapter Three: Mrs. Medlock, Mary, and the station-master at Thwaite Station.
Does Mrs. Medlock look anything like you had imagined? 😊 (Remember, your picture of her is just as real as the artist’s!)
Check out this Moor Plants guide from the Moors for the Future partnership in Britain - you’ll find heather and gorse in there, though not Scotch broom (maybe because it’s invasive in some areas of the UK?).*
Plus, check out this snazzy set of “Bogtastic Trump Cards!”
*There’s also a LOT of moss. Like… a LOT.
Easter 🪺: Can you hear the piano player(s) using the foot pedals under the piano(s) at the end of “Kangaroos?” The piano’s full name is the pianoforte, which means the “softloud” in Italian, because it can be played both softly and very loudly… thanks in part to those pedals! 🎹