Elementary

Cute-WolfRock
Wolf Rock, in Mansfield, CT is a perfect example of a glacial erratic resting on bedrock. Learning this word “erratic” leads to all sorts of questions.

In 2005 the SWI  completed a two-year project funded by the National Science Foundation (Grant No. 0331163) to create a teacher-written curriculum for public schools spanning grades K-8, but emphasizing grades 3-4. This curriculum is based on Stone Wall Secrets.  

 Link to:

Associated with this curriculum (though not part of it) are three additional resources:

  • Annotated Stone Wall Secrets: A Teacher’s Reference.  This is a one-stop enclopedia of background knowledge linked to the text of Stone Wall Secrets.
  • Teaching Kit:  These contain specimens of the stones encountered by its child protagonist, as well as other materials, notably a fictional letter and a photo of the author as a child sitting on a stone wall. Twenty of these are circulating in the schools throughout southern New England, though I have lost track of them.
  • Teachers Guide.  This is authored by geology-educator  Ruth Dieke, and sold separately by Tilburyhouse Publishers in Gardiner, ME.

 

M Cute CopperBarn
Mass of “pot metal” melted when a Revolutionary Era barn burned in southern Maine. It was one of many stories in the walls.