Across Five Aprils Unit Study

Chapter by chapter activities to accompany the Civil War story by Irene Hunt.

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Chapter by Chapter Activities

Our activities focus on the important points of this Civil War story by Irene Hunt. Students will:

• Answer pointed reader comprehensive questions to highlight important points.
• Track the changes in Jethro's responsibilities as the war continues.
• Analyze the dilemmas and decisions made by different characters in each chapter.
• Investigate the themes, symbols, imagery, and other literary elements.
• Contemplate discussion questions.

Look below for additional activities related to:

• Vocabulary
• Timeline of Battles (correlated to Across Five Aprils chapters)
• Civil War map (correlated to Across Five Aprils chapters)
• Themes, symbols, genre

Vocabulary

Our vocabulary lists for Across Five Aprils lists the words and their definitions in the order they appear in the text. Our chapter by chapter lists make it easy for students to follow along. Our handy vocabulary lists make great bookmarks as well as study guides.

Geography

It's always easier to understand the story if you can visualize the geography. Our Across Five April's map locates the battles, rivers, and other events mentioned in the unit study.

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Timeline

Across Five Aprils Timeline lists the major battles and key events correlated to the chapters of the book. Students add the name of the battle.

The timeline includes the major battles as Jethro reads about them:

• Name and alternative names
• Date
• Northern or Southern victory
• Significance of the battle

Other events included in the timeline include:

• Emancipation Proclamation
• Appottamox Courthouse
• Assassination of Lincoln

Themes, Symbols, and Genre

Explore the themes, symbols, and genre for Across Five Aprils. As one April follows another, Jethro marks the passage of time and changes for himself, his family, and his nation. Students evaluate the decisions, the responsibilities, and the changes that occur for Jethro.

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Chapter One Activities

In the first chapter our activities will allow students to do the following:

• Identify the main character and setting.
• Examine the dialect.
• Analyze the values of Ellen Creighton.
• Imagery in Writing
• Match 10 other names of characters to their relationship with Jethro and Ellen.

Character Analysis:

What do these quotes tell you about Jethro's understanding?

Adults were always troubled. There were chinch bugs and grasshoppers, months of drought, elections, slavery, secession, talk of war - the adult world of trouble, though was not real enough to dim the goodness of an April morning.

...he was one with Tom and Eb when they hoped war would come soon. War meant loud brass music and shining horses ridden by men wearing uniforms finer than any suit in the stores at Newton; it meant men riding like kings, looking neither to the right nor the left, while less men in perfect lines strode along with guns across their shoulders, their heads held high like horses with short reins.

Social Issues: The Burdow Clan

We are introduced to the entire Burdow family and their shadowy history before settling in this community and the impact of their son’s actions on Jethro’s family. The author states:

The shot that Travis Burdow fired over Rob Nelson’s team that night was a shot fired at a society that had kicked a boy from childhood on because he bore his grandfather’s name.

Discuss the Burdows, how they were treated by their community, and the impact it had.

Decisions

This is a story about decisions. One of the first decisions discussed is not Jethro's decisions but the presidents. Ellen describes President Lincoln’s decision like this:

He’s like a man standin’ where two road meets, Jeth, and one road is as dark and fearsome as the other; there ain’t a choice between the two, and yet a choice has to be made.

Contrast the two choices the president had, according to Ellen. Look at the chapter-by-chapter-summary for the other chapters in Across Five Aprils.

Buy Across Five Aprils Unit Study

Student Guide AND Teacher's Answer Key Included
$2.99 Download - 91 pages

Across Five Aprils

Lesson plans for the Civil War novel by Irene Hunt