Title:	The Sign of the Beaver
Author:	Elizabeth George Speare
Award:	Newbery Honor Book, 1984
Grade:	5-8
Topics:	Survival, Courage, Fear, Friendship, Pride, Initiation, Penobscot Indians, Homesteading, Maine

Twelve-year-old Matt Hallowell and his father build a log cabin in the Maine territory in 1768. While his father returns to fetch Matt's mother and sister, Matt must survive for months on his own. As brave as he is, Matt is not prepared for an attack of swarming bees and is surprised when he is rescued by Chief Saknis, a Penobscot Indian, and his grandson, Attean. The boys come to know each other as Attean learns to speak English from Matt, while Matt learns to become a skilled hunter from Attean. When it's time for the tribe to move north to new hunting ground, Saknis offers to adopt Matt and take him north with the tribe. Though many months have passed, there is no sign of Matt's family. Matt would be proud to be Attean's brother, but he also knows he must wait for his own family.

Elizabeth George Speare (1908-1994) is an interesting author. Read one of her other Newbery award books: The Bronze Bow or The Witch of Blackbird Pond. Students that like The Sign of the Beaver will probably enjoy books by Jean Craighead George, Sally M. Keehn, Scott O'Dell and Gary Paulsen.

Publisher's Book Site

http://www.bdd.com/teachers/beav.html

Elizabeth George Speare

http://www.bdd.com/teachers/spea.html

Explore some teacher and student produced web pages.

Fourth Grade Class

http://www2.kpbsd.k12.ak.us/schools/seward.elem/signofbeaver.html

Sign of the Beaver Lesson Plans

http://www.cvu.cssd.k12.vt.us/wcswww/lighth/beaver.htm

Signs in Speare's The Sign of the Beaver

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/spring95/Mosley.html

Walter Hays Elementary School

http://www.pausd.palo-alto.ca.us/hays/Sabbag/s1_signhome.html

 

Friendship. Think about how Matt and Attean are similar and how they are different. Discuss how these similarities and differences affected their growing friendship. Choose one of your friends. How are you like and different from this person?

 

Time. How did Saknis know it was time to move the tribe? How did Matt keep track of time? Create a poster showing different time keeping devices that people have used through history.

 

A Walk through Time

http://physics.nist.gov/GenInt/Time/time.html

 

Seasons. Find the Penobscot River in Maine and discuss the reasons the Penobscot Indians moved with the seasons. Show this movement on a map. Read Penobscot stories. Explore other Indian tribes of New England.

 

The Penobscots Indians

http://www.indians.org/welker/penobsco.htm

The Legend of the Bear Family

http://www.indians.org/welker/bearfami.htm

 

Bee Stings. Look up treatments for bees stings. Discuss how medical treatments differ now from when Matt was attacked in 1768. What medical treatments are the same? How do Native Americans use plants as medicine?

 

Natural Relief From Insect Bites

http://www.life.ca/nl/43/insects.html

Lanacane Itch Information Center

http://www.lanacane.com/insects.html

First Aid from The Police Handbook

http://www.ou.edu/oupd/perhonb.htm

 

Diaries. Write an entry in Matt's diary that you think he might have written on the day that Attean and his family leave for their winter hunting ground.

 

Survivors. Read about other survivors such as Robinson Crusoe. What skills do you need to survive in the wilderness? Build a miniature log cabin.

 

Log Cabins

http://family.disney.com/Categories/Activities/

Features/family_0101_01/famf/famf010101_

famflogcabin/famf010101_famflogcabin.html