Puddle Jumping: TOS Review - Memoria Press Literature Guide Sets

~*~ I was thrilled to get a chance to review the Third Grade Literature Guide Set from Memoria Press. This set came with a student study workbook and teacher guide for four great pieces of literature for those in the Third Grade level.

What is the Memoria Press Literature Guide Set?

Memoria Press is known for their Classical Education style in curriculum. Their literature studies focuses on challenging the student to compare, contrast, and really think rather than merely reading for pleasure and not fully absorbing what is behind the words. The workbook study guide sets emphasizes comprehension, vocabulary, spelling, and acquiring composition skills, The Memoria Press Third Grade Literature Guide Set included workbooks and teacher guides for these popular children's classics:

Farmer Boy
Charlotte's Web
Mr. Popper's Penguins
A Bear Called Paddington.

Memoria Press also recommends purchasing The Moffats for additional literature study in the Third Grade level.

The actual reading book was not included in the set I received but are also available for purchase from Memoria Press if you don't already have them in your home personal book library and want to order them along with your literature guide set. I discovered that they were also easy to find at the library, but I had most of them already. Each book intended to take approximately 6-7 weeks to complete.

How Did We Use It?

I sat down with my 9-year-old who is technically in the third grade though her birthday is borderline, so she has always been on the brink between grades. We started with A Bear Called Paddington. We even brought out my stuffed Paddington Bear from the early 80's to help us bring the story to life.

Like the other books in the literature set follow along with the chapters in each book, this study workbook is broken down into 8 chapters and an Appendix, which includes a map of London that is used to complete activities throughout the workbook and a recipe for orange marmalade.

In the other books, the Appendix offers other interesting activities, such as a diagram of a spider in Charlotte's Web, or farm machinery and clothing diagrams from the 1800's as well as excerpts about Laura Ingalls Wilder in Farmer Boy.

The Teacher's Guides correspond with the Student's Workbooks, providing answers to the workbook questions. There are also 2 quizzes and a final test with their corresponding Answer Keys included.

Each of the other study guides vary slightly, but all of them except for Mr. Popper's Penguins includes quizzes and a final test. Mr. Popper's Penguins' guide instead offers Honors Activities.

What Did We Think?

We enjoyed the study guides as they asked questions to gain greater insight into the story. I especially appreciated the vocabulary words sections, because some of the words were those we probably wouldn't otherwise encounter outside of the story. My daughter especially loved the activities in each lesson. Some of the activities had her draw or write something right there in the workbook, while other activities required use of an Atlas, the kitchen for making orange marmalade or using additional sheets of paper. Most of the materials were items we already had around the house. I really love how the guides incorporate other subjects into the literature learning.