 | OH,
The Places
We'll Go!
An Internet Project |  |
About this project
Each day we go many places -
many ordinary, some extraordinary.
This project asks participants to take a look
at the places they go through new eyes,
and to share their thoughts
through images and poetry.
To learn more about this wonderful project,
see Marci McGowan's Oh, the Places You'll Go.
Our Special Place
Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie, is an important piece in our Literacy Program. This book is based upon a true account of an event in the life of Abbie Burgess. In this story Abbie, a young girl, must climb the spiral staircases in the lighthouse at Matinicus Rock in Maine many times each night to keep the lights burning during a terrible storm.
To help deepen the children's understanding, we take a trip
to Gloucester, Massachusetts to Eastern Point Lighthouse.
There we are met by the Coast Guard who lead us
in climbing similar spiral stairs to the light.
You can imagine the impact this has on the children!
Here are some of us at the top.
Do you know which ocean we see?
Learn more about Eastern Point Lighthouse
by clicking on the photo.
After our trip, we began work on our project.
First we read
Autumn: An Alphabet Acrostic.
This was a great way for us to become familiar
with acrostic poetry. We loved this literary form!
After our collaborative effort, the children began writing
many individual acrostics in Writers' Workshop!
Next, for our second part of the project, we heard
The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown.
Children worked with partners writing about
what they felt was important about lighthouses.
We then shared all of our ideas,
compiling them to create our poem.
Here are the results of our efforts.
Lights flashing
In the dark night
Gulls gliding in the air
High above the land
Towers watch tides roll in and out
Huge rocks and
Ocean waters all around
Under the stars
Signals save ships from danger
Each light different from the other
~ The Important Thing About Lighthouses ~
The important thing about lighthouses is that they have lights.
The lights warn ships of danger in the night.
The lights flash in different signal patterns.
Lighthouses are always near or surrounded by water and rocks.
They have special marks called daymarks to tell sailors where they are during the day.
They can have keepers' houses.
The Coast Guard looks after most of them.
Spiral stairs take you to the top where you can see for miles.
They are like towers.
They are usually round and made of bricks.
But the important thing about lighthouses is that they have lights.
We hope you enjoyed our work.
We'd love to hear your thoughts.
If you'd like to email us, just click on the image below.
 LINKS TO LEARNING 
These links will help you explore the theme of lighthouses.
Massachusetts Lighthouses
Boston Light
Learn about our own Boston Light
and lighthouse keeper Sally Snowman
Teacher's Resource for Grades K-4
Written by the Coast Guard
A Text Only Version of Above Curriculum
Lighthouse Activity Book
An excellent resource
with many interesting activities!
Birdie's Lighthouse
Lesson suggestions and links
from author Deborah Hopkinson
Keep the Lights Burning, Mr. Fresnel
A lighthouse unit using Rhode Island lighthouses as a focus
Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge
Some background info for this classic story
Lesson Plans based on the Maine Quarter Reverse
(pdf files)
Quarters from the Coast - K-1
Follow the Light - Grades 2-3
Hardships on the Maine-land - Grades 4-6
Backgrounds and graphics by
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