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Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong is one of those books in the Total Language Plus program that we just have never gotten to; there are so many good choices! We had a little gap in our read aloud schedule so we decided to squeeze it in!
What a delightful and unusual book! Barbara Blakey, author of our Total Language Plus study guides, has always said it was well written and I must agree. I was especially impressed with the way the author ties in individual events into one larger event.
Shora is the town that has no Storks on their roofs which is the catalyst for all the action in The Wheel on the School. At the school, the children and teacher begin discussing this problem and why it exists. From there thy take action and decide to find a wheel for their school.
In their search they encounter people and experiences they normally would not have. It’s quite humorous at times and also makes you pause and think of similar people that you have maybe misjudged or need to get to know. We laughed and I even caught myself with a tear in my eye when Janus tells his story about the boat but I won’t spoil it for you, you’ll just have to read it!
The Total Language Plus study guide has suggestions for projects on writing assignments on things like Storks, reports on being handicapped (Janus one of the main characters is in a wheelchair), mapping of Holland, Africa, fishing and so much more! My daughter Lexie has decided she definitely wants to do this one! She’s not quite ready yet, she’s on Whipping Boy right now, maybe next year. (It's suggested for 5th or 6th grade.)
Here’s a map we found online of the Netherlands (Holland) with cities and seas filled in, http://geography.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.m%2Dw.com/cgi%2Dbin/nytmaps.pl%3Fnetherlands and here’s an outline one http://geography.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.m%2Dw.com/cgi%2Dbin/nytmaps.pl%3Fnetherlands . We could not locate Shora but you can locate Amsterdam where Janus talks about the man writing the newspaper column and you can of course locate the North Sea.
In the book they talk about sleeping in “cupboard” or “closet” beds. I found articles from people who had toured and viewed them but no pictures. We did find these replicas based off illustrations, http://www.remodelista.com/posts/childrens-rooms-bed-cupboard . I thought they were really cute though they in reality I doubt were that “cute” in favor of more functional.
We also thought there would be a lot of pictures and information on dikes. I didn’t find a “really” good site though you can search and see vacation pictures of dikes.
Hope you’ll check out Wheel on the School! We really enjoyed it. | 
