“Over the River” Unit Study for Families during the Holiday Season
Discover the story behind the classic song in this multi-subject Over the River Unit Study for Families Homeschooling at Thanksgiving
Learn more about the classic song, Over the River and Through the Woods, in this family-style unit study with multiple levels for all ages.
“Over the River” was first published as The New-England Boy’s Song about Thanksgiving Day by Lydia Maria Child as a poem in the book Flowers for Children vol. 2. It was eventually set to music (by an unknown composer) and turned into a song.
Mrs. Child wrote the poem as an ode to her fond memories of her grandfather’s house at Thanksgiving, although the words are often changed to grandmother’s house on Christmas Day.
Over the years the original tune had twelve verses, but today only four to six are typically sung.
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Over the River Unit Study English Language Arts
Read Aloud Living Picture Books
There are many versions of picture books using Lydia Maria Child’s poem with illustrations by various artists. Here are a couple of the more popular ones.
Over the River and Through the Wood illustrated by Christopher Manson This version was a Reading Rainbow book and features beautiful woodcut illustrations.
Over the River and Through the Wood illustrated by Emma Randall Cheery with colorful illustrations
Over the River: A Turkey’s Tale by Derek Anderson is a silly version with illustrations as though the turkey family is going to a (vegetarian) Thanksgiving dinner.
Poetry
Song lyrics are poetry set to music. Here are the original, complete lyrics to Over the River
Over the river, and through the wood,
To grandfather’s house we go;
The horse knows the way,
To carry the sleigh,
Through the white and drifted snow.
Over the river, and through the wood,
To grandfather’s house away!
We would not stop
For doll or top,
For ‘t is Thanksgiving day.
Over the river, and through the wood,
Oh, how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes,
And bites the nose,
As over the ground we go.
Over the river, and through the wood,
With a clear blue winter sky,
The dogs do bark,
And children hark,
As we go jingling by.
Over the river, and through the wood,
To have a first-rate play —
Hear the bells ring
Ting a ling ding,
Hurra for Thanksgiving day!
Over the river, and through the wood —
No matter for winds that blow;
Or if we get
The sleigh upset,
Into a bank of snow.
Over the river, and through the wood,
To see little John and Ann;
We will kiss them all,
And play snow-ball,
And stay as long as we can.
Over the river, and through the wood,
Trot fast, my dapple grey!
Spring over the ground,
Like a hunting hound,
For ‘t is Thanksgiving day!
Over the river, and through the wood,
And straight through the barn-yard gate;
We seem to go
Extremely slow,
It is so hard to wait.
Over the river, and through the wood,
Old Jowler hears our bells;
He shakes his pow,
With a loud bow wow,
And thus the news he tells.
Over the river, and through the wood —
When grandmother sees us come,
She will say, Oh dear,
The children are here,
Bring a pie for every one.
Over the river, and through the wood —
Now grandmother’s cap I spy!
Hurra for the fun!
Is the pudding done?
Hurra for the pumpkin pie!
Lydia Maria Child
Here’s an audio reading of the original poem.
Writing
Writing Poetry
Have your student create another stanza of the poem. Let them begin it with “Over the river, and through the wood” and write four more lines about something they like at Thanksgiving.
Grammar
Copywork and narration are a real-life way to work on grammar skills. Use the FREE Over the River Narration & Copywork Worksheets in the Free Resource Library for preschool up to high school students (there are 5 levels included).
After your child has written the sentence from dictation, let her see the original to check it with her work. Have her correct her work, so that she knows how it should look.
Then have him re-write the selection in his very best handwriting.
Over the River Unit Study History
There’s another popular song sung during the holidays about horse-drawn sleighs. Do you know what it is? Yep, it’s Jingle Bells. But did you know that it was also written about the same area outside of Boston, Massachuetts. Isn’t that weird? Sleighing and sleigh racing were extremely popular pastimes in that area during Ms. Child’s lifetime, so maybe it isn’t that odd.
Your older kids will want to listen to this biography of Mrs. Child by Unsung History Podcast. They can use the biographical Lydia Maria Child notebooking pages (in three levels) from our sister site to write about her life and her work both as an author and as an abolitionist. (These printables are included in the Over the River Unit Study Printables
History of the Sleigh
Watch this video from Western Illinois Museum to learn about the history of the “one horse open sleigh”.
Watch how a horse-drawn bob sled is built in this video from Engels Coach shop.
Make your own sleigh by upcycling a cereal box and some straws with these instructions.
History of the Thanksgiving holiday
Thanksgiving wasn’t celebrated nationally, or even on a fixed date of the year until nearly twenty years after Mrs. Childs wrote the poem, but it was a very common New England celebration during the early 1800s.
Listen to this Bedtime History podcast about the history of Thanksgiving to learn more.
And check out this extensive list for more Thanksgiving resources for all ages.
Over the River Unit Study Art
Learn to draw a horse, a sleigh, and a winter scene, or put them all together to create your own version of the horse drawn sleigh traveling through the woods.
Over the River Unit Study Music
Listen to Over the River as it was originally written (minus the last verse), sung by a full choir with an orchestra.
This video of the song Over the River only has four verses, but it does show a live-action horse drawn sleigh for your kids to see.
Hands on Music
There’s another classic holiday song about sleighs, Sleigh Ride, by Leroy Anderson. You and your kids can use this “cups” tutorial to learn how to play a cup along with the song. This tutorial works great as a introductory music lesson for all ages.
More Holiday Homeschooling Resources
More Ideas for Your Christmastime Homeschool
Be sure to follow my Pinterest board Christmastime Homeschooling for more great hands-on activities and ideas!
And most importantly, pin this post so you can refer back to it during your holiday unit study.
