From his early years in an idyllic pasture with his mother, through his difficult life as a cab horse for various masters, Black Beauty tells us, in his own words, what it's like to be a horse – or rather, what it used to be like. He also sets a fine example of perseverance, dignity, and the the importance of doing what's right, no matter what.
Anna Sewell’s touching story not only taught Victorian readers thoughtful lessons in kindness, but also resulted in animal anti-cruelty laws.
There are many ideas in this Hands-on Fun section—don't feel you have to do them all! Go with whatever works best for you and your kids. If you want to focus on a particular teaching point, our Takeaway Topics section can help you narrow down the activity options. And you can enhance discussions during any activity with audiovisual aids from Learning Links or story objects from Prop Ideas.
You might find our narrative arc worksheet helpful for sequencing your activities, teaching the important concept of the arc, and helping kids learn how Anna Sewell put Black Beauty together.
One of the enduring images from the book is the delicious prospect of acres of sweet green grass in which a young and frolicking (or old and tired) horse can find sustenance and comfort. This grass planter is a practical reminder to be kind to animals! Beauty loved this snack, but cats, too, will love the fresh wheat grass. Even humans can enjoy the health benefits by adding it to their juices and smoothies.
Talk to the kids about looking for small ways we can make life a little better for the creatures we live with, and explain how this little project can be a reminder of this ideal, as well as a yummy snack for the felines in our (or friends’) homes.
INSPIRATION
“It was a great treat to us to be turned out into the home paddock or the old orchard; the grass was so cool and soft to our feet, the air so sweet, and the freedom to do as we liked was so pleasant – to gallop, to lie down, and roll over on our backs, or to nibble the sweet grass.” (Ch. 6)
Spray-paint the peat pots black and let dry (or have kids paint these with black poster paint).
Cut one-half of all the craft sticks in half.
Pre-cut a horizontal slit just below the rim of each small pot
Pre-cut a small hole for the tail toward the top of each large pot.
If you have a large group, you may want to pre-cut the yarn, and set out your supplies “buffet style.” (Click on the photo of our “buffet” for an up-close look.)
DIRECTIONS
Fit the edge of the large pot into the slit already cut in the smaller one.
Paint the craft sticks (one whole, one cut in half) black. When the paint is dry, glue them to bottom of the large pot to form an X..
Make a tail by tying several strands of black yarn together with a knot at one end, and tucking the knot through the hole in the back of the large pot.
Cut ears from craft foam or construction paper, and glue them to the top of the small pot.
Glue on googly eyes (or use dots hole-punched from white construction with eyeballs drawn on).
Cut a small diamond shape from white construction paper and glue between the eyes, for Beauty’s star.
Paint a white “sock” on Beauty’s right front leg.
Glue a knotted bunch of yarn between the ears, for the forelock.
Fill the larger pot with potting soil. Plant seeds, and dampen with water (OR transplant the sprouted grass).
This book is all about inspiring empathy—and there's no better way to do that than to get in someone else's shoes — horseshoes too! Many kids enjoy acting out a particular character, and the rest enjoy guessing just who they’re pretending to be and what they’re doing.
For this charades activity, we’ve chosen some particularly dramatic scenes that need 2-4 actors each.
DIRECTIONS
1. Print two copies of the scenes. Cut apart one set of scenes and place them upside down in a pile. (The other set is for you).
2. Looking at your own set, ask for the appropriate number of volunteers for each scene, and have each acting team draw a prompt from the pile.
3. Tell all the acting teams to huddle and decide who’s acting which roles. Remind them that like horses, they’ll have to use expressions, non-verbal noises, and body language to communicate. Then give them a few minutes to plan their charades. (We encouraged the use of our props.)
4. Have each teams take turns acting out their scene, while the other kids guess which scene is being shown.
BookBites is the part of our literary experience when we get to “taste the story.” We choose a food right out of the book, and it has to meet at least one criterion:
it’s important to a plot point
it has thematic significance
it’s unfamiliar for reasons of culture, era, or location
We took our treats right out of the trough, so to speak! Based on Merrylegs’ first chat with Black Beauty, we served carrots, apples, and sunflower bread in “feed bags,” along with cool (not icy cold!) water.
INSPIRATION
“They used to bring me nice things to eat, an apple or a carrot, or a piece of bread, but after Ginger stood in that box they dared not come, and I missed them very much.” (Pt. 1, Ch. 4)
While the kids ate we let them smell warm bran mash to see why it might have been a “comfort food” for horses.
We also read this scene, below, and listened to Victorian era dance music , the sound of a solitary man sighing, and a tired horse breathing. This helped the kids feel the contrast between the merrymakers and the “others” outside their awareness – in this case, Jerry and Beauty.
For some people Christmas and the New Year are very merry times; but for cabmen and cabmen’s horses it is no holiday, though it may be a harvest. There are so many parties, balls, and places of amusement open that the work is hard and often late. Sometimes driver and horse have to wait for hours in the rain or frost, shivering with the cold, while the merry people within are dancing away to the music. I wonder if the beautiful ladies ever think of the weary cabman waiting on his box, and his patient beast standing, till his legs get stiff with cold. (Pt. 3, Ch. 45)
This experience in the cold makes Jerry very sick, and leads to him leaving the cab business and selling Beauty. While the kids are cleaning up after their snack, ask them to think about the people who cook for us and clean up after us “behind the scenes,” whether it’s at a fast-food restaurant or a school cafeteria or a party. We don’t often think about it, but somewhere, seen or unseen, someone is always waiting on us.
Searching for images and words that remind us of the story and its characters is like a treasure hunt. Otherwise ordinary magazines full of ads and articles offer up uncanny references to the story, once young eyes are on the lookout!
Watching kids exclaim and beam as they come across the perfect picture, or a word that just seems meant for their collage, is priceless.
This time of hunting and clipping and gluing also offers the perfect space to share music from the book, or to talk about our favorite scenes.
SUPPLIES
card stock or pocket folders (we use folders for storing worksheets)
1. As you hand out the magazines and folders, explain to the kids that they’ll be looking for any images or words that remind them of the story, then cutting those out and gluing them onto their folders to give a layered effect. They don’t need to replicate scenes or find perfectly cast characters – just pictures and phrases or words that suggest the book.
Here are a few more helpful hints:
The goal is to entirely cover the front of the folder, so that none of the original color is visible. So look for large pieces to put down first, for background, and then continue to layer more pictures on top, especially over seams where pictures meet.
Close-trimming the pictures that lay over the background pieces gives the nicest effect.
Once the biggest pictures are on, tuck smaller ones into the little spaces. These little details make the collage all the more interesting.
Don’t forget to look for words, or letters to make words!
2. The title of the book can be written on card stock and glued on last (just not over a favorite image!), or it can be pieced together from letters and words in the magazines, ransom-note style.
3. As a final step, have the kids paint their finished collage with Mod Podge® and set it aside to dry. Make sure the glue gets under all the elements, so that the collage lies flat with no flyaways.
It’s fun for the kids to find out how tall they are by equine standards. A “hand” is four inches — about the width of a hand, of course — so there’s a little math involved in determining how many hands you are!
All you'll need is a measuring tape for each pair of kids.
INSPIRATION
“We stood about fifteen and a half hands high; we were therefore just as good for riding as we were for driving . . .” – Ch. 10
A LitWits Kit is a bag or box of supplies and printables you pack up and give to each child right before you begin your "field trip" through the story. You might be doing one-off projects as you read through the book together, or you might do everything on this page from top to bottom after the book has been read. However you explore this book in LitWitty ways, kids love the anticipation of opening their kit.
If you'd like to build your own LitWits Kits for your child/ren, you could easily arrange the items in a bag, basket, or story-relevant container. Honestly, it's just as much fun to create a kit as it is to open one.
To make it all the more fun, our printables for many books include special "story packaging" for certain activity supplies, including BookBites. Click the button below for a specific list of contents for this book.
This was one of the first stories we read when we were little, and it affected us for life, from our desire to see lovely England to our passion for rescuing creatures. It was an easy choice for one of our experiential workshops! And it's packed with great takeaway topics, which we're sharing below.
In our workshops, we did our best to make these teaching points tangible, meaningful, and memorable in the kids' hands. It's amazing how much kids can learn while they're "just" having fun!
Takeaway 1
No Excuses
When Joe Green accidentally made Beauty sick, Beauty didn’t hold it against him. The horse understood that Joe didn’t know any better, and hadn’t meant him any harm. How do we feel aboutJoe when he caused Beauty pain? It’s complicated, isn’t it — because we’ve all caused harm without meaning to, at some point. But is “not meaning to” an excuse? What did John Manly say to Tom about that?
“Only ignorance! only ignorance! How can you talk about only ignorance? Don’t you know that it is the worst thing in the world, next to wickedness? –and which does the most mischief, heaven only knows. If people can say, ‘Oh, I did not know, I did not mean any harm,’ they think it is alright.”
“I had no idea” or “I didn’t know any better” aren't acceptable excuses for bad decisions. Ignorance is NOT bliss for the people and creatures affected by our choices! If Joe had known that not properly cooling down a horse after exercise was harmful, or that too much cold water could make a horse sick, he would have saved Beauty a lot of pain.
Our actions, whether well-intentioned or thoughtless, always have consequences. We have a responsibility to be informed—and that’s what education is all about!
Hands-on connections in this guide: “In Their Shoes” activity, “Hand Over Hand” activity, BookBites snack, horsemanship props, “Beauty’s Treat” project, vocabulary and creative writing worksheets
Born in 1820’s England and raised in a strict Quaker family, Anna believed in the value of all living things, and in not performing any act of violence.
When she was 14 she took a bad fall that left her unable to walk normally, and by the time she was in her mid-thirties, she could barely walk at all. Merrylegs is based on her gray pony that took her everywhere in a cart, and Beauty is based on her brother Philip's horse, Bessie.
Besides being immobilized, Anna Sewell had a disease (possibly hepatitis) that ruined her health. She never married or had children. When she was 51 she was told she had only a short time to live. That’s when she began writing Black Beauty, which she sometimes had to dictate to her mother because she was so weak. For most of her life, she had been even more dependent on working horses than most people were. She had developed a very close bond with them, and wanted people to be kinder, more sympathetic, and more understanding of them.
She gave the last of her life to this effort, and it was even more successful than she might have dreamed. Though she lived for just five months after it was published in 1878, Black Beauty sold a million copies between 1890 and 1892, and it changed the public’s attitude about the practices and fashions that caused animal suffering. As a direct result, many laws were enacted to improve real horses’ lives.
Hands-on connections in this guide:“Beauty’s World” project, horsemanship props, “In Their Shoes” activity, “Hand Over Hand” activity, setting handout
In Black Beauty we see people and animals working hard and doing their best, taking responsibility for their own behavior, and showing kindness to others. These are values that were emphasized in England during the Victorian age and they were of special importance to Anna Sewell because of her Quaker upbringing.
The idea of “doing what’s right,” even when it takes extra patience and even when it's painful, is emphasized by many characters throughout Black Beauty. Doing what's not right has high-impact consequences from the very beginning, with the death of the horse in the hunt. And whether wrong actions are intentional or not, no one in this story is excused for their ignorance, circumstances, bad habits, laziness, carelessness, or failure to be considerate and kind to others, especially to the horses.
Beauty holds himself to a high standard, in large part because of his upbringing. He makes us all want to go out of our way to do what's right, especially becoming informed and showing kindness.
Hands-on connections in this guide: “In Their Shoes” activity, creative writing handout
Black Beauty is chock-full of wonderful topics to explore, from Victorian England to animal husbandry. Scroll down to see our curated Learning Links for more tangential teaching opportunities, and to see how we brought this book and its ideas to life.
When choosing props for our live workshops, we always try to focus on two important categories: props that are unique to the setting, because they help kids understand “what that was like,” and props that are symbolic of themes, because they make big ideas visual and tangible. Both kinds of props generate those wide-eyed, “aha!” moments.
Below is an overview of the display we put together for our live workshop, and under that we've given more details. You could easily have your kids contribute items to a table over time, as the book is being read.
Sometimes we create a printable prop; click the button to see the list for this book.
Next came the saddle, but that was not half so bad; my master put it on my back very gently, while old Daniel held my head; he then made the girths fast under my body, patting and talking to me all the time... —Ch. 3
Bit
. . . after a good deal of coaxing he got the bit into my mouth, and the bridle fixed, but it was a nasty thing! Those who have never had a bit in their mouths cannot think how bad it feels; a great piece of cold hard steel as thick as a man's finger to be pushed into one's mouth, between one's teeth, and over one's tongue, with the ends coming out at the corner of your mouth, and held fast there by straps over your head, under your throat, round your nose, and under your chin; so that no way in the world can you get rid of the nasty hard thing; it is very bad! yes, very bad! —Ch. 3
English bridle
After breakfast he came and fitted me with a bridle. He was very particular in letting out and taking in the straps, to fit my head comfortably... Ch. 5
Horse tack
...he was so gentle and kind; he seemed to know just how a horse feels, and when he cleaned me he knew the tender places and the ticklish places; when he brushed my head he went as carefully over my eyes as if they were his own... —Ch.5
Live grass
...the grass was so cool and soft to our feet, the air so sweet, and the freedom to do as we liked was so pleasant—to gallop, to lie down, and roll over on our backs, or to nibble the sweet grass. Ch. 6
Wheat grass represented those bucolic green fields Black Beauty loved so much. It was also used in our craft project.
Oats & bran
Oh, what a good supper he gave me that night, a good bran mash and some crushed beans with my oats, and such a thick bed of straw! and I was glad of it, for I was tired. —Ch. 12
Horseshoe
Of course my shoeless foot suffered dreadfully; the hoof was broken and split down to the very quick, and the inside was terribly cut by the sharpness of the stones. —Ch. 25
Quote
"If a thing is right it can be done, and if it is wrong it can be done without; and a good man will find a way. And that is as true for us cabmen as it is for the church-goers.” —Ch. 36
Bran mash
...sometimes I was so fevered and worn that I could hardly touch my food. How I used to long for the nice bran mash ... —Ch. 47
We added hot water to the bran so the kids could smell it and relate to Black Beauty’s love of the stuff – or not!
English riding helmets
English riding boots
LitWitty Shareables
Great Quotes
“Do you know why this world is as bad as it is?… It is because people think only about their own business, and won’t trouble themselves to stand up for the oppressed, nor bring the wrong-doers to light… My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.” *
[Animals] do not suffer less because they have no words. *
“If a thing is right, it can be done, and if it is wrong, it can be done without; and a good man will find a way.” *
“There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast it is all a sham – all a sham, James, and it won’t stand when things come to be turned inside out and put down for what they are.” *
“She told me the better I behaved, the better I should be treated, and that it was wisest always to do my best.” *
“It is good people who make good places.” *
“Only ignorance! only ignorance! how can you talk about only ignorance? Don’t you know that it is the worst thing in the world, next to wickedness? — and which does the most mischief heaven only knows. If people can say, `Oh! I did not know, I did not mean any harm,’ they think it is all right.”
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Happy teaching, Becky and Jenny Sisters, best friends, and partners
*We hope we've inspired you! If you're feeling a little overwhelmed (we hear that sometimes), remember, you're LitWitting whether you do a lot or a little. You can't go wrong! The learning is happening, trust us. Just take the pressure off and do what works for your kids, time, and budget. It's all about inspiring kids to read for fun, so they want to read more—because kids who read more great books learn more great things.
Now get ready for a bunch of wide-eyed kids having “aha!” moments . . . and you, grinning ear to ear because your kids are happily engaged with a great book.
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LitWits teaching ideas and materials for Black Beauty by Anna Sewell Copyright 2012 by LitWits Workshops, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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