Login

Creative Teaching Ideas for

SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS

by Arthur Ransome (1930)


ON THIS PAGE: LitWits hands-on activity ideas and instructions, teaching topics, learning links, and more. Scroll on!

Printables for purchase

About the story


When the Walker children get permission from their mother to camp out on a nearby island in England’s Lake District, they’re in heaven. Once they set sail on the Swallow and set up camp on Wild Cat Island, they’re ready for adventure—and here it comes, in the form of the Blackett girls sailing the Amazon. Their imaginative powers, resourcefulness, and teamwork lead to charming (and alarming) adventures. 

Swallows and Amazons  will enchant any child who’s ever dreamed of being parent-free in the wild! 

Read reviews / buy the book on Amazon
We make a small commission on anything you buy through our Amazon affiliate links. 

Hands-on Fun

Making a plan . . .


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 Arthur Ransome put Swallows and Amazons together.
Storylines worksheet & other printables

The Swallow

A LitWits activity from the Exposition

This book inspires every reader to set sail — but most people don’t have a dinghy.  Fortunately, we had the materials at hand and a whole lot of able-seamen to start construction.

As we assembled our boats, we learned (and labeled) their parts. This project not only gets kids right into the spirit of the plot, it lets them learn vocabulary in three dimensions!  You might want to do the vocabulary worksheet first.

Note:  The girl in the workshop photo above is holding a larger, more complicated version of this craft, using polystyrene foam. For this guide, we’ve created a smaller, “greener” version that’s easier to assemble — the new model is pictured below. Small fingers will still need help taping dinghy tabs in place; you might encourage kids to give each other a hand with this part of the project.


SUPPLIES & PREP

  • scissors and clear tape
  • black and dark blue markers
  • 4×6 kitchen sponges, 3/4 inch thick, cut into thwarts according to template (or just eyeball it) while they’re still damp, then dried thoroughly in a microwave for 1-2 minutes
  • 4-inch lengths of string for painters
  • plain wooden toothpicks for tillers
  • 12-inch skewers, one per; cut 4 inches off blunt end with garden shears to make the boom, and use the pointy, 8-inch end for the mast
  • labels to attach with glue, or print on adhesive-backed paper
  • dinghy and rudder template (in our printables) printed on brown card stock
  • sail and flag template (in our printables) printed on white paper
  • copies of the boat diagram (in our printables)
Labels, template, & other printables
DIRECTIONS

Have the kids collect their templates and other supplies from a “bits buffet,” then give them these instructions:

  1. Cut white sail and flag out of template, set aside.
  2. Cut brown dinghy and rudder out of template.
  3. Find hull, stern, rudder and gunwale on the dinghy diagram.  Turn template over (to non-printed side) and use black marker to draw wood planks on your hull, stern and rudder, and to color in the gunwale. Write “Swallow” on the hull or stern.
  4. Fold the dinghy together along the dotted lines, as shown on the template. Tape down the tabs with someone’s help.
  5. Find thwarts on the dinghy diagram, then glue your thwarts in the appropriate place.
  6. Find tiller and rudder on the diagram. Fold your rudder over your tiller (toothpick) and glue it, then poke it through the stern.
  7. Find painter on the diagram. Tape your painter (string) to the bow.
  8. Find mast on the diagram. Put glue along the shortest edge of your sail and roll it over the longest section of skewer (or just skewer the sail on the mast).
  9. Find boom on the diagram. Use a hole punch or another skewer to make holes in the bottom edge of the sale, then stick the boom through.
  10. Stick the pointy end of mast into the thwart at the bow. (A mast wouldn’t normally be in a thwart but the dry sponge holds it in place. Poetic license!)
  11. Color the swallow blue on your flag and fold it around and glue it to the top of the mast.
  12. Label the parts of your Swallow and go pack your provisions!

Swallow Flag

A LitWits activity from the story's Exposition

We completely understand the Walkers’ desire to create their own flag — so much that we just had to do it, too. Titty made hers from white canvas and blue serge (from an old pair of knickerbockers), but we settled for felt. (Substitutions are tough for us to swallow, but this one felt all right. Yes, the kids moaned, too, when we said that.)

Read aloud the flag-making scene in Chapter II before the kids start crafting.

SUPPLIES

  • white felt
  • blue felt
  • glue (Titty stitched the swallow on the flag; you could have your kids do the same. We wanted to avoid threading dozens of needles.)
  • dowels 
  • template (in our printables)
Template & other printables

Story Map

A LitWits activity from the Exposition

The Walkers are keen on charts, whether for navigation, exploration, or treasure.  So are we! And as this story and its characters are dependent on maps, we honor their creator by enhancing Arthur Ransome’s 1931 endpapers.

This project gives kids time to do something thoughtful and quiet, AND get their hands on the story's geographical setting, while we have discussions or watch informative clips. (See our Learning Links below for options.) It can also serve as a cover for a worksheets folder.

SUPPLIES

You’ll just need the endpapers copied on to cardstock, colored pencils, glue, and pocket folders (if using). We can’t provide you with the endpaper images for copyright reasons, but you can easily find them online.
PRINTABLES SET

Wildcat Islanders

A LitWits activity from the Rising Action 

Who doesn’t want to have the time of their lives, Walker & Blatchett style?  This favorite activity lets kids get in the shoes (or bare feet) of the characters, and gets them in the spirit of teamwork, too.

SUPPLIES

  • blanket
  • rope
  • stones (big enough to hold down the tent)
  • fake snake
  • cigar box
  • two sticks (check clippings piles in the neighborhood – our source for LOTS of botanical props!)
  • bucket
  • lantern without glass (we used an old metal lantern meant for candles, but any unbreakable object that can be attached to a rope could represent this)
  • long rope
  • dolly or skateboard
  • “Spanish Ladies” lyrics (in our printables)
Lyrics & other printables
DIRECTIONS

Divide the kids into teams, and each team into pairs. Have the first Team A pair start at one end of the relay, and first Team B pair start at the other end. Sure, the two teams might meet up in the middle, and have to take turns hoisting or scuttling — but hey, we’re all on this island together! Survival takes teamwork.

Isn’t that what Swallows and Amazons is all about?

1. Pitch!

Pitch a tent by hanging a blanket over a rope and anchoring it with stones.

2. Scuttle!

“Scuttle” back-to-back on the Swallow, the front-facing person giving verbal directions to the person in back.

3. Pick up!

Pick up an “adder” from a cigar box using two sticks, and carry it EXTREMELY CAREFULLY to a bucket.

4. Hoist!

Hoist a lantern as high as it will go.
“Scuttle” back-to-back on the Swallow, the front-facing person giving verbal directions to the person in back.

5. Sing!

Sing a duet of Spanish Ladies, with gusto!


BookBites: Dead Bugs and Beer

A LitWits activity from the Rising Action

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
 
Ahoy, mateys!  What’s a British picnic without squashed-fly biscuits, apples, and ginger beer?


We relished the fare of pirates and adventurous landlubbers while reading excerpts from Robinson Crusoe out loud, and learning all about scurvy. Yum!  No duffers here!
PRINTABLES SET

Printables Previews

The worksheets and printables used for our activities are sold as a complete set.

Common Core State Standards Alignment for the comprehensive use of our teaching ideas and materials is also included for grades 3, 4, 5 and 6. 
DETAILS

The LitWits Kit

Pack up for the field trip!

A LitWits Kit is a bag or box of supplies 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 in this guide 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 LitWits Kits for your kids, 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. Click the button below for a specific list of contents for this book. 
PRINTABLES SET

Takeaway Topics

Why we chose this book for a "field trip"
We'd never heard of this book before a LitWitter's parent recommended it to us, who told us that in Britain it had been the Harry Potter  of its day. Two chapters in, we could see why!  This story of siblings sailing off to an island (with parental permission) is just as appealing as the turf-bound My Side of the Mountain, with its focus on "figuring things out for yourself" in nature.  It was obviously a  fun choice for one of our experiential workshops--but it's also 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!
 
Happy teaching!
Becky and Jenny

Takeaway 1

The Importance of Teamwork

There are great examples of teamwork to be found between the Walker children, the Blackett girls, and between the Swallows and Amazons. When the Walkers and Blacketts weren’t a team, what brought them all together? What is it about having a “common enemy” that makes people forget their differences and work as a team? This idea goes beyond the story to apply to friendships, commerce, and nations. We asked our kids for examples of how the children in this story work together to accomplish their goals, and if there were other benefits to joining forces. Some benefits, like camaraderie, showed up as they rushed through the relay race. :)

Hands-on connections in this guide: “Wildcat Islanders” activity, “The Swallow Flag” project, “The Swallow” project
PRINTABLES SET

Takeaway 2

The Power of Imagination

Imagine how different the Walker children’s camping adventure might have been if they’d left their imaginations at home.! What if they’d not been able to transform their supplies, their situation, and themselves into the characters and elements of fancy that make up the story? There wouldn’t be much of a book! So many of the things they take with them are imagined into something completely different. 
Titty's extra good at this, as explored in the creative writing worksheet, and our learners had a lot of fun following her lead.

Hands-on connections in this guide: “The Swallow” project, “The Story Map” activity, creative writing worksheet, BookBites snack, food props (especially corned beef), Robinson Crusoe and other adventure books
PRINTABLES SET

Takeaway 3

The Main Parts of a Sailboat

Nautical terms fill this story – more than most kids will be able to absorb. But they can easily grasp a few of those used to describe the Swallow  and her accoutrements, and learn the basics of how a sailboat works.  The boat-building craft, labeled with the aid of our vocabulary sheet, is also a fun way to make sailing terms visible, tangible, and memorable. And if you have a navigational tool for them to see and hold, like a barometer (see our Prop Ideas), that makes a hands-on way in to talking about its importance to sailors.

Hands-on connections in this guide:  “The Swallow” project, vocabulary worksheet, boat parts, navigational aids, “The Swallow Flag” project
PRINTABLES SET
Swallows and Amazons is chock-full of other subjects to explore, too—from from natural history and geography to cartography and creative problem-solving.  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. 

Learning Links

Explore these links to supplement your reading experience, research points of interest, and prompt tangential learning opportunities.


About the Book & Author


Story Supplements

 
Beyond the Book

PRINTABLES SET

Prop Ideas

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, like the telegram we made for this book.
Telegram & other printables
Carved wooden fish (miraculous thrift store find!); pipe with string attached; pebbles

Robinson Crusoe and other sea tales; old housekeeping and navigation books; tin mugs and plates 
Old metal pitcher of milk

Fishing tackle box filled with British treats like ambrosia, caramel wafers, and biscuits
Biscuit tins and rustic bread
Centre-board of a sailboat; sail; Swallow flag; rope

Frying pan and eggs; tins of sugar, salt, and tea
Old copper teapot
Compass and broken barometer
Old navigation book; charred log
Basket of heather
Rope & candles
Old pot
Key
Printed images of maps and endpapers; telegram (in printables); Captain’s hat

LitWitty Shareables



Great Quotes

BETTER DROWNED THAN DUFFERS IF NOT DUFFERS WONT DROWN
*
The island had come to seem one of those places seen from the train that belong to a life in which we shall never take part.
*
“Swallows and Amazons for-ever!” 
*
“But the big hills up at the lake helped to make him feel that the houseboat man did not matter. The hills had been there before Captain Flint. They would be there for ever. That, somehow was comforting.” 
*
It was like exploring a place that you have seen in a dream, where everything is just where you expect it and yet everything is a surprise.

We're glad you're here!

You're literally on our page about inspiring kids to love great books.  YAY! We're eager to share our passion for LitWitting and the work we've done for over a decade.

We're also eager to keep doing it! :)  So if you found this guide-page inspiring and useful,* please share it with your social world. And if you buy our printables for this book, thank you. We appreciate you helping us keep the lights on at LitWits! 

Happy teaching,
Becky and Jenny
Sisters, best friends, and partners
Sure, I'll support LitWits!
*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.

Terms of Use

The Becky & Jenny version:  Feel free to print pages for teaching use, and make copies of printables for your students. Please don’t use our name, ideas, or materials commercially or share our printables, though we'd love for you to share these free pages with your fellow educators.

The blah legal version: You are granted exclusive use of our products in download or print version as follows: You have the right of reproduction that is limited to your use only in whatever quantity is necessary to meet your needs and those of your student participants. This right is unlimited and extends for as long as you need the materials during which time they cannot be given to or shared with any other person(s) through any means of delivery, materially or digitally via the Internet. As such you have the right to store the product(s) on the hard drive of your computer or as hard copy in your resource file.  Any misuse of these rights is in violation of copyright law.

LitWits® is a registered trademark of LitWits Workshops, LLC.

LitWits teaching ideas and materials for Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
Copyright 2014 by LitWits Workshops, LLC.  All Rights Reserved.
PRINTABLES SET

Want more ideas for more great books?

YES! Take me to your titles!