Pistes d'exploration

Examine a variety of bags used for shopping (plastic, paper, cloth, shaped, etc.). Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each.

The story illustrates the challenges for women inventors in the 1800s. Use a graphic organizer to show how the status of women has changed since then.

Read another book from Kulling’s Great Idea series. Discuss how the stories are similar and different.

How could current shopping bags be improved? Draw and label a diagram of a shopping bag of the future.

Go for a picture walk and discuss what the story might be about. After a read-aloud, compare your predictions to the actual text.

Discuss what made Margaret Knight different from many women of her time. Use a character map to portray her personality.

This story illustrates the steps needed to create an invention. Use a graphic organizer to show the inventor’s process in the 1800s. Compare this with the invention process today.

Read another book from Kulling’s Great Idea series. Discuss how the stories are similar and different.

Use teacher-selected resources to research other inventors. Use a graphic organizer to map their inventing processes and inventions.

Write the category headings: setting, characters, plot. During a teacher-led picture walk, add keywords to each category. Based on the picture walk and your notes, predict what the story will be about.

Discuss what made Knight different from many women of her time. Add to your knowledge through additional research. Create a Venn Diagram to compare them.

Participate in a whole class creation of a “How to Make a Bag” guide, with step-by-step instructions. Using this model, research another simple project and create a new “How-to” guide. Practise presenting the instructions to the class without having to read them.

Mots-clés

Biography , inventions , inventors , machines , Margaret Knight , overcoming adversity , perseverance , women

Commentaire descriptif

An inspiring biography of a woman ahead of her times: It is 1850 New Hampshire and Margaret Knight is no ordinary 12-year-old girl. She fashions all kinds of things out of wood. In fact, “she made the best kites and sleds in town!” Mattie’s father died when she was three, and she works in the cotton mill. When a steel-tipped shuttle comes loose from the loom, injuring a young woman, Mattie sets to work designing a cover. “The stop-motion device was Mattie’s first invention. She was never paid a penny for it.” This incredible young woman goes on to invent a machine that makes flat-bottomed paper-bags. When her design is stolen, she fights for the patent in court. And wins. Told in simple prose packed with colourful dialogue, this is non-fiction that reads like a story. Readers will side with Mattie in court when the judge pronounces her machine an “idea of simple genius;” they will cheer as she dreams up inventions in her notebooks at night. Detailed pen-and-ink illustrations draw on the period and use caricature to vividly bring Mattie and her world to life. With antique hues in browns, greys and muted blues, the heroine stands out of the crowd in her red dress, as in life. Intense facial expressions further help readers connect to this true story and its characters. Back matter contains a brief summary of Margaret Knight’s life. A highly readable account of one determined woman’s perseverance in the face of opposition.