8-10 yrs old
11-13 yrs old
Reading and Writing
Design and build a boat in Minecraft. Explore the islands by sea and write a journal about your experiences.
September 26, 2019
Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson Minecraft world file
Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson world to support lessons.
Litcraft Website
LITCRAFT uses the popular Minecraft gaming platform to build accurate scale models of authorial maps from classic works of literature.
Java World
Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson Minecraft world file for Java editions of Minecraft.
Making
Full lesson plan and additional activities.
Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson Extracts
Extracts from Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson to support activities.
This series of lessons is designed to help teach English Language Arts concepts through the study of "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe, and "The Swiss Family Robinson" by Johann Wyss.
Reading Activity: Canoe Building
Read the two extracts about building canoes from SFR and RC.
What is the problem with building the canoes inland? Find evidence of this in one of the texts. Make a prediction about how the characters might solve this problem .
From the accounts given of building the canoes (by the family and by Crusoe) which do you think:
a) Is most likely to work safely on water
b) provides clear and useful instructions on how to make it for someone else
c) displays the ingenuity and determination of the person making it
Give reasons for your answers based on the text.
Start by loading the Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson Minecraft world file found in the resources section. Use the minecart to travel to Robinson Crusoe's island (or use the slash command /tp 227 64 -168). Open the chest you find there marked Task 4: Making.
In-Game Activity: Making
Transcript of in-game book:
"You have read two descriptions that remind you how hard it is to make things without modern machinery.
Find Robinson Crusoe’s abandoned large canoe at the top of the island and see if you can get it into the water.
Design and build your own boat or ship in the water, big enough to carry all your things. And maybe a chicken!
NOTE: If you can build this on top of the piston mechanism then it will move but otherwise it will not. But it can still look good.
Now, using either your own moving boat / ship or a small rowing skiff, navigate back to Swiss Family Robinson island following the buoys that you will find along the way.
Collect all the letters from the buoys as they will give you an important message. When you get to the other island find the chest on shore and follow the instructions within. "
[LETTERS ON BUOYS TOGETHER READ: “NEVER LOSE SIGHT OF LAND”]
[CHEST AT LANDING POINT ON SHORE]:
"Now that you have got safely to shore again I hope you have learnt the first lesson of being shipwrecked: NEVER LOSE SIGHT OF LAND! "
Read how Robinson Crusoe felt and then describe your experience.
From Robinson Crusoe:
“it carried my boat along”
“I began to give myself over for lost”
“driven into the vast ocean”
“miserable condition”
“I looked back upon my desolate solitary island as the most pleasant place in the world . . .”
Write your own notes about how it felt to be out in the middle of the ocean.
FOLLOW UP ACTIVITIES:
• Write an instruction text on how to make something. Choose a subject which you personally know well.
• Write it so clearly that another person could follow your instructions successfully. Read the account of making the rope ladder in SFR to help you.