Salutations all! Although I'm new to this board, I've been an avid Bradbury fan for years and will be teaching Dandelion Wine this year. I was wondering if anyone had any good ideas for active and/or passive activities to help students fully explore the novel. Thanks!

Try this link for some pretty specific questions:
http://wilmette.newtrier.k12.il.us/wilmette/wjhs/byrne/resources/dandelion.html

Also here for commercial material: http://www.centerforlearning.org/servlets/CenterForLearning/1002/53

Thanks guapodevil for your reply; I am aquainted with the material you posted I'm looking specifically for project oriented extension activities; something that will engage the students. For instance: have you ever read Dandelion Wine and thought about something related that you wanted to explore? Besides the obvious project of creating actual "dandelion wine"? Any ideas would be welcome!

Anyone with information on the special grass Bill Forrester tried to plant, please post it. Every time I read the book, I wonder: if a grass guaranteed to kill dandelions and clover, and to grow only so high and no higher, was available in 1928, why do we still dig dandelions and mow lawns? Maybe it was one of those inventions, like the electric car, a good idea but not quite "there" yet. Interesting online resources reveal that electric cars have been around since the locomotive (MUCH longer than gas-powered cars.) In 1912 a slew of companies produced 'em, dwindling to just a handful by the 1920s, after which they virtually died out. Have someone research the term "green machine." Reading "Dandelion Wine" as a kid, I always assumed the Green Machine actually was green. The story never says that, though, and researching electric cars online, I learned that "green machine" is actually the term for a device that saves the environment. I doubt it was in such use in 1928, but might have been by the time of the book's publication in 1957. Webster's 10th Dictionary doesn't give an origin for the term--wouldn't it be interesting to know? I found lots of pictures of electric cars, most in black-and-white, so don't know what colors may have been available in the 1920s. How about a fashion show depicting how people dressed then, or dressing as various characters in the novel, maybe each say a little piece? A scavenger hunt to even find certain things in common use in the novel, such as an actual brick street? A boarding house that offers meals? Science project as to how many fireflies equal a flashlight? As for the trolley, a nearby community began some years ago and continues what I consider a beautiful thing: they have fashioned and painted their city buses to look like trolleys! I get a kick thinking of Ray whenever I see one! There is also a very nice site on the history of tennis shoes, though I've found remarkably few pictures of 1920s boys actually wearing them. I'm reading the book for the fourth time (through, that is--have read some of the stories more than that) and, if needed, can come up with some devilishly difficult extra-credit questions!

In re: Forrester's "special grass." Um, I think that was just a Bradbury invention, intended as a metaphor. I don't think there's actually a grass like that available. (Though I believed the same thing about The Green Machine until your discussion about electric cars. And, like you, I believed it to be green but I can't tell you why I thought that. But I disagree with your reasoning of the use of the word "green" being possibly a reference to its friendliness to the environment. I don't think that's what Bradbury intended when he named the vehicle since his description, if memory serves, dwells hardly at all, if any, about the environmental benefits of the machine. It seems to me that he was trying to convey the thrill of silent, swift locomotion.)

dandelion - thank you for the great ideas! I think assigning an short creative paper exploring what the Green Machine could refer to would be a worthy task (I've got some other symbols lined up as well). I have also thought about assigning a brief internet-based research task where the students would delve into the period's history, customs and important events to give them the background needed to appreciate the novel's timeframe, which would tie into your fashion show and scavenger hunt idea. Thank you for your wonderful ideas! And I welcome any extra credit questions you could think of; I've been preparing a few myself

respenden,
There's a wonderful journal called, Eureka Studies in Teaching Short Fiction. The editor is an expert on the novel Dandelion Wine, and there are many other fine ideas offered on teaching short fiction. If your interested in a sample copy or want to subscribe, write to Eureka Sutdies in Teaching Short Fictio, Humanities Division
Eureka College, 300 E. College Ave., Eureka, IL 61530

Resplenden, as a fellow teacher (6th and 8th grade), I've always wondered how or even if I would teach Dandelion Wine. On one hand, students should be exposed to the beauty of Bradbury's prose, but, on the other, that magic and beauty could be spoiled when students are forced to read it. The conflict is resolved for me by allowing students to choose their own reading material; therefore, those that come to Bradbury do so willingly.
Nevertheless, I have kicked around a few ideas for teaching the book. The Happiness Machine has always worked for me as a metaphor for television, and students could do some research about television viewing and its impact on viewers. As a project, they might construct tv's with their own ideas of happiness illustrated in them.
Instead of actual dandelion wine, could they "bottle" memories either in writing or by placing actual artifacts, etc into a bottle? I remember my son doing something like this when he read the book. Such physical representations of the metaphor sometimes help students get involved with the prose. Hope this helps even a little bit. Have fun!


[This message has been edited by kagw (edited 07-26-2002).]

Besides the trolley, other things useful in their day have fallen by the wayside. The soda shop/ice cream parlor, which, like the lunch counter, was once an American standard, has been done in by fast food restaurants and better refrigeration so people can now store ice cream at home instead of running to the store when they want some. Another invention which has virtually disappeared is the screen door. Air conditioning just celebrated its 100th birthday, but back then it was still mostly in theaters and such, not private homes, so screen doors gave people a way to leave front and back doors open, with screens to keep out insects. Screen doors are now nonexistent, or made of metal and glass, not wood and screen, as most homes are now air-conditioned. Douglas and Tom don't seem to have had a screened-in "sleeping porch." They slept in three different places: their room upstairs, fold-out sleeping beds in the living room if that was too hot, or, if it was REALLY too hot, outside on the lawn! (after the demise of the Lonely One, of course.) One of the few items of their clothing specifically mentioned was nightshirts. At this time boys were beginning to shift from nightshirts to pajamas. In daytime, they generally wore a blue shirt known as a "blue cambric work shirt," perhaps as many as five, short or long-sleeved, for weekdays, and a white shirt for Sundays. The "white clothes" Tom wore to the Honeysuckle Ladies' Lounge meeting was his Sunday suit--not everyday clothes.

Among many other wonderful attractions posted by Charlie Perrin, webmaster at http://www.sneakers.pair.com, are sneaker ads from 1922 (no rubber toe) and 1931 (with rubber toe). None, unfortunately, from 1928, so can't tell from this when the rubber toe came in, but you can see by the prices that either Royal Crown Cream Sponge Para Litefoot Tennis Shoes were a more pricey brand, or Mr. Sanderson's store was on the high end costwise.

Thanks for the great link, Dandelion. However, the link doesn't work directly (because of the comma), try this: http://www.sneakers.pair.com

These images are almost exactly what I imagine Douglas wearing each time I read Dandelion Wine.

Here's another DW connection, for the story "The Trolley," in which a charming silently magical moving machine is replaced by a loud, rude, smelly old bus.

A man in Cleveland became suspicious that this didn't happen entirely by accident, and sent the PBS "History Detectives" out to investigate. http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigations/410_electric_car.html

Wes Cowan interviewed a man who wrote a book on the subject, and found that from at least the mid 1940s to early 1950s, GM, Standard Oil, and Firestone Tires were part of a conspiracy to destroy streetcars! They would buy up lines, convert the cars to buses or scrap them, and make sure only Standard Oil products and Firestone tires were used on the buses. To effect this, they bribed local politicians with GM cars. They replaced clean and efficient electric streetcars with gas-guzzling roadhogs which led to part of the terrible situation this country faces today.

This may have been a trend already in motion as automobiles caught on in the 1920s, and the large companies took organized advantage of it. A fascinating sidelight to Doug and Charlie's questions of "Why?"

I vote we send the "History Detectives" after the real Mr. Electrico! They've caught many a more elusive character!

How old are your students?

...so, I start my school year out today with a ninth grade class (27 kids). It's about 9:15am, and I am introducing Dandelion Wine. I offer some background, tell of my sincere appreciation of RB's entire collection of works, and then proceed to lead them into the book by orally reading the opening scene (Douglas waking up Green Town from his grandparents' cupola).

I barely finish the very first paragraph(!) when a young boy in the front row raises his hand. My first thought is, "How can a 9th grader who has just come off from summer vacation (barely 2 months out of grade 8, mind you!) have a significant question - less than half way into class and not a full page into our semester's literature studies.

OK. This has got to be a comment or question from out of left field. It's too early for any learning to have already taken place. It is only first period of the first day of the new school year!

Without continuing on to the second paragraph, I acknowledged the youth. He says, "Ray Bradbury's writing sounds like he is using poetry to tell the story."

What a perfect comment to start my year! I took the time to commend the young man and address the entire class on just that aspect of RB's style:

"It was a quiet morning, the town covered over in darkness and at ease in bed. Summer gathered in the weather, the wind had the proper touch, the breathing of the world was long and warm and slow. You had only to rise, lean from you window, and know that this indeed was the first real time of freedom and living, this was the first morning of summer."

Let the pages turn...

Beautiful!