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Grades 4-12 (teacher requirements will determine level)

Report Topics:

• History of America's Wild Horses
• America's cowboys and cowgirls (Pt. 1Civil War - 1920; Pt. 2 1920 - present)
• Wild Horses in Other Countries
• Rodeo Events: How are they performed, scored and how they are based on chores of working cowboys and cowgirls
• Buckaroo clothing: from head to toe, how it suits western work
• The Chuckwagon: what is it, how it works and find recipes for favorite Western dishes
• Black Rock Desert of Nevada : it's not as barren as it seems
• Children in single parent families : compare Samantha Forster to kids you know
• Country Western Music
• Bureau of Land Management's Wild Horse Adoption program
• Breeds of Beef Cattle (Hereford, Angus, etc.)
• Machinery in the life of today's rancher
• Breeds of Western Horses
• What do you feed a horse and why
• San Francisco's Golden Gate Park
• Raising an orphan calf or colt
• Branding and ear marking
• Common riding injuries for horse and rider
• Outlaws in the old west and today's west
• Native animals (not cattle, horses, sheep, etc.) on the range
• Running a ranch: what chores must be done by each member of a ranch family
• Geology of Nevada
• Native Americans in Nevada
• How to saddle and bridle a horse
• National Little Britches Rodeo Association
• Cowboy Poetry: read the professionals, then write your own
• Cowgirls and cowboys in the movies
• Character studies of characters in Phantom Stallion series

Teacher Tips:

The Phantom Stallion series is reality-based fiction. As students read, you may want them to do research of their own. These topics cover many subject areas, including Science, Social Studies and Language Arts. Encourage a "sharing" component ( big kid show and tell) and staggered deadlines which crop up as students are still reading the book(s). This enriches the reading experience through peer teaching.

Many students have mastered the skill of downloading reports from the Internet. To insure student learning, ask students to link their topics with one of these visual components.

• Maps
• Models (clay or dough, wire sculpture, etc)
• Drawings and Paintings
• Collage
• Dramatization (live, audio or video) including Chautauqua impersonations
• Clips from commercial videos
• Shoebox dioramas
• If several students claim the same topic, suggest they share (ex: Rodeo events could be broken up into calf roping, bronco riding, bull riding, etc), then present reports on the same day.
• Character Studies:
  This technique works for all characters in the Phantom Stallion series
  • Describe the personality and appearance of character
  • Give three examples of how s/he gets along with others
  • Explain the best and worst things which happen to this character
  • Writing in first person, tell why "you" are important to this book, then create a "self" portrait. These may be drawn, painted, pictures cut from magazines, newspapers, downloaded from the Internet or any combination of these techniques.