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the center of which hung a huge paper ball of gleaming and have them dragged to the river. The river men send yellow fingers- a veritable sunshine.

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its golden rays quite as tall as our tiniest babies.

Then from the center window space the gracious face of our guide and friend looked down upon us, his tender words for the little ones written round about him. Beneath was a bracket in white and gold, and never a day passed without a blossom for Froebel. Even the prim pillars bore their tribute, a bas-relief of Reynolds' "Angel Choir," or a marble angel caryatid upholding in a golden amber vase some feathery branch of blossoms and leaves, making dainty traceries against the dark wood.

Each window lovingly tended some living green thing, while slender lilies and spring blossoms filled bowl and jar. The seasons, with dainty tribute of bird and blossom, crossed the blackboards, and above looked tenderly down the Babe of Bethlehem in His manger cradle.

What could make us more at home than our beloved squirrels and comical bunnies — all the friends of field and farm that the PRIMARY EDUCATION had sent us? So we mounted them on dark backgrounds to nestle among the pictured sunflowers, the dainty groups of Black-eyed Susans and the golden wheat, among which piped the gay "Bob White."

And then came Iris and threw her rainbow bridges across floor and wall, and we knew we had come out of the valley into the light.

Kindergarten Games in the V.

L

School-Room

KATHERINE BEEBE

The Woodman

(Page 12. Part II.)

ET us now live for a while in a northern lumber camp. One of the aisles is a river; in a corner at the back of the room is a saw-mill, made by a number of children joining hands in a circle; a man is in charge of this mill, and a carpenter conveniently serves as his assistant. In the front part of the room are two other men who are in charge of ox-teams. Two others are chosen, who stand in the river, pointers in hand. These pointers are used in gently assisting the logs as they float down the stream towards the saw-mill. It is needless to say that they should be used with discretion.

Several woodmen are chosen, who carry imaginary axes and saws. The rest of the children represent trees, and are planted in the space in front of the desks.

Sing the whole song through while standing in position ready for work, and point dramatically to the objects and groups mentioned in the verses. Then let the industry move on. The woodmen fell the trees one by one, and saw off the branches. The drivers fasten the logs to the oxen

* Part II. "Songs and Games for the Kindergarten." Smith.

them down the stream. The saw-mill man and his helper get them into the mill, which turns round and ound with loud buzzing. As the logs are thus converted into boards, the carpenter proceeds to build a house with them.

Let the game go on until all the trees are felled, the logs sawn, and the house built, and if one wishes it, some of the workmen may live in the house.

The logs will have to be told to go down stream on their feet on account of clean clothes and not always clean floors. Enthusiasts invariably wish to roll down the river in this game.

The Carpenter

(Page 84. Part I.)

"The Woodman "game is naturally followed by a more complicated "Carpenter" game than was possible during the previous process. A simple mode of procedure is to use it as a "motion song," and perhaps teachers will find it most useful in this way, as it brings change and rest to the children without much trouble or expense of time.

The children stand in the aisle, and as they sing the first

The carpenter

FAWARNER

verse they make the hammering motion, pounding invisible nails into an imaginary house.

As the second verse is sung, the children, by a climbing movement of the hands, represent the carpenter going up his ladder. With the words,

"He puts a roof above our heads To shield when rain doth fall," each child may make a gable roof of his own upraised hands, or may so raise his hands that they touch those of his opposite neighbor, and a long, arching

roof be thus formed. In this case two rows of children will have to stand in one aisle.

During the last verse let the children clap their hands in time to the music.

Another and a less simple rendition of this game was a great favorite in our kindergarten. A number of children so placed themselves as to form a hollow square, a small opening being left on one side. This was a house in process of building. A number of small carpenters worked in and around this structure as the words of the song were sung. An old piano cover served as a roof, and a family was ready to move in as soon as the last verse was reached. Nearly every collection of kindergarten songs and games has in it a carpenter play of some sort, so teachers may have a large range of choice. The music of the one in Miss Blow's translation of Froebel's "Mother Play" book is particularly attractive.

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In the open space in front of the desks arrange most of the children in a hollow square or oblong, open at one end. This is a blacksmith's shop. In it are two little blacksmith's, one chair for a forge, another for an anvil, and a

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The blacksmiths continue to work until the song is finished, until the chorus has been repeated several times, or until all the horses have been shod, as may be expedient.

When in doubt as to any of the details of this game, or any other, let the children themselves step into the breach with suggestions and help. Indeed the more entirely the games can be planned as well as executed by them the better. The details given in these articles have most of them come to the writer in this way, but other more original or better adapted methods should always be substituted for them when developed by any particular set of children.

As a song to be sung at the seats, sitting or standing, this becomes a great favorite with an "anvil chorus " accompaniment. Ask the children to bring old horseshoes and nails to school. Distribute as many as you see fit among your pupils and let them beat time on a horseshoe with a nail during the chorus. To get the resonance from the iron it will be necessary to pass a loop of strong string through each shoe by which it may be held while it is being struck. Let the few who hold the horseshoes during the first chorus pass them to their neighbors for the second one. By rapid striking, a very pretty sleigh-bell accompaniment may be made for any sleighing song in use.

The Tailor

(Page 7. Part II.)

Divide your force of workmen into three parts. One part, standing near their desks, are to be the cutters; the next part, also standing near their desks, are to be the pressers. The third part should be seated cross-legged, and on the desks, if possible, to represent the sewers. This arrangement holds for the first verse. After it is sung, the sewers be- | come cutters, the cutters pressers, and the pressers sewers. the end of the second verse still another change is made, giving each group an opportunity of doing each kind of work.

At

The tailor

FIL WARNER

Description of Simple Objects

F

M. F. HALL

A Game in Composition

OR the child who describes an object not previously named, the exercise is, primarily, one of orderly, coherent, and related thinking; and secondarily, an orderly and exact description, so given that others may tell from the description what the narrator has in mind. Both these things, and in this order, are essential to real constructive work in language.

The children who listen are to hold in mind the various features, or attributes, described, and to think of objects having the characteristics given.

This exercise, with a suitable theme, is useful in any grade or class. In the literature class it may become a fine test both of knowledge and skill.

Some exercises by the youngest children are given as illustrations:

"What I am thinking of is something in this room. has a flat top and four legs. It is small and brown. uses it every day. We all have them at home." The children said: "It is a table."

"I am in many places. Miss

It

Miss

(First Grade)

has one. I am round

and very bright. I have a white face. My two hands are not alike. I lie down a great deal. Every one thinks I am nice." [A WATCH] (Second Grade) "It has six square faces. It has eight corners. It is made of wood. It cannot roll, but it can stand. We draw it sometimes."

[A CUBE] (First Grade)

These are suffcient to show the possibilities of this form of language exercise when used with children. It need scarcely be said that a description of Dr. Johnson at tea; The Three Kings of Longfellow; Robinson Crusoe; Ivanhoe; or other characters of life or of literature will form an inspiring theme for a game with advanced classes.

It is understood, of course, that this exercise need not be limited in its range or theme.

Its greatest value is probably found in the style of clearcut, related, and complete thinking which it requires. The difficulty of the lesson is forgotten because the exercise takes the form of a game. Clear oral narration is more disciplinary than written descriptions, because of the readiness and command of resources that it necessitates.

The efforts of young children are like these:

"I build my house in the bushes or in a hollow tree. I

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It is the purpose of the following exercises to denote how the more difficult inferences of mathematical relation may be connected with and developed out of primary ones which may be observed directly.

Exercise I

I Tell all you can of the size of the units in Fig. 1. large as n.

2 Find all the ratios you can in Figs. 1-5.

to n.

Ex.c=

Ex. p is as

Ex. is the ratio of m

3 Make equations. of 6 = of 4. (Fig. 5.) (Fig. 3.) 4 I is the ratio of what? Ex. I is the ratio of of d to b. (Fig. 2.) I is the ratio of of v to of y. (Fig. 3.) is the ratio of 3 times g to o. (Fig. 4.) I is the ratio of of 12 to of 6. (Fig 5.)

of p. h = 4 times d. (Fig. 4) 8+4=12. (Fig. 5.) x + v = 1.

S

Fractions II

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5

of c =

Fill the blanks: m = of. -of p,

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(Fig. 3.) of e=

is the ratio of

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Based upon the Speer Arithmetic

L. W. COLWELL, Principal Linne School Chicago Ill.
(Continued from December number)

O evident is it that arithmetical processes are needed in daily life to enable us to adapt means to end and husband our resources, that it has become customary, on beginning the study of mathematics, to turn at once to its abstract technique, as these processes may be termed. So long has this practice obtained and so justifiable does it seem that we have accepted it heretofore unquestioningly and styled the processes fundamental. Regarding them in this light, we are thereby predisposed to look with suspicion upon an attempt to substitute for the study of operations with figures, that which is really fundamental, viz.: relations of quantity.

Yet we know very well that the things of prime importance are not letters, figures, or signs, but ideas; moreover it is written in the words of those we dare not dispute that thinking is comparing, that numerical symbols are purely representative, and that number cannot furnish a basis upon which to develop the science of mathematics. (See quotations in Primary Book.)

Infan

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Direct study of quantity reveals the real fundamentals of mathematics as products of comparative magnitudes. Convenient processes of reckoning quantity with figures are needed, but their use should develop, like all habits, from internal pressure for expression, not from external imposition nor dictation. Calculating can be done by machines; education deals with brains.

Few magnitudes can be perceived entire, yet upon the few ratios that can be directly sensed, depends the estimate of all those vast or subtle units that the hand cannot reach for nor the eye take in. (See article in May issue.) Upon the seen rests the unseen.

"The importance of bringing simple basic ratios definitely into the consciousness is better understood when we look beyond them. By means of perceived relations we must pass to the inferring of relations." Primary Book

"The higher processes in mathematics lie at the very foundation of the subject." Sylvester

"Equations constitute the true starting point of arithmetic." Comte "Upon these equations made known by the activity of mind upon the magnitudes themselves, all mathematical deduction depends." Primary Book

Ex.

6 Find the units that have the relative size (ratio) ; those that show the ratios,,, t, 3, 4, 6, 1, 3, 4, ¿, §, 2, 1, 1, 6, 1, 5, 8, 8, t. is the ratio of m to p, (Fig. 1); of d to e, (Fig. 2); of y tol, (Fig. 3);

etc.

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12 Use the integral names in Fig. 5 like the letter names in the other figures.

13 Draw Fig. 5 on blackboard; instead of writing in the names 2, 4, 6, etc., write in the names, 3, 6, 9, etc. Give ratios, find missing terms, sums, differences, etc., as above.

14 Use other sets of names, similarly; 4, 8, 12, etc. 20, 40, 60, etc. 25, 50, 75, etc. 32, 64, 96, etc. Fix these names by applying them to other magnitudes showing the same ratio. Constantly vary the forms but preserve the same ratios. Return over and over with new sets of units to be named by the same series of names until the names become significant of certain relations of magnitude.

Exercise II

I Call the largest unit 1 (Figs. 1-4) and name each of the other units. Call the next largest unit I and name the others; the next largest, etc.

2 Draw units bearing the same relations as above and write in these names,-,,, †, 5, 1. (Fig 6.)

3 Find ratios; arrange the statement of them in order. Ex. = of, of, of, of, and of 1.

= 2 times, of 1,1 of 3, of 1⁄2 and } of 1.

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8 Observe the relative magnitude of and i. e., Compare with . How many 's in? Or, better, what part of a & equals a?

Applications

9 A bottle holds a pt. It is full of water. How much water is there in the bottle? What is the quantity relation of the water to pint? is the ratio of what to pt.? Then what part of a pint of water is there in the bottle?

10 If $25 is of the cost of my horse, what is the cost? What is the size relation of to? 2 is the ratio of what to $25? II Represent by drawings or by blocks units that may be named I, }, 1, 1, 1, 1, §, 1. Give their ratios as in problem 3 of Exercise II. 12 is the ratio of what to? is the ratio of what?

13 At the rate of yd. for 27c what is the cost of yd. of ribbon? How much is as compared with? (Compare the magnitudes.)

Keep distinctly in mind the fact that the terms, †, I, I, etc., must not unvaryingly call up any particular size or special units. It is imperative that the experience of the children should connect them with such a variety of forms that the particular forms shall sink out of sight and the terms shall stand for relations that can be represented in new forms freely selected or created.

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I

2

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What is the ratio of m to n (Fig. 1)? of n to m?
What is the ratio of to (Fig. 6)? of to?

3 What is the magnitude of as compared with the magnitude of 1, (Fig. 6)? If the names in Fig. 6 be changed so as to make become 1, what must I become? What must it become if becomes 1? 4 What is the ratio of 1 to ? What is the quantity I as compared with ? with ? with? with 2? with 4? with 7?

5 What is the ratio of a yard to of a yard. If yard cloth cost $1.05, what cost I yard?

Solution: I yard bears what relation to of a yard? It should cost what fraction as much?

6 When 2 dozen eggs are worth 40c, how much are eggs a dozen? Solution: How much is I as compared to 23 or? What part of 40c then is the value of a dozen eggs?

7 At $ a pound, how much citron can be bought for $2 for $61? Solution: What is the ratio of $1 to $? How much can be bought for $1? Then how much for $2? for $63 or $?

8 How many in 2?

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3 and what = 4?

Then 3 and how much = Exercise III

41?

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2 Call I and name the units in Fig. I as above. Call 61. , tc.

3 Deal with the other magnitudes similarly. If 8 in Fig. 5 represents a square yard of oilcloth what do th other units represent?

21

4 What other way of expressing {, 1, 1, 4, 4, 12, 41, 18, etc.; 1, 13, 23, 74, 251}, etc.?

Fig. 6

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What is the ratio of y tot (Fig, 3)? of of y to1⁄2 of ? of of y to of ? of of y tot of t? of of y to an of t? of 17 of y to 27 oft? AB What is true of the comparative value of all these ratios? Ans. They are equal.

2 Express in simplest form the ratio of 10 to 25. Compare the ratio of of 10 to of 25 to the ratio of 10 to 25. Are these ratios equal? What is the ratio of 2 to 5? of 10 to 25?

3 What units are exact measures of n? Ans. b, r, and c. (Fig. 1.) 4 What units are common measures of m and n? Ans. b and r. 5 What units will measure both 8 and 12 (Fig 5)? What is the greatest common measure of 8 and 12?

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It is hoped that the foregoing exercises indicate in some degree not only the sufficiency of observing ratio for solving all ordinary problems in fractions, but also the necessity of some primary and immediate knowledge of quantity as a basis for inference and operations with figures.

Though the reader may miss the familiar nomenclature such as improper fractions, mixed numbers, least common denominator, inverting divisor, etc., it will be remarked that these things appear above, all involved in simple observations of quantity and too closely intermingled to be proper subjects for separate treatment.

Child-Study in the Home

The average American child needs tranquilizing rather than stimulating, and through the ear he may be soothed. The lullaby of the mother has a physiological significance, the soft rhythmical cadences seem to excite pleasurable vibrations in the nerves that by their monotonous recurrence soothe and quiet the infant although he can have no real consciousness of music. As he grows older and the sense of hearing can bear more intense sounds, he seems to delight in them for their very intensity. He enjoys noise for the sake of noise. Now is the time that he can be trained to the appreciation of musical sounds. If left to himself he will be noisy only, if directed he may be made musical. Northwestern Monthly.

HERE AND
AND HERE

A Klondike School

The newspapers say a Boston teacher has gone to Dawson city. She has carried her school-house and all necessary equipments with her, intending to teach all the winter through. They tell us the name is Mrs. L. C. Howland, and that she is a graduate of Harvard Annex. The school

house is a portable building made in sections that can be easily fitted together. If there are no children at the Klondike then she will teach the miners. When a teacher once gets the fever, it never dies out. Teach she must in

some form or other, to the end of her days.

It was

The Public School Art League was organized in the city of Boston in 1892. composed of artists and lovers of art who believed in the educational value of an association with works of art. With

the aid of the Boston school committee the League began its labors by decorating two school-rooms, and has pushed steadily forward ever since with a broadening and beneficient influence. Mr. Ernest Fenallosa says of the basic idea of the League:

"It seems to me the term art is too often identified by the public with the more special professional mark of making pictures and sculpture. No doubt this is an important portion of art, but it does not give the key to the work of the league, which aims to train the faculty and taste, and educate the young to the uses, the public function, all the discipline even, of art as a whole. The purpose of art education in general is no more to turn the whole nature into professional makers of oil paintings than the general education in music is to train a world of composers.

"It is to make more cultivated and well-rounded citizens by stimulating a most important part of their nature, and a desire for a knowledge of beauty. The development of the faculty of taste throughout the community would help to bring about right and helpful living, and is second only in importance to religion."

The Beginning of the Movement

brightening the rooms of the dingy school, crowded with children, representing the decided foreign element characteristic of that section of the city. From the nature of the environment of the children it seemed imperative to the teachers of the school that something should be done to give them a little glimpse of the beautiful. With the cooperation of Miss Starr and others who became interested in the work, the school-room walls were beautifully tinted, and in every room a picture or a cast was placed. The Woman's Club of Chicago, becoming alive to the import of the subject, formed an association of the members of the educational and literature sections. Other agencies are at work and many of the Chicago schools are tastefully decorated

Enterprise and Interest of Chicago Teachers

During the first week of last September over three thousand five hundred teachers voluntarily took a week out of their vacations, and contributed money besides, to maintain and attend a series of institutes lasting for five days. At these institutes were lecturers from all parts of the country, and the attendance was large and enthusiastic at every session. In what other city could this scheme be duplicated?

The Committee of Sixty appointed last year by the Chicago Institute of Education,. for the promotion of outdoor study of nature, did wonders. Committee on Maps told the teachers where to go. Committee on Syllabi outlined the localities for field work. Committee on Libraries secured a nature study alcove in the John Crerar Library, in which books will be placed for the benefit of students. Committee on Instruction and School Exhibits has presented to the monthly meetings specimens of work done in schools the city nature study in and supplied schools with materials from the suburbs. It has also made it possible for the schools to secure a cheap air pump and aquarium. Committee on City Industries has prepared a list of the industrial and commercial interests in the city. Committee on Transportation looked to secure cheap rates for the children to go to the suburbs. Public Information Committee put newsy accounts in the daily papers as to what was being done in the schools along these lines.

of New York City

The movement to introduce art into the school-room by bringing children into daily familiarity with examples of The Free Lecture System in the Public Schools good art originated in Manchester, England. The first attempt in this country was made some twenty-odd years ago, in Boston, by a committee of the American Social Science Association. The girls' high school was selected as affording perhaps the most promising conditions for success in such an experiment. The walls of the school hall were painted in terra cotta, and more than fifteen hundred dollars was raised for the purchase of casts of the Parthenon frieze, together with statues, busts and pictures. From time to time additions have been made to the collection, and the graduating classes of the school leave behind them as a memento of their interest various beautiful and appropriate examples of art. Though for nearly twenty years the Girls' High school of Boston stood as the only representative of such an experiment in school-room decoration, it is certain that the subtle influence exerted on the minds and hearts, manners and morals of the young people who have gathered there from year to year has created an atmosphere which is making it possible for similar enterprises to prosper elsewhere.

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"For some years past the Board of Education of the city of New York has carried on under its immediate auspices a systematic series of free lectures upon various branches of Literature, Science and Art. These lectures have been given in the public school buildings chiefly, although in one or two instances private halls, which had been placed at the disposal of the Board of Education, have been utilized for this purpose. During the last season, which was the seventh winter's work, 1065 lectures were delivered at thirty-four different centres in the city of New York, with an attendance of 426,927. This represents an average of over thirty lectures at each centre, with an average attendance of 400 at each lecture. Of the 1065 lectures, 772 were illustrated by stereopticon views, 52 by scientific experiments and 241 were not illustrated. The subjects upon which lectures were delivered were grouped under the following six heads: Physiology and Hygiene; Natural Science; Travel and Geography; American History and Civics; General History; Art, Literature and Social Science. Most of the lectures were single lectures, but many of the individual lectures were grouped together in such a way as to constitute a series relating to the same general subject. The success of the New York experiment has been so marked that school authorities in all parts of the country have been raising the question whether it is not possible to carry out in the territory subject to their jurisdiction, a somewhat similar plan."

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