A girl like a sunshiny morning would smile a good deal. She would help her mother and run quick when her mother asked her to do things. She would not get mad at a joke, but would be pleasant to everybody. A girl like a hornet would be cross and troublesome. She would be vain of her clothes and would have her own way. She would not be liked very well. Story work is continued and elaborated in the third grade. An interesting way to teach paragraphing and proper divisions of composition is to write on the board the leading word of each sentence, putting in one bracket the leading words of the sentences that should form one paragraph. Then each child's reproduction differs from the rest. You can lead up to this by giving larger parts of sentences as in De Garmo's Language Lessons, but it is better to give only the leading word of a sentence as that gives room for more individuality of expression. I heard an excellent oral lesson in the third grade, obtained by having the pupils relate a story they had read in the class, having the leading words before them on the board. This prevents them from getting in meaningless and unimportant sentences. The aim of all teaching of language is to form in the child's mind a standard of correct English that is so much a part of himself that he habitually speaks and writes his native tongue with purity and ease. Say So If your work is made more easy Birds and Animals in the (Tell the children about these places while we are interested in them.-ED.) I doubt if any islands have such a countless variety of animals and flying and creeping things as the Philippines. A stubby variety of horses, fat and furry ponies, is used in Manila and towns. Oxen and a species of buffaloes are used for heavy draft purposes. The mountains teem with deer. Goats, swine, rabbits, and sheep abound in the mountains and forests in all degrees of wildness. The wild hogs on Samar have sometimes killed natives. There are several hundred varieties of birds, and about twenty that are not known elsewhere. Parrots are more common in the backwoods than robins are here. Among the forests close to the coasts are found peculiar birds of the swallow tribe. They make a strange food that the Chinese are so fond of— the bird's nest. Hundreds of natives earn their sole livelihood by hunting at certain seasons for these birds' nests and selling them to the Chinese. Of monkeys there are a dozen varieties. Bats are simply enormous. They are of the vampire variety. No wonder there is a vast deal of superstition and dread among people in the tropics concerning vampires. They are frightfully uncanny. I have seen vampire bats with bodies as large as common house cats, and with wings that expand five feet from tip to tip. Let any one be seated or strolling along some moonlight night and have one of those black things come suddenly swooping down past him, and he will have some cause for nervous prostration. I knew one of those bats to go sailing into the big hotel dining-room at Manila one evening when dinner was serving. It came as a horrible apparition. Some women fainted and others shrieked as they went under the tables. The men ran out of the room. "The seacoast is rich in many forms of fish. The natives, like the Hawaiians, know how to catch them, too. All the natives in the Philippines that I ever knew about (except the rich and aristocratic people in Manila) are fishers. They catch a species of mullet there that is delicious. When these fish come up the coast from the China Sea in schools, the natives will abandon any occupation, and even leave a sick hammock to go out and angle off the coast." Games in School-Room Another very good bean bag game is called Team Race. The children must be arranged in lines, with an empty aisle in the rear of each line. This can usually be arranged by using the space between the first row of desks and the wall for an empty aisle. Suppose we have six rows of children. Now row number two joins with row number one to form a long line in aisle number one. Aisle number two is empty, and another long line is formed in aisle number three. Aisle four is empty, and a third line is formed in aisle five. Give the first child in each line a bean bag. He turns and tosses it to the child next to him, the second child tosses it to the third, the third to the fourth, and so on down the line till the last child in the line receives the bean bag. He then turns and runs down the empty aisle to the head of his line, and immediately starts the bag again. This is continued until every child in the line has had a chance to run with the bean bag. The first line. out scores one. This game may be varied by using first both hands, then the right, then the left. The game Dodge Ball is a step in advance of a similar game in the kindergarten, where the children sit on the floor in a circle, and roll a large ball from one to another. In Dodge Ball some of the children form a circle extending along the four walls of the room, while the rest of the children remain inside the circle, standing anywhere they choose in the aisles. The ball is given to a child in the circle and is tossed from one to another until it has passed around the room. On its second passage around the room it may be thrown by any one in the circle at any child within the aisles. The child who has been hit must join the circle, and the ball is started again. The children inside must watch the ball and must try to keep from being hit by dodging it. The children outside must be very quick in throwing and catching the ball. The last child left standing in the aisles wins the game. Ducks Fly can be played by any number of children and in any room. The children stand in the aisles, and the teacher faces them. She says "Ducks Fly," and raises her arms to represent flying. The children imitate her as long as she mentions creatures that fly. If she names a creature that cannot fly, as "cats fly," or "elephants fly" and any child makes a movement, he has to sit down. The teacher, of course, moves her arms every time, so that the children cannot tell by what she does whether they ought to fly or not. The children have to think for themselves and have to think quickly. Sarah Hayes Jacobus in K-n Review. H OW shall we keep the special days, the red letter days of the year? Let us bring the thought of the day we celebrate into our regular work. Let us have morning talks and reading and language bearing on the day until that interest which comes from knowledge grows and grows, and noble thoughts touch the school life. In the primary grades, where the main requirement is to teach the reading and the writing of English, special day work may be a continual delight to teacher and pupils. Our festivals round the year in continuity of thought. They furnish topics of conversation in which all the classes of any school may unite. They appeal to the child because his greatest pleasures are associated with the holidays. To teach the meaning of these days is to teach ethics, altruism, patriotism; for each holiday is founded on some great principle of truth which has lifted the race to a higher spiritual plane. Even the birthdays of our great men are kept because the men we honor have left the world better than they found it. From the opening of the September schools until all nature sleeps each day points to Thanksgiving. September and October are continual harvest days. The teacher who first leads a child to see the beauty of harvest opens to him the pages of a rare old book which grows in interest with every reading. Morning Talks Let the talks which lead to the Thanksgiving thought begin early in November. There is rich material for a full month's work. The topics for daily conversations may be arranged in the following order: The Harvest. Story of the Pilgrims. Indian Life. The First Thanksgiving. The President's Proclamation. Our Thanksgiving. What a delight to search for interesting history, stories, poems and songs relating to the month's work. How the teacher is led on in her reading from one book to another until the work she commenced for the children's sake has borne for herself a hundred-fold harvest. When the children begin to contribute to the morning talks bits of information gained at home, then, indeed, may the teacher know that attention has been gained and interest is growing. The Harvest Among the poems relating to harvest are "The Corn Song," and "The Huskers," by Whittier, parts of which the *Copyrighted by EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING CO., 1898. children will enjoy memorizing. In Poulsson's Finger Plays are three harvest poems: "How the Corn Grew," "The Miller," and "Making Bread." "Alice's Supper" is found in St. Nicholas, and in Harpers' Second Reader and in the October Plan book, edited by Minnie George. One of the most beautiful Thanksgiving songs is found in Gaynor's "Songs of the Child World," every line of which suggests conversations about the harvest and preparations for winter. Here is the first stanza: SMANKSCIVING November. 24 1898. Summer is gone, Autumn is here, This is the barvest For all the De year. Gorn in the crib, Oats in the bin Wheat is all threshed Barley drawn in. Fig. 2. Smith's Song Book, Part II, are particularly appropriate. (Fig. 2.) Many beautiful harvest pages may be planned for the Thanksgiving booklet if the teacher is so fortunate as to have specimens of ripe grain for the drawing copies. The Pilgrims A five-cent book, entitled "Stories of the Pilgrims,"* contains information in which the primary pupils will be interested. This little book also tells of the Indians and the first Thanksgiving. It furnishes supplementary reading "for the third grade, and some of its pages are easy enough for the second grade. After the children have become familiar with the story they will be ready to do some written work for their booklets. The beginners are delighted to name one of their paper boats the "Mayflower." They will work for days to learn to write the name and will place it under their folded sail-boat with great triumph and satisfaction. Fig. 1. Squares cut from letter paper or tablets will make booklets of a pleasing size and shape for pupils in the first and second grades. These papers may be made very attractive by ruling the margins with colored pencils. The child delights to hand in a pretty paper and he does his best with the decorated sheet which is to be taken home. All papers good enough to be kept are placed in a box. When the teacher is ready to make the booklets she sorts the papers, placing each child's work in a pile. Each set is then arranged in order and fastened together. By using a common darning needle and some bright-colored cord or worsted, the work can be done in a short time. It will be well to plan the cover early in the month. Some teachers prefer a plain unruled paper, but others wish the children to write the name of the day and the date, or to otherwise ornament this cover. Very pretty covers may be made by using the mimeograph. (Fig. 1.) For the in the PRIMARY EDUCATION for December, 1897. The same article tells how to make a cradle which is not unlike those in which the Pilgrim babies were rocked. Folded windmill.. The following questions outline a short composition about the Pilgrims: In what ship did the Pilgrims sail across the ocean? What did they find? What was on the ground? Were there any houses, stores or churches? How did the Pilgrims get houses to live in? After an oral drill in reading the answers to these questions the children can write a neat composition, correct in spelling, punctuation, and capitalization, by observing the help given in the outline. They will need to have the additional words, Plymouth Rock, rocky fields, and woods, snow and built, written for reference in spelling. Their work will be similar to the following: The Pilgrims sailed across the ocean in the "Mayflower." They landed on Plymouth Rock. They found rocky fields and woods. Snow was on the ground. There were no houses, stores or churches. The Pilgrims cut down trees and built log-houses to live in. Fold together two edges of a four-inch square. Fold again, bringing the two long edges together. The rectangle of paper 4 x I represents the wooden board of linden or maple cut by the Indian father. One inch of this rectangle should be cut off. The board which supports the baby's feet may be shown by folding over one of the ends, as in the figure. A narrow strip of paper four inches long may be pasted or pinned to show the hoop which arches over the child's head to protect him from injury should the cradle fall. The accompanying illustration shows how the paper cradle looks when completed. If the children are allowed to cut a baby from paper, lay it in the cradle, cut a bright paper cover, and finally, to bind together cradle, baby and all with long strips of paper, their happiness will be complete. Cyr's First Reader contains a picture of an Indian pappoose in a cradle. Two interesting lessons about Indians accompany the picture. This paper cradle may be pressed down and pasted at the top of one of the pages designed for the booklet. The description of Hiawatha's cradle may be copied or memorized. There the wrinkled old Nokomis Nursed the little Hiawatha, Rocked him in his linden cradle, Bedded soft in moss and rushes, Safely bound with reindeer sinews. The First Thanksgiving One of the most interesting and best written stories on this subject is found in Kate Douglas Wiggin's "Story Hour." The article on "Old Fashioned Ways and Things," and also the story of "Ruth Endicott," in PRIMARY EDUCATION for November, 1895, help to make real the life of the people who kept the first Thanksgiving Day. The President's Proclamation The children are always intensely interested in hearing that the President has written a letter telling all the people in this country when and how to keep Thanksgiving Day. They like to know that this letter is published in the papers and read in the churches all over our land. Our Thanksgiving The morning talks, songs, and beautiful memory gems have led the children to understand the meaning of "the happy Thank-you Day." They are ready to sing and also to copy the last stanza of their Thanksgiving song. Father in heaven, thank Thee for all, The words and the music of this song are found in the second book of Eleanor Smith's Songs. A copy was given to the readers of PRIMARY EDUCATION, in November, 1895. It may be that the suggestion to bring something from the home store for those less fortunate will come from the children themselves. In many schools it is the custom for the children to bring offerings of food and clothing to school on the day preceding Thanksgiving. These gifts vary from old shoes to live chickens. The happy possessor of the fowl is always attended by a crowd of admiring followers, hugging parcels and beaming with pleasure. pathetic is the happy smile on the faces of forlorn, poorly dressed little ones who bring the regulation gift of a potato and an apple to the teacher with the remark, "I have brought something for the poor children." Beautiful and yet Stories and Memory Gems There is nothing which will so surely bring the child mind to the true spirit of thankfulness as stories of generosity and kindness. There are many of these in the November copies of PRIMARY EDUCATION. (Fortunate is the teacher who has all the back numbers.) "How Patty Gave Thanks," in Poulsson's "Child's World," and Miss Wiltse's story of "The Bird's Thanksgiving," are good. Among the beautiful memory gems which the children may recite daily through November is one by an unknown author which can never grow old: Then lift up the head with a song! The spirit in gratitude lift! The rice, and the corn, and the wheat, The cotton, and sugar, and fruit, The flowers and the fine honeycomb, The country, so fair and so free, The blessing and glory of home. The Children Ragged and dirty and saucy may be, Feet that shall soon lead, to-day may be led ; Train them aright- they will rule when you're dead. - E. C. H. in Public School Journal A Number Game Passing quickly through the aisles, crayon in hand, I place a number on each slate, not going beyond sixty. A boy or girl is then called to the platform, holding the slate so that all can see the number. The children rise in turn, hold up their slates, and telling what their numbers are, ask the pupil on the platform a question. When he fails to answer correctly, he goes to his seat and the one who asked the question answers it and takes his place. Suppose the boy's number to be forty-five, the questions will run like this: "My number is thirty-seven, how much more than yours is mine?" "My number is ten; if cents, how many ten-cent tops could you buy, and how much over?" 66 My number is twenty-seven, add mine to yours." "How many nickels in your number?" "If my number be taken from your number what will be left?" "Your number is how many times my number?" etc. This calls for close attention and rapid thinking. If the scholar who is being questioned is a little slow in answering, the others grow wild with excitement, and in their eagerness to answer for him rise from their seats and even press forward as far as the platform. But noise and confusion of this kind does not hurt a school, and the teacher will feel amply repaid by a look into the bright faces and shining eyes of the happy little people.- Indiana School Journal. The Tree Frog, who was a good-natured old fellow after all, winked his eye at them and said: “ Sing away. This won't last always, and then it will be my turn to sing." Something flew down from the sky and bit the poor body of the Earthworm in two. Oh! how it hurt! Both halves of him wriggled and twisted with pain. After a while the aching stopped and he had time to think. At this very moment who should come along but the Cicada and one of the Earthworm pieces asked his advice. Pooh! that is a simple matter. I thought I was two Cicadas once, but I wasn't. The thinking, moving part is the real one, whatever happens, so that part of the worm which thinks and moves is the real worm.' "I remember the day when my hind legs began to grow, and how the other Tadpoles crowded around me in the water and swam close to me to feel the two little bunches that were to be legs." "The older Grasshoppers and Crickets and Locusts only looked at each other and opened their funny mouths in a smile." "Mr. Green Frog took little jumps all the way and bragged and bragged." The Grasshoppers said to each other, "If the Snail wants the food so much he might better go for it." They talked it over and some of them said it was no use to help a snail who was too lazy to do anything for himself. "All the Grasshoppers and Beetles and other strong, crawling creatures took turns in rolling the snail down towards the river." Why," answered the Garter Snake with a funny little smile, "I think you might call yourselves half-brothers." And to this day, they are known as the earthworm half brothers. "What do you suppose," said the Tree Frog," that the Garter Snake is saying about you? It is very absurd, yet I feel you ought to know." "Umph!" said the Tree Frog to himself, "I guess there isn't enough in the Frog's head to make her sick! One chilly Caterpillar said to another, "Boo-oo! how cold it is! I must find a place for my cocoon. Suppose we sleep side by side this winter swinging on some bush?" Well! What is this? Nature study, or science, or ethics-or what? Publishers will print such books as long as they sell. How long will teachers submissively accept them and willingly use them because they are provided by the " "Board," and because "the children like them "- if they do? W What is Gained? THE EDITOR HAT is the benefit of telling the children such things as appear in the following quotations,taken from a nature reader recently published for primary grades? Why caricature and belittle nature by attributing to animals and insects that which is unnatural, contrary to habit, and manifestly impossible? If children love to personify and imagine that these interesting creatures talk to each other and have their own social interests, why, let them do so: but let these imaginary conversations be so guided by the teacher, or the author, that children shall not attribute human qualities to animals or consider the insect world as giving exhibitions of human frailties. "I am often glad I am not a stone," said the Earth worm, "for to have to lie still must be hard to bear." "The Potato Bug went his way, and said to his brothers, What do you think? I have been talking with Earthworms who would not be Potato Bugs if they could!' "The Caterpillar said, 'Oh, the meadow is a good place, and the people are nice enough, but they are not at all fashionable - not at all." "I shall have to give you a spider scolding." "Excuse me," said the Caterpillar, "If I smiled it was because I remembered being in the same plight myself yesterday." "Well," answered the Beetle, "I am willing to speak to you, of course, but we can never be at all friendly. A May Beetle, indeed, in company with a Caterpillar! I move in upper circles!" Mr. Butterfly said to the Daisies, "I am surprised to think you will grow here. I am sure I could have chosen a better place." |