MOVING DAY.

Moving Day is pretty sure to come the first week in May, for some of the pupils, and the good-byes and transfers introduce Moving Day into more than one morning's exercise. Question pupils as to how many ever had a Moving Day. Whether they enjoyed it. Why? Why not? How many have seen neighbors move? How did they move things? What kind of a wagon or van was used? What kind is used on rainy days? How can children help on Moving Day?

Draw or cut moving wagons. Draw a picture that will show how Moving Day looked to you. Write at the top the name of your picture, "Moving Day."

What do people do when they go into the new house? (Clean house, scrub, paint, paper, carpet it.) What is used to sweep the house? To wash it? Dry it? Did you ever hear of Mother Nature's house-cleaning?

May 1st is also Moving Day and house-cleaning time for some birds. What birds move into new homes this month? (Orioles, swallows.)

Do they build new houses or move into old ones left last year? How do they fix up the old house? Do they do any house-cleaning? With what do they repair their walls? Carpet their houses? Recall the story of the Sheep and the Bramble Bush.

Read to pupils:

MOTHER EARTH'S HOUSE-CLEANING.

O dear!" murmured old Mother Earth, "how annoying!
The Winter has ended, and Spring has begun.
There's all my Spring house-cleaning waiting before me.
And not a thing done.

There'll be sweeping and scouring in every odd corner,
I must lift my brown carpets and put down the green,
Clear my ceilings of cobwebs, and wash all my wood-work,
Till everything's clean.

"My servants are willing enough, but so plodding;
My daughters are idle, I have but one sun,
And he looks as if he considered my trouble

Just nothing but fun.

"There are garments to make; yes, there's the Spring sewing, Great heaps upon heaps, and I almost despair,

With the spinning and weaving, and no one to help me,

Or lighten my care.

"Then think of the guests I am hourly expecting.
What bevies! And every one's room to prepare ;
Whole families of birds, flocking in all together,
No trouble will spare.

"I must worry and work in the kitchen, preparing
A separate dish for each separate guest;

For their tastes always differ; what one fails to relish

The other likes best."

But the South-wind brought water, and all the winds helped her,

Even her sun kindly proffered his aid;

Till, at last, every parlor and chamber made ready,

She proudly displayed.

Then the bluebirds, the blackbirds, the robins, and thrushes,

Came hurrying past in a chattering throng.

They greeted her warmly, and uttered her praises.

In cheeriest song.

The crickets, the frogs, and the ants and the lizards,
The bees and the butterflies, ev'ry gray moth,
Found his place ready waiting; his dinner to suit him,
Whether bread, meat or broth.

-Mary H. Krout.

Read to pupils:

SPRING.

The winds of March shall sweep the earth,

The rains of April wash and scour,

And May shall do the nursery wash
And fashion bud and flower.

See the green hoods of daffodils,
And silken gowns of lilies tall;

With blankets soft, of woolly fern,
For babies weak and small.

Dame Nature sets her house to rights,
With song and laugh in sunny hours;
And still she laughs and still she sings,
When pit-pat, pit-pat, fall April showers.

From the "Favorite."

E. T. Mosely.

MOTHER NATURE'S HOUSE-CLEANING.

When do we begin our house-cleaning?

When does Mother Nature begin hers?
When does she sweep the earth?
When does she scrub and wash it?
When does she dry and heat it?

When does she lay her new carpet?

When does she waken all the sleeping people in her great brown house?

When does she clothe them and bring them out of their beds? With what does Mother Nature sweep? (March winds.) How and when does she scrub? (With April showers) When and how does she dry and warm the earth? (May and April sun.)

Do you think she has sewing to do?

Where will the trees get dresses to cover their bare limbs? Do you think she ever has any mending to do?

Are the leaves of trees and vines never torn or bitten into scraps by insects?

What tree furnishes the needles?

Do you remember that little verse that says?—

"If Mother Nature patches the leaves of trees and vines, I'm sure she does her darning with the needles of the pines, They are so long and slender, and sometimes in full view They show their thread of cobweb and thimbles made of dew." Keep a sharp lookout for these thimbles made of dew and the cobweb of thread.

"So busy is the dear old earth,

A-weaving million tresses,

And making for her forest trees
The freshest of new dresses.”

it.

MORNING TALK.

Read this poem to the pupils and have a little talk about

MOTHER NATURE'S NEW CARPET.

ANNIE HAMILTON DONNELL.

I must have a new carpet this spring,

My old one will never do,

It's getting so threadbare and soiled
And it shows the bare floor through.

They're coming to do my house-cleaning-
The Spring Freshet folks out of town,
And when they are done, I must hurry.

And put my new carpet down.

Now, what shall I get this season,
For the prettiest ever seen?

To my own taste, pure white for winter,
And for summer time pure green,

Gold sprinkled with dandelions,

With daisies here and there.
I've found it, by long experience,
A beautiful carpet to wear.

But maybe the styles are changing.

Perhaps I'm old fashioned-dear me!
Now tell me, if you had the choosing,
What should the color be?

-The "Favorite."

With what does Mother Nature weave her new carpet? What color is the old carpet. (Brown earth.) What kind of rugs does Mother Nature lay in winter over the old brown carpet? What helper lifts this rug of snow? (Sun.) What helper sweeps the great brown house clean? (Winds of March.) What helper washes and scrubs the floors of this house? (Aprii rain.) What helper dries it and makes it sweet and clean for the new carpet? (Sun.) What color is the new carpet? Mc ther Nature is afraid lest we tire of a carpet all one color and

gives us a flowered carpet. And she keeps changing the colors of the flowers in this new carpet so that it will always look new to us.

What little flowers did she put on this new carpet first in April? Dandelions-little yellow sunbeams or stars dropped to the earth; violets-little scraps of the blue sky cut from the holes where the stars shine through-perhaps. Anyway that is what one little girl thought they were. I will sing you what she said.

Song: "Violets."

VIOLETS.

"I know, blue modest violets,
Gleaming with dew at morn,
I know the place you come from,
And the way that you are born.
When God cuts holes in heaven,

The holes the stars shine through,
He lets the scraps fall down to earth,
The little scraps are you."

Did you ever hear what was done with the scraps left over? Read poem.

BLUEBIRD.

When Mother Nature with planting was through,
There was left of spring's own color, blue,

Enough to fashion a flower,

Whose hue was richer than all, and as fair;

So she tossed the bright flower high up in the air,

Saying, "So many bright flowers grow everywhere-
Let this pretty one be a bird."

-Favorite Magazine.

GRASS.

OBSERVATION AND LANGUAGE.

Question pupils as to the material of which the earth's summer carpet is made, and let them bring you as many kinds of grass and moss as can be secured near the school ground.