Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1902-04-19
Nalnre Study"

[By Miss Annie shelton at Teachers Inst
Bryant, in his poem written at the bsau-
tilul age ofnncteen, said, "when thoughts
OF the last dark hour come like pail DER
> thy spirit, And cause thee to shudder aud
grow sick at heart, Go forth unto the open
sky and list to nature, teachings
Truly he had listened. and We, TOO, must
listen with nm untirns hearing, and hearts
and souls open, # we would learn her wa
rious language"
And it is said "lhe body unconsc' ously
erects itself at sight OF the statue Of Apol-
To-" so our souls unconseiously rise nearer
to their God in the presence Of beautiful
nature, "The heavens" and all beneath
them, " declare the glory Of God" and "on
ly man is Vile"
If one OF us, however humble oLr fields
of labor, shall teach one little child the way
to learn this nature language, we shall have
buided "round"
"ln the ladder by which we rise
From the iowly earth TO the yuuted skies
we shall ave won star for our celes-
lial crown. For, remember, then the rose
can whisper to it the secret OF its sweet
ness, the lily can tell TO it the tale of its
purity, the violet can lend to 1t its beauti-
fu' modesty, and the drop OF water unfold
to it the tale e It's usefulness,
The object of this paper however, is not
to set forth the necessity Of "nature stud"
in our school rooms, but to give, if possible
few suggestions which may profit those OF
us who have very limited space of time
from each day to devote to this work, Ny
program is very crowded but | always put
at least ten minutes on it for what call
miscellaneous exercises We use 'his
| time for such work in a very simple form
| follow no regular course in presenting it,
/ but give the lessons as the thoughts present
themselves by a beautiful wild flower hand
ed me by the children; or perhaps by ques-
| tons which the natural child before his
interest is quieled by the impotence OF
busy, Oyer-wOrked mothers and teachers)
will be lul Of What call my Primary
Geography" is really nature class, Usu-
ally the first lesson give is from water and
we can make these little experiments so ca
silly aud with so little time that have de-
velOped this line more fully than any other.
Perhaps we teel so sure that all children
understand that water evaporates that ws
feel hestancy in illustrating it, but you
will find by tryiag that the interest OF eve.
ry pupil from the first TO the fourth grade,
will be reused ly placing only bit of cold
water in can in the sun to eyaporate, and
| explain, or letting them explain, il posi-
BILE. the cause and results, This leads to
the next experiment, which is also very
simple. We place on the stove a can Of
water to boil. When the steam is passing
off rapidly, we hold over 1t cold object,
IAN old piece Of china or glass; condensng
| it into drops of water, We remain for sew
eral weeks on these experiments. leaving
the Illustration itself to talk OF the same
work in nature. 1t shows them the infinite
wisdom of our Father in "glying the fishes
more room than he does the people," as !
express it to my children The smallest
one in the room understands with wonder
the beautiful plan of Gods economy in the
| circulation of water. OF course, | have
not the space or the time to speak Of each
experiment. We illustrate the solvent pow
er OF water by dissoiving the salt, then we
| boil the water, leaving the salt in the can
thus showing in simple way how salt is
obtained from sea-water. We explain the
] ~, nj nv SipntNlV hpilipO Al
these things are done by the beginners and
one very simple experiments dwelt upon
/ for days.
! We talk of the heated air that goes up the
chimney and the draft that moves from
/ the dor to the stove, and the five year old
child can understand the principle of the
/ Trades ard Counter Trades, tho of course
/ | never mention the names Of these winds
/ to them. The rainbow is a beautiful les
sou for children and one which always IN
terests them. use for counting bunch
OF small, sticks painted in the primary coll
ors. In this rainbow lesson, which VIII
! nearly always be suggested several times
during each session by the occurrence OF
the rainbow, | first call their at ention to
the fnrt that the bow HnDeRrs after rain and
49,. ,..o,I,ar l.orn.,o1 Ono or INV M,
pllo' just Il lie" u'!S ago. WIS p'"y'ns WIN
"A little prism, such as we often see suspen-
ded from the shade OF lamp, and tn class
, un' . ,J in nnnI 70 the coIors he wa.
throwing on the floor with very little
oni,o , good scheme. Inn one which