Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1909-04-30

school and at home. ORA wing day
came and with 1t scissors and paper
were supplied. On the blackboard was
drawn a large pattern of each article
and the children fell to working with,
as is natural, varied experience. The
paper patterns were kept right where
they were pinned on the wall-the
children doing their own work. Not
satisfied with making the furniture
some of the children requested "Goldie
Locks,n and a sunbonnet baby was
drawn. They drew and cut some;
next, the bears were wanted. One of
the boys, a lad of eight, had drawn
three bears TO his liking, and these were
used for patterns, after which some
drew the house and others added trees
for the forest. Now, came the mount
ing Of the articles on pasteboard-the
backs of tablets. Is this teaching of
Art ? No, that is not what is wanted.
Do you know what has been accom-
plished ? If not think it out, work 1t
out You can utilize many other
stories In the same way. Take Hia-
watha's childhood, as given in the
Hiawatha primer, the story of the
Esquimo, for January work, and for
March, Robert Lewis Steyenson's beau
tiful description of the wind, part of
which is
II saw you toss the kites on high,
And blow the birds about the sky,
And all day long, l heard you pass
Like ladies' skirts across the grass.
Oh, wind ALLOWING all day long
Oh, wind that sings SO loud a'song -
This can be taught as a song. If pre-
pared, and the ILLUSTRATION Of kites be-
ing tossed above house tops and steep
les-just plain lines which anyone can
place can be used. Or the suggestion
of spring with
PUSSY. Willow has a cold"
and with
"Sing, sing lily bells ring /!
The blossoms are coming to town.
Now, / want to say something which
may appear to some As rank heresy.
Do mo- teach spelling the first year;
listen, do O confuse the child's mind
In this way. Phonetic spelling is all it
will hold, and If you want good read
ers-yes, and good spoilers, let the
children acquire large vocabularies be-
fore letting them break up their words
into letters. The spelling, both oral
and written will come readily.
In the number work my greatest sue
cess has come through the constant
drill on the board, again building up
from the child's life to the new ex-
p~eriences. The addition seems always
to come most natural. Here, too, the
use of objects of any kind, which are
handy can help greatly. But SO soon
as possible it is best 10 have the child
think independent 3f helps. In sub
traction the greatest difficulty seems to
be in borrowing. In this, a little device
which has aided me materially is the
suggestion that / have q number of
drawers, in which | have certain ar
t%ieles; in the first drawer the articles
are loose, in the mex they are in bum
dies or bags las you please) of tens, in
the next the bundles are tied in larger
packages, in which ten bundles are in
each package, and SO on. To make this
real, toothpicks tied together and plac-
ed in different compartments, soon
show that when a bundle Is borrowed
and opened the ten sticks are placed
with the sticks in The borrowing
drawer, and we can take away the
desired number. Children, generally,
become much interested in this method.
| always have the subtraction exam
pies proven, telling the children that
the proof is not for my benefit, but to
help them as | always look at the
answers. In multiplication and divi-
sion, again, revert to blocks, sticks,
marbles, books or anything one may
be able to have at hand.
| have with me some samples of work
done by the "wee tots'' and also some
pulp maps made by third, fourth and
fifth grades. | am sho wing the fifth
grade map on account of illustrating
the graduation of the work.
The production map from fourth
grade is only a small beginning of what
is done in the grammar grades.
These lanterns were made before
Thanksgiving; the wonderful produc-
ton of kitties is from the babies who
came in in January; the ladder shows
only a small thing in this work with
peas and tooth picks. We make
all kinds of furniture. Call on us when
in need Here is q hammock. which