PEACOCK] NATURE-STUDY IN SECOND GRADE 183 



are going to stay a long time — until the little seeds get ripe. I 

 want to see the ripe seeds. 



"The leaves are heart shaped but straight at the base. They 

 are dark green. They are sticky and shiny. 



"The wood is soft and white. It is not good for houses or 

 furniture. It is used for crates for fruit. Some people burn 

 Cottonwood. I like the cottonwood tree because it grows so 

 fast." 



Each child had his painting representing autumn leaves, twigs 

 in the fall and in the spring, green leaves, red catkins and green 

 catkins. 



In this grade the child's power to express himself orally far 

 exceeds his power of written expression. In all language work 

 I have insisted upon the oral expression, first by sentence work, 

 then by paragraphs. Not until a pupil can stand and give a 

 paragraph in good English is he ready to write that paragraph. 



The element of time must of course be considered. The nature - 

 study with opportunities for individual investigation and for 

 collecting ideas from members of the class affords excellent condi- 

 tions and opportunities for saving time. 



While the nature-study must receive the attention of the class 

 and must be the foremost thought in the mind of the teacher, 

 a certain amount of language work must be done, or the child 

 fails to get adequate expression for his observations and thoughts. 

 The correlation of language and nature-study is unavoidable. 



The use of capital letters, marks of punctuation, and paragraph- 

 ing are learned incidentally. The pupils learn almost uncon- 

 sciously what makes a paragraph. Much of the required work in 

 language may be accomplished by careful attention to these 

 details when the nature-lesson is in course of preparation. 



The work in a second grade m.ust of necessity be of the simplest 

 character. Yet, in making a careful study of any object in nature 

 the pupils are trained to work in harmony with their fellows, to 

 acquire knowledge through original investigation, and to search 

 for the thoughts of good writers. 



