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Rural School Leaflet. 



NATURE-STUDY SYLLABUS 



General Nature-Study. — In the pages of the Rural School Leaflet we 

 are endeavoring to give to the New York State teachers subject matter 

 which will help them in following the new syllabus of Nature-Study 

 and Agriculture.. We have already published articles on The English 

 Sparrow, The Hen, and- The Dog. In the February issue we shall pub- 

 lish an article on The Pea and in March an article on The Cow. In each 

 issue of the Leaflet suggestions will be made for continued study of 

 these different subjects. 



Bird Study. — In addition to the lessons on The English Sparrow 

 teachers are requested for this year to have the children of the second 



grade identify any 

 three winter birds. 

 If the teacher will 

 place a piece of suet 

 or meat bone on a tree 

 in the school yard the 

 winter birds are very 

 likely to come to it, 

 chick-a-dees, nut- 

 hatches, some of the 

 woodpeckers, a blue 

 jay, perhaps, and 

 others. This gives op- 

 portunity for the very 

 best kind of bird 

 study. In the first 

 place children are 

 taught thoughtfulness 

 for birds and in the 

 second place they are 

 able to make personal observations. Let the children compare with the 

 English Sparrow the birds that they see either in the schoolyard or 

 on their trips to and from school, observing ways in which these birds 

 differ from it or ways in which they resemble it. 



The names of all the birds observed by the children during the year 

 should be kept on the blackboard or on a bird calendar. For one of 

 the lessons in grades four to six, let the children classify the birds 

 they know as follows: Birds of the dooryard, orchard, field, thicket, 

 forest, swamp. 



Fig. 19. — .4 typical draft horse 



