1424 Rural School Leaflet 



My part now bein^ over, I had time to speak of anything that the 

 parents wished to mention. During the few moments we were engaged, 

 the four largest girls and two of the largest boys made ready the refresh- 

 ments. 



I am sure every parent present enjoyed every moment hugely. And, 

 as for me, I have never spent that amount of time and money and received 

 the pleasure and satisfaction that I did on that afternoon. The children 

 talked about it for several days thereafter. 



Lynnbrook, New York, January 13, 1915 



I am sending under separate cover an exhibit of hen feathers for the 

 Farmers' Week display. It was the best of twenty my children made. 



I teach the seventh grade in a suburban school. About one-half of my 

 pupils have recently come from the city and never heard of nature study, 

 the other half are the natives who began by scoffing at the fad. The out- 

 look was not inspiring, but the results have been very gratifying. 



We began in the fall by a study of seed dispersal, including the habits 

 of the commonest weeds. Then in the weeks when the woods were most 

 glorious, we made leaf scrapbooks. Some of the drawings the children 

 made in the fall with crayons are very good. 



Next, we turned our attention to cattle. I made four mounts, labeling 

 them with the names of the breeds commonest about here, and the chil- 

 dren filled them with pictures, clippings, photographs, and rem^arks. 

 We visited the only dairy farm of any size around here, and learned a great 

 deal. The board has since allowed me to buy a Babcock tester, which 

 we shall use as soon as the examinations are over. 



When I mentioned the poultry- outlines, their enthusiasm was boundless. 

 One boy brought his pet bantam rooster to school for an afternoon, and 

 we had a splendid lesson. Two boys made mounts of turkey feathers, and 

 one of pigeon feathers. We had a little competition of our own to decide 

 which was the most worthy of being sent to you. 



We made such an interesting collection of insects' homes — a hornet's 

 nest, the nest of a polistes wasp, a mud dauber's nest with the paralyzed 

 spiders in it, and a mason wasp's nest containing the grubs and remains 

 of caterpillars. 



Glens Falls, New York, April 22, 19 14 



Until I came here, three years ago, nature study and agriculture had 

 been taught only one year, and were therefore comparatively new, 

 both to the pupils and to myself, as I have been teaching but a short time, 

 so we have worked together. The first thing I attempted was to arouse 

 the interest of the children. One way, which worked out very successfully, 

 was to assign to each child a certain number of points to observe on what- 

 ever we might be studying, whether bird, animal, tree, plant, or insect. 

 These he was to observe carefully with the aid of his parents, thus bring- 

 ing the parents into touch with us. The interest this aroused was astonish- 

 ing. We made the recitation period more of a visiting period, and each 

 child was most anxious to tell all he or she had learned. If more than one 

 had been given the same points, and disagreed on the result of their 



