comstock] FEBRUARY NATURE-STUDY 71 



for its companions and that it is very interesting to try to discover 

 these raeanings for ourselves. I have seen many a dog that knew 

 more of his master's language than his supposedly more intelligent 

 master knew of his. Teach the children to repeat the lines from 

 Hiawatha — 



"Then the little Hiawatha, 

 Learned of every bird its language." etc. 



If Hiawatha learned the language of all the wild animals and birds, 

 our little children should surely learn the language of their pets. 



The Big Dipper. — It is quite impracticable for the teacher to 

 take the children out for star gazing. Luckily this is not needful. 

 The diagram Jan. Review p. 33 should be placed on the blackboard 

 and left there for a week or more. The children should be taught 

 which direction is north and east and northeast. Then ask them 

 to look in the evening at seven or eight o'clock in the northeast 

 part of the sky and there the}^ will find the Big Dipper with handle 

 tiimed down, and they should also learn to find the North Star 

 by the pointers. 



The Magnet. — There is no plaything more fascinating to the 

 children than the horseshoe magnet. While the extended lesson 

 on the magnet is fitted only for the upper grades, the second grade 

 children may learn many important and interesting things about 

 the magnet. As to method the teacher should have two or three 

 toy horseshoe magnets of different sizes and some tacks and iron 

 filings. A magnet and some iron filings in a box cover may be 

 given the child to play with during busy work or as a reward of 

 merit. The questions and Obs. 3, 4, 5, 6, p. 840 may be asked a 

 few at a time. 



THIRD GRADE 



The Moon. — As a teacher of University students in nature- 

 study classes I have been astonished at their ignorance concerning 

 the simplest things in astronomy and especially their ignorance 

 concerning the moon, and I have been forced to the conclusion 

 that all of these things should have been taught to them in child- 

 hood. The third grade children may be taught certain things 

 about this little dead world that belongs so especially to us, 

 before they begin physical geography. The phases of the moon 

 may be shown by holding an orange or a baseball in the flash 

 light in a darkened room and they can come to understand that 



