146 METHODS IN TEACHING 



Throughout the year problems are considered very im- 

 portant. At least one a day is required in written work, 

 and every day several are given orally. They are taken 

 from a variety of sources, geography, nature study, the 

 stories, daily events; there are simple exercises in buying 

 and selling, and in making change. No problem is given 

 requiring more than two mental operations, and a clear 

 statement of his problem is required of every child, whether 

 he is solving it orally or in writing. 



By constant association of concrete forms with their 

 actual measurements, empirically determined by the chil- 

 dren; by training to see relations, both integral and frac- 

 tional, the solution of these problems is raised out of guess- 

 ing into careful calculation and accurate knowledge. These 

 are two of the important aims of the work in the fourth 

 grade. 



Busy work and class exercises, closely correlated with 

 drawing and geography, are also prominent features of the 

 work of the year. This constructive work centers around 

 the use of the ruler, of surface and solid forms, of prob- 

 lems involving the use of diagrams, and of drawing to 

 scale. 



A fourth grade teacher 1 says of this work: 



On coming into the fourth grade the children can use 



the inch, half-inch, and quarter-inch, and they soon learn 



the eighth-inch also. By using the ruler 



Fractional the children readily learn to add such ex- 



ments amples as the following: Draw a line ij 



inches long ; add to it a line 2 J inches long ; 



how long is the line thus made? Draw a figure 2j inches 



*Miss Maud Southworth. 



