KINDERGARTEN 



3244 



KINDERGARTEN 



ask all to build a house, each in his own way. 

 When these are completed, the houses are ex- 

 amined and their merits discussed. Because 

 of the excellence of some one house, the chil- 

 dren may all wish to build one like it. If the 

 children's technique needs improving, the kin- 

 dergartner may direct the doing of this, calling 

 attention to the way in which the blocks are 

 placed to produce the best effect. If the chil- 

 dren had difficulty in making some portion of 

 the house, such as the roof, an exercise in the 

 making of this would be likely to follow in the 

 near future. 



At another time, a few children may be 

 selected to work out an idea together a garden 

 or park on the sand table, perhaps. In this, 

 the children agree upon the general plan of 

 the representation, the best material to use 

 and the part that each is to take. In the proc- 

 ess, however, the children may discover the 

 need of additional material blocks for a seat, 

 colored lentils to represent the flowers in a 

 bed, or paper to represent a tree in some way. 

 Such an exercise leads to the doing of other 

 and related things, such as the modeling of 

 vegetables or the making of folders to contain 

 garden pictures. These are a few of the many 

 ways in which the children use the material 

 to work out their own play interests. The 



work satisfies them, because it affords oppor- 

 tunity both for individual effort and for effort 

 in common. It gives children a growing sense 

 of power, and gives them a feeling of kinship 

 with the workers of the world. The work with 

 the material, too, ranks high among the agen- 

 cies which the kindergarten employs. 



Other Needs Which the Kindergarten Meets. 

 The child from three to six years has other 

 needs which the kindergarten meets. One of 

 these is the need for out-of-door work and play. 

 For this the garden and nature excursions, to 

 which many references have been made, fur- 

 nish the best agencies. Owing to climatic con- 

 ditions and the lack of space, the outdoor gar- 

 den work is difficult, if not impossible, in 

 large cities. Outdoor games and walks are pos- 

 sible at certain seasons, and a knowledge of gar- 

 dens, fields and roadsides, with the plant life 

 common to them, can be gained from these. 

 They also afford the opportunity for a knowl- 

 edge of bird life, and of such pets as children 

 in the neighborhood may have. Such knowl- 

 edge is indispensable as a basis for several lines 

 of work with the material. It is the care of 

 plants and pets that children need to develop 

 the right attitude toward living things. In 

 most kindergartens the plants in the kinder- 

 garten window box, the seeds which the chil- 





