ATA TURE-STUDY IX RURAL SCHOOLS 



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first part bearing on corn and farm life, and culminating in a 

 corn drill and physical culture exercise, during which the children 

 sang the "Corn Song." The second part of the program was 

 miscellaneous. Then followed the auction sale of the corn husk 

 baskets. These baskets were works of ingenuity if not creations 

 of art. During the auction, small boys passed through the crowd 

 with baskets of popcorn balls which they sold at 5 cents each, and 

 small girls carried trays of brown bread which they retailed at 

 five cents per slice. S50.00 was realized from the social and this 

 was sufficient to defray the expenses of ten delegates to Lincoln to 

 attend the State Corn Contest. By this time the entire district 

 was interested, the school board gave us the time, and every 

 patron of the school was ready to lend a helping hand. The girls 

 were furnished recipes and were busy experimenting on brown 

 bread, corn bread, wheat bread, and cake, and corn cob syrup; 

 and the boys were employing themselves along certain lines of 

 manual training. Our work in manual training was confined to 

 making articles of use and ornament about the home. 



"Many teachers feel that there is no chance to conduct this work 

 in the rural schools. Of course, the actual work and experi- 

 ments cannot be successfully carried on in the school room, but 

 the teacher can secure materials and give careful instructions in 

 every detail, and then request the children to perform the experi- 

 ments in their own homes, and give detailed reports of their 

 success or failure. 



"In school-gardening. I first interest upils in the com- 



mon little wild flowers, and this is my plan: The children are 

 shown a flower and told its name and the names petals and 

 corolla, and given an interesting little talk about those two parts 

 of the flower. Each child is then given one of those particular 

 blossoms to wear, with the instructions that every time they see 

 it on themselves or anyone else, they are to think those names. 

 The next day everyone can tell you all about them. They are 

 then given a new flower and they point out the parts which they 

 have already learned, and they are given the names sepals and 

 calyx and the name of the flower. They are told that the sepals 

 are little green seats on which the petals sit; that these little 

 petals are very sociable and friendly, so they like to sit close to- 

 gether, and they draw their chairs up in a nice little circle called 

 a calyx. (Suppose we have a wild rose, we say, 'See how they 



