CALENDAR FORMS 



By FRED L. CHARLES, University of Illinois 



The uses and advantages of the nature calendar have been 

 well set forth in the paper by C. A. Mathewson which appears 

 in this issue of the Review. As a device for stimulating out- 

 door observation in various lines and promoting the keeping of 

 accurate records, the calendar has won a permanent place in the 

 schoolroom. 



In the primary grades the simple weather chart (Nature-Study 

 Review, December, 1910, page 265) affords an easy introduction 

 to the calendar idea. Frequent reports of seasonal changes in an 

 individual tree, or in the activities of one familiar species of bird, 

 constitute a profitable exercise for young pupils. A cardboard 

 chart upon which are mounted flowers, leaves, or seeds, with 

 appropriate dates, is another means of following the season's 

 advance. The formal calendar, first as common class property 

 and later as individual records, leads to the highest type of phe- 

 nological study. Such work should not be pushed beyond the 

 pupil's interest, and the field of study should be different in 

 successive grades. As suggestive of the form which the more 

 complete records may take, the following outlines are given as 

 growing out of considerable experience in the work of this 

 character. 



BIRD CALENDAR 



The item "Last Seen" involves, of course, a daily record, or 

 bird diary, in which are recorded the names of each species ob- 

 served for each day. A convenient form for such a record, as 

 suggested in Chapman's "Handbook of Birds", is a "monthly 

 time-book", similar to a teacher's class-book, in which there is a 

 square for each day, and the pages are so cut that a name once 

 entered can be followed through a number of months without 

 re-entering. Thus is obtained a record of observations for each 



