kanouse] nature-study AGRICULTURE 111 



a large jar of water. Each one contributed a share until we 

 had a fine display. The jar was left in the school room for 

 weeks. Each day brought a change, but the children were con- 

 stantly on the alert and were always the first to discover the 

 change. From this source we had a splendid chance to study the 

 kind of bark, the kind of branching, the bud protection, the use 

 of the tree from which it was taken and later, to watch the 

 buds unfold and grow into leaves. We noted, too, the flowering 

 of the different trees, how some blossomed before the leaves 

 opened and others not until later. The fifth grade made excellent 

 booklets on trees, and the whole school had lessons in free hand 

 outline drawing from the work on trees. 



About the same time that we collected our branches the 

 primary class had a few language lessons in spring work on the 

 farm, leading to crops their fathers raised. So each one was 

 asked to bring seeds from home, and our sand table was trans- 

 formed into a miniature farm. The sand was divided into lots, 

 one being reserved for the cardboard farm house and barn. 

 The children planted their own seeds in the miniature fields. 

 We had on our farm, corn, popcorn, wheat, oats, barley, peas, 

 beans and clover. It was of great interest and value to the 

 whole school. It is so much easier for the number class to 

 think how many pecks there are in a bushel of corn if a thrifty 

 little plot of their own corn is growing near by. Every 

 few days, we took up some of each kind of plant to 

 find which were making the most rapid root growth, what kind 

 of roots they were, what became of the seeds, just where the 

 root and stalk left the seed and — well, many more things that 

 will occur to you when you try it for yourself. 



The previous fall the pupils furnished a cent apiece, and 

 with the money we purchased some bulbs. These added much to 

 the happy spring and truly tulips never looked so lovely to the 

 children as the ones that blossomed then. 



A trip to a near-by brook gave us a plentiful supply of 

 minnows, crabs and snails. One of the boys brought a clam. 

 We put the snail on our farm and the children watched it crawl 

 through the oat field and eat a few petals that had fallen from 

 a branch of cherry blossoms. Some cocoons and later some luna 

 and cecropia moths were brought. They gave an excellent chance 

 to teach the story of the moth, butterfly, silk worm, and also to 

 teach the destructive work of the gypsy and coddling moths. 



As soon as the wild flowers appeared, we began our com- 

 positions in fifth grade language. We secured a good specimen, 



