The Out-of-Doors Indoors in the Fall 



Helen M. Reynolds 



Principal of Primary Department, Training School, Mankato State Normal 

 School, Mankato, Minn. 



Few spots can be lovelier than a Minnesota hillside in vSeptember, 

 all aglow with the burning scarlet of the sumach broidered with 

 golden rod and purple aster, the maples and oaks still softly green 

 in the "back ground. The out-of-doors is too good to leave behind, 

 yet we must in, so the out of doors must go with us and we must 

 go back to it, as often as we may. 



What can we do with Nature-Study in the primary grades in the 

 Fall days ? Our course of study is a very tentative one. It is still 

 in the making and we are hopeful that it will continue to be. We 

 studied that which seemed waiting for us, took the excursions 

 that seemed to be demanded, worked thoughtfully over our outline 

 of what children ought to know about the outdoor life surrounding 

 us, sought earnestly for just the right big question which should 

 start everybody on the keen search for the "something new" that 

 is good for us to know. We tried to help the children to the 

 knowledge they asked for. We have gone with them to the library 

 to "hunt it up" when our all too limited knowledge failed. We 

 have noted in careful records the things we tried to do, the happily 

 put question which brought the interesting discussion, the bit of 

 planting which was such a success, the carefully planned lesson 

 which turned out a dismal failure, the "Caterpillar" poem from 

 Rosseti which was just what we needed, Sherman's "Golden 

 Rod," poem, the "Crane Express" in "In the Child's World" (such 

 a humorous rendering of the southward flight of the birds ), the 

 "Bob White" song, beloved by the boys because of the chance to 

 whistle, the Color Books, which are now well established favorites. 

 We have consulted the Kindergartner to discover whether there 

 were beginnings which we were ignoring. We have conferred with 

 the Intermediate Grades Principal so that we might have our 

 "forward look." The "Science-Man" has given his criticism. 



We have come to see the futility of serving "beans" in every 

 grade for the meal called germination ; "we have become more and 

 more convinced that we must not have a string of isolated topics 

 but that each subject must be a part of some bigger and related 

 part of the children's own nature interests; we have realized the 

 need of progressive increase in the demand for thinking which 



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