56 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [13:2— Feb., 1917 



leaves from our elm tree. We will find it some day" or "These 

 are leaves from our tree. We will let you show it to us some day. ' ' 

 When the opportunity arrives some of them will be ready to 

 show the rest of the little ones the elm tree or our tree. "Let us 

 make a circle as large as our great sunshade." Children joining 

 hands make a circle under the tree as large as the crown of the 

 tree. "Now let us see how many it will take to stretch around 

 the handle of our big umbrella." Only two for this tree because 

 it isn't such a large one; but there have been elm trees that need 

 such great trunks to hold their leaves up to the sunlight that it 

 would take six of you to reach around them. 



"Let us see how large those great sticks are!" (six children 

 make a circle). We won't say that our great elm tree has a 

 stick trunk or handle but we shall say it has a trunk. Our zinnia 

 plant had a stem to hold its leaves to the sun. Trees have trunks. 

 I wonder what makes our great elm umbrella spread out so far. 

 The big trunk breaks up into smaller ones called branches just 

 like the ribs of the open umbrella. Hold your arms up the way 

 the elm tree holds its branches. Because the elm tree's branches 

 spread out so far it is a fine tree to plant on streets." 



"Now let us play this is a street. You are the elm trees 

 on one side of the street, and you are the ones on the other side. 

 (Separate the children into two lines). Put your arms up the way 

 the elm trees do. Then the street cars, and horses-and wagons, 

 automobiles and people pass along the streets, how do the elm 

 trees help them?" 



1 ' I wonder what holds this great trunk with all of its green leaves 

 in the ground?" Call to their memory the roots of the geranium 

 plant. "How much larger the elm tree's roots must be, so large 

 that some of us can sit in the little hollows between them where 

 they begin to fasten the trunk in the ground." 



"Let's pick up some of the leaves of our elm tree to take to 

 school with us. Tell me something about your leaf, Mary," 

 (probably color, green or yellow or shape). "Run your finger 

 around the edge. Rub your finger from the top to the bottom, 

 from the bottom to the top. Fold your leaf right down the middle 

 at the strong rib." From a twig in her hand teacher should call 

 attention to the buds that the children will call the elm tree's 

 secrets. "We'll find out what these secrets are; though before 

 we do, the snows will come and the rains will fall and the winds 



