The Teachers' Corner 



It is time to be planning for the bird and flower calendars, for these are 

 great incentives to observation of bird and plant life. There are many types 

 of bird calendars and I should like to suggest that this year you try a separate 

 one each for March, April and May. I would suggest as a foundation for 

 the calendar of each month, a piece of card board a foot wide and perhaps 

 1 8 inches long. At the top paste on a picture which will represent the month 

 in some manner; for March there should be a snow scene, for April, a land- 

 scape with rain descending upon it from some quarter while May should show 

 an orchard in blossom. These pictures may be cut from illustrated magazines, 

 or preferably originals in water-color or colored crayons by the pupils in the 

 school. There might be a competition in the drawing class, the best ones to 

 be selected for the calendars. Below the picture should be two or three sheets 

 of lined quarto paper; each sheet should be divided into four columns, the 

 first for the name of the bird, the second which should be a narrow column 

 contains the date; the third tells where seen and the fourth by whom. If 

 the same bird is seen by two or three pupils on the same day a "ditto" may 

 be placed below the name of the bird and the date made by the first one who 

 made the record. 



However many birds may have been seen in March, they should be recorded 

 again in the April and May calendars if they are seen during those months; 

 this will stimulate the children to keep on the alert and it gives them practice 

 in recognizing species. 



If no appropriate picture can be found for the heading of the calendars 

 a picture of a bird may be used or the stanza of poetry which will represent 

 the month. 



We have seen some very interesting calendars on larger sheets of card- 

 board, the record in the middle and a border of bird pictures made by the 

 children. These were colored with crayon or water color and were probably 

 copied from some bird books. Outlines of birds might be colored and then 

 cut out and pasted on the sides of the calendar. 



The flower calendars should cover the months of April and May; they may 

 be ornamented with pictures of flowers drawn from nature by the pupils. 



The original of the bird calendar shown on the opposite page contained 

 several sheets of card board — illustrated in color — and was made by the pupils 

 of Miss Jennie Schofield's School near Bath, X. Y. Miss Schofield's pupils 

 have won the first prize for bird calendars for two years at the Cornell Farmer's 

 Week Exhibit of Rural School Work. 



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