68 NATURE STUDY. 



STEP 5. Greneral summary and expressive work. 



Have pupils write about " How We and the Rabbits 

 Eat, Drink, and Wash Ourselves," letting each tell most 

 about what he is most interested in. 



At this time pupils would enjoy and appreciate what 

 Cowper tells about his hares. 



LESSON IV. 



Literature Related to Life and Habits. 



Aim. To broaden and strengthen the ideas of the 

 pupils by having them look at the rabbit and his life 

 through the eyes of others. 



Material. Any of the literature or folk-lore suggested 

 under Helpful Literature will be appropriate and help- 

 ful. If this is not available, considerable on the habits 

 of rabbits and of their relatives, such as the squirrels, 

 can be found in the books on popular natural history, 

 or in the Nature Readers. 



Method. Do not let the class, as a class, read any- 

 thing with distinct literary merit, such as "Battle 

 Bunny" or anything like the dialect stories of Joel 

 Chandler Harris. They will "murder" it, and miss 

 most of the thought and beauty. Read these to them, 

 or intrust such reading only to pupils who can do it 

 fdirly well. That which is merely supplementary read- 

 ing and not literature may usually be read by the class 

 with advantage. 



A little discussed with them and related to their own 

 observations is better than much merely read to them. 



It may be well to discuss some of the superstitions 



