242 NATURE STUDY. 



and see what they can tell with them, ideas for which, 

 oftentimes, they have no words. 



In primary work particularly, where the children 

 must depend so largely on their senses, we must not 

 merely use material which appeals to their senses, but 

 must make use of and encourage those forms of expres- 

 sion which make use of the senses, the different forms 

 of what may be called sense-language. One of the 

 simplest of these is gesture. 



When the children cannot express in words, even the 

 youngest can often tell much with hands and arms and 

 legs. The writer remembers a lesson one of many 

 learned from a little three-year-old who had been much 

 interested in some crayfish in a can. When the little 

 fellow was asked to tell how the crayfish moved, he 

 struggled and floundered, trying to find words. When 

 asked to show how the crayfish moved, his face lighted 

 up instantly, and he soon demonstrated that he had 

 very clear ideas of the mode of locomotion called " craw- 

 fishing." Some time later, when asked to tell how the 

 earthworm moved, he " told " by wriggling wormlike 

 on the floor. 



The value of music as a means of expression in nature 

 work will be recognized in proportion as the teacher 

 realizes and keeps in view the higher aims of nature 

 study, the cultivation of the higher nature of the 

 child, aesthetic, ethical, spiritual. The value of music 

 in nature work will depend on the content teacher and 

 pupils put into and get from their study of nature. 



