SPRING NATURE STUDY. 523 



cold and the ice and the snow, or the rain, which this 

 season brings; how the chilly winds carry snow and rain 

 where they are most needed ; how the ice wedges break up 

 the soil for the farmer, and the rain and snow prepare the 

 ground for the spring ; how the cold invigorates us, and the 

 wind brings us pure air. 



Have a reading lesson on the blackboard, or have the 

 children write about, " Why We Like Winter/ 7 or " How 

 the Winter Helps Us." 



We can have one or more lessons leading the children to 

 think and talk (with the thinking first) about the use of 

 winter to the plants. Perhaps we can begin with the use of 

 sleep to the children or the reason for having vacations. 

 On these topics the smallest "tot" will have ideas, or ap- 

 perceiving concepts as the psychologists like to call them, 

 on which many new ideas can be based or built. Think of 

 the winter as the season when plants, and many or most an- 

 imals, sleep and rest, and gain strength and vigor for another 

 year's work. 



Talk about the preparation of plants for the winter: the 

 falling of leaves, development and protection of buds ( show 

 branches with buds, as they have spent the winter); the 

 disappearances of parts above ground, in grasses, bulbs, and 

 similar plants, and the storing up of nourishment in parts 

 below ground; the formation of seeds by plants which are 

 killed each autumn by the cold. Show how the wind has 

 scattered the leaves, and brought the snow to serve as a 

 cover and protection, and how Mother Nature has given a 

 thick bark to the trees and other plants which grow above 

 the snow. 



Bead to and with the children the poem below. Try to 

 get, to absorb and express, and impart to the children, the 

 spirit of the poem. 



