Lite atld house-keeping in these primitive homes; sleeping, eating, sitting, washing, Cooking, 



heating, lighting, protection against animals. 



Fit up the cave for occupany by weaving mats of straw or fiber, crude birch baskets, making 



tubs or pails of small gourds, miniature logs, and selecting stones for various uses. 



Appropriate stories, folk lore, fables and myths. 



Sports and games of primitive children. 

 Simple lessons in hygiene upon care of skin, nails, hair and teeth. 



Necessity of keeping body and feet dry and warm. 

 Cause, danger and treatment of colds. Treatment of burns. 



CENTRAL SPRING THOUGHT : -Nature's Awakening. 



In-door germination of coarse seeds in window or desk gardens; beans, sweet peas, corn, sun- 

 flower, morning-glory, wild-cucumber, squash, pumpkins, gourds and melons. 

 How the young plant gets out of the seed-coats, through the ground, and what it does afterward. 

 Opening of leaf and flower-buds on twigs kept in water. 



Out-of-door observations as the season advances. 

 Follow through the buds upon a single bush, such as a lilac. 



Development of frogs and toads from eggs. 



Return of birds 'from South. Bird calendar. 



Simple bird homes made from boxes and erected about grounds. 



Feed birds suet, nuts, grain and bread and observe. 

 Observations upon, foods and habits of birds. Location of nests. 



Select the robin for special study. 



Rearing of silk worms in school-room. 



Which trees are first in leaf and which come out last? 



Butterflies and moths emerging from winter homes. 



If feasible have brood of chickens raised with incubator or hen. 



Celebrate Bird-day and Arbor-day, planting white mulberry, osage orange, birch and pine. 



Rear a colony of tent caterpillars in wire gauze cage. 

 Transfer plants started in-doors to suitable beds upon the school-grounds and have 



children care for same. 

 With a pole, wires and vines shape a tepee of full size. 



SUGGESTIONS TO FIRST GRADR TEACHER. 



In presenting the above course of work no preliminary knowledge is assumed, or required, 

 the teacher being expected to place herself upon the sam^e plane as the pupils, learning with 

 them and from them. She should understand the importance of the work, the methods to be 

 followed and what it is to do for the child. The kitten is first introduced to bridge over the 

 chasm between home and school, to "break the ice" for the children and furnish a basis for 

 oral expression. It might well be made the very first exercise upon the opening of school. 

 Talking about it and their pets at home will lead them to forget the strangeness of their 

 surroundings. From the real object pass to the picture and finally to the written word. Ex- 

 periment with the picture method of expression as an introduction to our highly artificial 

 method. The cat is to serve as a type of the group of animals that was the most serious 

 menace to the home circle. Use colored chalk and crayon and coarse sheets of paper for the 

 drawings. 



The topics need not be taken up in any particular order, except as made necessary by the 

 season, and animal and plant work may be carried along simultaneously. The central thought 

 is the correlating thread and will suggest to the teacher numerous other topics. Get together 

 an extensive collection of stories, anecdotes, poems, fables, myths and pictures and classify in 

 envelopes. Cheap pictures may be secured from the Perry Picture Co., Maiden, Mass, and 



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