Primary Handwork Part 3

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 12.--House arranged on a table. Side view. Built by second grade. Columbia, Missouri.]

=Tools.=--The tools actually necessary are few. A cla.s.s can _get along_ with one saw and still do good work, though there will be times when several saws will facilitate progress. Some tools are needed only for a short time and sometimes may be borrowed from the homes. It is more satisfactory to have the school provided with the essential tools whenever possible. The essential tools include:

_Brace and auger bit_, for boring holes in doors and windows. Needed for a short time only.

_Compa.s.s saw_, for sawing out doors and windows.

_Crosscut saw_, for sawing off lumber. School should own at least one.

_Miter box_, for holding lumber and guiding saw. An old one, good enough for children's use, will frequently be contributed by a carpenter. The miter box should be fastened firmly to a low table or box.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 13.--House arranged on a table. Back view. Built by second grade. Columbia, Missouri.]

_Hammers_, several of medium size.

_Try-square_, a very valuable tool for setting right angles, provided the teacher and pupils know how to use it.

=Arrangement of Rooms.=--The sort of house a man can build is governed by his resources and his site. Considering the number of boxes as resources and the table or shelf on which they are to stand as the site, the same big factors which enter into any house-building problem control the size and style of the schoolroom playhouse. What sort of house is desired? What sort of house can be built from the materials at hand? What sort of house can be built in the s.p.a.ce at our disposal?

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 14.--House plan.]

The boxes may be arranged on a shelf with all the open sides toward the cla.s.s, as in Fig. 9. This economizes s.p.a.ce, and all of the rooms are visible at once. A two-story house is easily built on this plan. If economy of s.p.a.ce is not necessary, the boxes may be placed on a table with the open sides of the boxes toward the edges of the table, as in Figs. 11, 12, and 13. This permits a more artistic grouping of the rooms. (See Fig.

14.)

The responsibility in grouping the boxes should be thrown as fully as possible upon the children, the teacher merely suggesting where necessary.

It should be their house, not the teacher's. The planning should not be hurried but time allowed to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different plans and reach an agreement. In trying to express individual opinions convincingly their ideas will become clearer--a factor in the development of the children which is much more important than any of the actual details of the house itself. Whether the cla.s.s decides to have one or two bedrooms in the house is a matter of small consequence. Whether or not they are growing in power to appreciate conditions and make an intelligent decision is a matter of great consequence. Their decisions when made may not always reach the high standard at which the teacher is aiming, but if they have really made a decision, not merely followed the teacher's suggestion, and if their independent selections from time to time show a higher standard of appreciation and greater refinement of taste in ever so small a degree, it is evidence of genuine growth upon a sure foundation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 15.--Arrangement of windows.]

=Doors and Windows.=--The size and arrangement of doors and windows should be freely discussed. Various possible arrangements may be sketched upon the blackboard by the children. For example, see Fig. 15, _a_ and _b_.

When a plan is adopted, the doors and windows should be carefully drawn on the _outside_ of each box, using the try-square to get right angles.

Bore holes in the corners of the doors and windows and saw out with keyhole or compa.s.s saw. In order to avoid mistakes it is well, after sawing out the opening for a door in one box, to place the two boxes together and test the measurements before sawing out the second opening. A mistake of this sort, however, is not fatal, but may prove the most effective way of impressing the workers with the necessity of careful measurement.

=Walls.=--The decoration of the walls will furnish material for several art lessons. The discussion should turn first to the suitability of different styles for different purposes, such as tiling for kitchen and bathroom walls, light papers for dark rooms, etc. The division of wall s.p.a.ce will be the next point to be settled, _i.e._ the height of the tiling or wainscot, the width of a border, or the effect of horizontal and vertical lines in breaking up wall s.p.a.ce. These questions may be discussed as far as the immediate circ.u.mstances and the development of the cla.s.s suggest.

The question of color combinations demands special attention. Unless the children come from refined homes their ideas of color will be very crude, and if contributions of material have been asked for, some gaudy impossibilities in flowered paper are apt to be presented. If so, it may require considerable tact on the part of the teacher to secure a satisfactory selection without casting any reflections on the taste of somebody's mother. This difficulty may be avoided to a degree by providing all the materials necessary. It is not enough, however, to cause the children to select good combinations at the teacher's suggestion while in their hearts they are longing for the gaudy thing she has frowned upon. It is better to get an honest expression from them, even though it is very crude, and endeavor to educate their taste to a love for better things, so that each time they choose the choice may be on a higher level of appreciation. Immediate results may not be as beautiful by this plan, and apparent progress may be slow, but only by some such method can a real appreciation be developed which will prevent the return to the crude expression as soon as the teacher's influence is withdrawn.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 16.--Detail of hollow square.]

Plain papers generally give the most pleasing effects. Attractive borders may be made by cutting simple units and repeating them at intervals.

Almost any motif may be used for the unit. Animals, birds, trees, flowers, ships, etc., serve well. The process of making the border should be a serious lesson in design. A good border is not merely the repet.i.tion of a pretty figure. The units must not be too far apart nor too close together.

The shape of the figure used must be such that each unit seems to need the next one. Little children will usually take greatest pleasure in working from some nature motif, as flower or animal, but interesting work can be done with simple geometric figures. Take, for example, the hollow square.

Fold a square of paper on both diagonals. (See Fig. 16.) Cut on dotted line. Let each child cut several and lay them in order for a border or mount them on a paper of different color. Let the work of the cla.s.s be put up for general criticism. (See notes on Criticism.) Several points which very small children are able to appreciate will be found to enter into the success or failure of their efforts. The hollow square itself may be cut too wide and look clumsy, or cut too narrow and look frail. In the arrangement they may be too close together and look crowded, or too far apart and look scattered. A sensitiveness to good proportions comes naturally to only a few people, but nearly all are capable of a higher degree of appreciation if their attention is directed to the essential elements which make things good or bad. The beginnings of this appreciation lie in simple things which are easily understood by first-grade children.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 17.--Borders using hollow square.]

=Floors.=--Many of the considerations which enter into the selection of wall decorations are of equal importance in choosing floor coverings. What will be suitable to the purpose of each room? Why do we use linoleum in the kitchen and warm rugs in the bedroom? Shall we use small rugs or a carpet? What colors must we have on the floor to harmonize with the colors on the wall? What designs are possible and desirable for the materials we have to use?

_Rug Weaving Materials._--The market offers a wide variety of materials prepared especially for school use. Among them the most satisfactory for use with small workers are cotton rovings, loose twisted jute, and cotton chenille. These, especially the first two, are coa.r.s.e and work up rapidly, and may be had in very desirable colors. Even the cheapest of them, however, will prove an expensive item for the school with limited funds, and ordinary carpet rags may be made to serve every purpose. Often these will be contributed by members of the cla.s.s. By a careful selection and combination of colors very artistic results can be produced which are in some respects more satisfactory than any obtained from the so-called weaving materials, and have the added advantage of costing practically nothing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 18.--Looms and samples of weaving.]

_Looms._--The market also offers a great variety of looms for school use, many of them quite simple in construction and moderate in price. In schools where bench work is taught, the making of a loom is an excellent problem either for the weavers themselves or for an older cla.s.s working for them. If the looms are made by the little weavers themselves, only the simplest possible construction should be used, that the work may be completed and the loom put to use before the worker loses sight of the fact that the purpose is to provide carpet for the house. Children lose interest in long-drawn-out processes, and for that reason it is better to provide them with the necessary tools as far as possible while interest in the house building is keen. Later, if considerable enthusiasm has been aroused for weaving, individual looms may be made for home use. For the school with scant funds a very satisfactory loom may be improvised by driving nails one fourth inch apart in the ends of a shallow box of convenient size and stretching the warp threads across the open top.

For very small rugs a cardboard loom will serve. This may be made by cutting notches or punching holes along opposite edges of a piece of cardboard into which the warp may be strung. If a knitting needle is inserted at each side, the cardboard will be stiffened and the edges of the rug kept straight. Weaving needles may be purchased from supply houses. Wooden needles cost 50 cents per dozen. Sack needles serve well for small rugs and may be had at any hardware store for 10 cents per dozen.

_Weaves._--For first weaving the plain "over one, under one" on cotton warp with rags or other coa.r.s.e woof is generally best. Variety may be introduced by weaving a stripe or border of a different tone near each end of the rug. Vertical stripes serve well as another easy method of variation and are produced by using two woof threads of different tones and weaving first with one and then with the other. This weave is very attractive as the body of the rug with a plain border at either end.

As soon as the children have mastered the plain weave and have a fairly clear idea of the possibilities in design through varying the colors in the woof only, they may be initiated into the mysteries of the "gingham weave" and allowed to experiment with the variations in warp as well as in woof. Cotton rovings is an excellent material for weaves of this sort.

This weave may also be used with raffia to make matting for the dining-room floor.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 19.--Box house by second grade. Columbia, Missouri.]

Paper mats may also be used as carpets with good effect. Weaving paper strips is often an easier process to little children than weaving with textiles, except where very coa.r.s.e textile materials are used. For paper mats select paper of suitable color and cut to the size desired for the mat. Fold on the short diameter. Cut slashes from the folded edge, not less than one half inch apart, to within one inch of edge of the paper (See Fig. 20), leaving a margin on all four sides of the mat. For weavers, cut from paper of harmonious tone, strips equal in width to the slashes in the mat.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 20.--Detail of paper weaving.]

Variations of the simple over one, under one weave add interest to the work and also give practice in number combinations such as over one, under two, etc. Work of this sort is used in many schools as a method of teaching number, the teacher dictating the combinations while the interest of the children centers in the new pattern which develops under their fingers. While such work has much to be said in its favor, it is open to criticism, especially in the matter of dictation. All the children in any one group will not work with equal speed. Some will undoubtedly "get behind" and others will lose time while waiting for the slow ones.

Accidents are liable to happen in individual cases.

Many of these undesirable features may be eliminated while still retaining the valuable part of the work by writing the directions on the board instead of dictating them to the children. It then becomes a lesson in reading as well as in number. Each child is thrown more completely upon his own responsibility and can proceed as rapidly and as steadily as his capacity permits. His rate of progress will often be a fair measure of his ability for independent thought and action, which is the real measure for successful teaching.

As the hardest feature in this method is in keeping the right line and not repeating or omitting any direction, a social spirit may be encouraged by allowing the children to work in groups and take turns in _keeping the place_ while the others work. In one first grade where this plan was in vogue the children discovered a book on the teacher's desk which contained numerous designs, many of them much more intricate than she would have attempted to use as cla.s.swork. Their instinct for exploration led them to struggle with the directions until they had worked out some designs which would have proved dismal failures had they been attempted as cla.s.s lessons. In this instance those who belonged to the persevering group were happy in a new-found sense of strength and independence, while the others had accomplished as much as any would have done under the dictation method.

=Furniture.=--The problem of furniture for the school playhouse has been discussed in numerous publications, and nearly every writer on the subject of primary handwork offers suggestions on this topic. The suggestions include a range in materials and processes from very simple foldings in paper to quite complex processes in reeds and raffia and methodical construction in wood.

Among the various materials and styles in common use, folded paper furniture has the advantage of being quickly made. The process is of sufficient interest to little children to hold their attention, and in order to secure the desired result they must hear the directions intelligently and obey them promptly. These are desirable habits to form.

It is quite possible, however, for the work to be done in a very formal, mechanical way, in which the children merely follow directions, often blindly, without any clear purpose and very little thought. Success or failure is due largely to chance; for, if by accident even a good worker "loses out" on a direction, his work is at a standstill until special help is given. He is unable to proceed because he does not know what to do next. There is very little opportunity in such a process for independent thought or action. It is not self-directed activity.