Primary Handwork Part 7

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 40.--Detail of chicken fence.]

_To make board fence._ Cut posts required length, and decide upon distance between posts. Make boards of thin strips of wood or of pasteboard. Nail boards to posts with tacks or small brads. This is a very easy fence to make and gives some good exercise in measuring.

_Rail fences_ may be made from toothpicks or burnt matches.

_Picket fence_ for the dooryard may be made on wooden foundation with cardboard pickets.

_Hedge fence_ should be made from some fine-leafed plant. Cedar twigs serve well.

_Chicken fence_ may be cut from paper as per ill.u.s.tration. Fold paper several times, lengthwise. Cut across the fold as indicated by arrows.

Stretch lengthwise as shown in Fig. 40, _a_ and _b_.

=Buildings.=--The cla.s.s should decide on the buildings needed. Each building should be a.s.signed to a group of two or three workers. Each group should be held responsible for its contribution and should work out its problem with as little help as possible. If the children are able to plan a barn and make it, even though it is a very crude affair, more has been accomplished than if a very cunning structure had been made after plans, dictated and closely supervised by the teacher.

_Wood_ is the best building material for general use.

_Pasteboard_ serves well, but it is less substantial. It is also harder to cut and paste heavy cardboard than it is to saw and nail thin wood.

_Clay_ may be used for all buildings which are commonly made of concrete.

=Stock.=--The different kinds of animals needed on the farm and the number of each will furnish profitable subject matter for cla.s.s discussion. The animals may be modeled from clay. While the animals will of necessity be very large in proportion to the acreage of the farm, attention should be directed to the relative proportions between horses and hogs, cattle and sheep. Differences of this sort do not trouble little people, as their work is sure to show. The point should be stressed only sufficiently to help them to see a little more clearly and express their ideas a little more adequately each time they try. The accuracy of the result is important only as an index that the children are steadily developing in power to see and do, and gaining self-reliance.

_The Modeling Process._--The best method seems to be simply to _begin_, and, for example, model as good a horse as possible; then discuss the results, note a few serious defects, and try again, endeavoring to correct them. Encourage rapid work which gives the general proportions of the animal in the rough. Beginners are apt to waste time in a purposeless smoothing of the clay, in mere tactual enjoyment. Discourage the tendency to finish the details of a horse's head, for example, before the body has been modeled. Repeat the process as often as time and the interest of the children warrant, but be satisfied if the children are doing the best they can, even though the results are crude and not so good as some other cla.s.s has produced. The children should always feel that the work is their own.

For this reason the teacher's help in clay modeling should be through demonstration rather than by finishing touches to the child's work.

Imitation is a strong instinct in little children, and watching the teacher model a better horse than he can make will help a child to improve his own. One thing to be especially avoided is the attempt to bring every cla.s.s to a uniform degree of excellence according to adult standards. Such an ideal encourages the giving of help in a way which hinders real development though it may produce immediate results.

=Trees.=--This topic will call out a discussion of the uses of trees; which trees are shade trees, which are cultivated for their fruit, the distinguishing characteristics of the different varieties, and the ones best suited to this particular farm.

Twigs from the real tree should be used wherever possible. In other cases the trees may be cut from paper. If a good green paper is not at hand, use drawing paper and color with crayons. A realistic effect is gained by cutting the tree from folded paper. (See Fig. 41.) Cut three pieces for each tree and paste together at the fold, then open out. Make the trunk long enough to be driven an inch or more into the sand.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 41.--Detail of paper tree.]

The making of the trees will furnish material for both art and nature study lessons. As far as circ.u.mstances permit the real trees should be studied, giving the children first-hand experience whether it be much or little. They should test the trees they cut by comparing them with real trees of the same variety. If this is impossible, the best pictures available should be used. (See notes on paper cutting.)

=Crops.=--When the various parts of the farm are about ready, the fields may be sown. The sand should be made very wet before the seed is put in and sprinkled frequently (twice a day), as the top dries off very quickly.

After the seeds have germinated little sprinkling need be done, as the roots will find enough moisture in the wet sand underneath, and it is desirable to r.e.t.a.r.d rather than hasten growth. If carefully managed, a table can be kept green for several weeks.

For corn, check holes well into the sand and drop one grain into each hole. See that rows are straight and holes evenly s.p.a.ced.

Sow wheat, oats, barley, etc., _very thickly_, cover lightly with dry sand, and sprinkle.

Timothy serves well for meadow and lawn, as it puts up a fine blade. Blue gra.s.s sends up a fine blade, but is very slow in germination. Clover does not make a velvety lawn, but a little in the pasture will make an interesting contrast.

Vegetables may be planted in the garden. They will not develop to any great extent, but will serve to emphasize different habits in germination; as, for example, the contrast between beans and corn.

=Correlation.=--The opportunity for nature study afforded by the farm problem will prove one of its most interesting and valuable features as the progress in plant growth is noted from day to day. The farm problem combines well with both language and art work in supplying vital material for both. In addition to the interesting discussions which naturally arise concerning the building and planting, a diary may be kept by each child.

_Keeping a Diary._--The date of planting may be noted and the date when each variety of seed first appears above ground. With the larger seeds, as corn and beans, a seed may be dug up each day and examined, so that the children may appreciate what is going on below ground. Drawings may be made of the seeds, showing the changes in appearance from day to day.

After the seed leaves appear the daily growth may be measured and noted in the diary. After a few days seeds may be dug up again that the roots may be examined. At various stages of growth different varieties of seeds may be dug up, laid upon a paper, and sketched by the children. The facts they note may be stated in simple, well-formed sentences, either oral or written or both.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 42.--An Eskimo village and The Overall Boys' Farm.

First grade. Columbia, Missouri.]

_Art._--The sketching will serve well as the day's art lesson, though its chief value is in helping the children to see clearly. Their efforts will be crude but the teacher should constantly keep in mind that the chief aim is not to obtain fine sketches. Its purpose is to help the children to a better appreciation of the plant through the effort put forth in making the sketch. The technique of the drawing should be emphasized only so far as it will help them express better what they see, and not to the point where they attempt to copy the teacher's strokes. The teacher should be satisfied if every child is doing his best and making steady progress, even though that best may be crude and not up to the standard reached by the teacher who struggles for fine results.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 43.--An apple orchard. First grade. Columbia, Missouri.]

_English._--For children who are able to write the diary offers a natural means of gaining experience in the use of common forms of punctuation; as, for example, the writing of dates and the use of a comma in a series, as well as the punctuation of simple statements, in such entries as the following:

April 15, 1912.

We planted the seeds on our farm to-day.

We planted corn, wheat, oats, and beans.

In all work of this sort it is difficult to overestimate the advantage of separate sheets of paper over a notebook with sewed leaves, in the hands of the children. With the fresh sheet always comes an inspiration, no matter what failures have gone before. Poor pages can be done over when necessary, but do not haunt the workers with their discouraging suggestions, as in the use of a notebook. The leaves may be gathered together into a binding of some sort. Even covers of plain brown wrapping paper can be made artistic with a simple border line well placed or a design cut from a paper of a different tone. Written work which culminates in an attractive booklet, however simple, seems more worth while than exercises written into a commonplace notebook or on scratch paper which goes to the wastebasket soon after the mistakes have been commented on.

_Number._--The farm problem also supplies abundant opportunity for gaining experience with number. In addition to the actual measurement of the materials used for fences and buildings, the scope may be widened, where conditions warrant, to include estimates and calculations of the amount of the material used.

For example, how many inches or feet of wire will be needed to make a three-wire fence of given length? How large a piece of cardboard will be needed to cut boards one fourth or one half inch wide for a four-board fence fifteen inches long?

These estimates may be translated, _as far as the children are able to appreciate the connection_, into quant.i.ties and values of the same material in real problems connected with real farms. It is important, however, to be careful not to carry work of this sort so far beyond the experience of the children that it becomes wholly foreign and abstract to them. We are too apt to forget that it is _experience_ and not _objects_, which is the vital factor in concreteness.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 44.--Robinson Crusoe. Third grade. Columbia, Missouri.]

In connection with the nature study a variety of number exercises grow out of the questions which the situation prompts. As, for example, in connection with the corn crop: How many seeds were planted? In how many rows? How many seeds in a row? How many came up? How many failed to germinate? How many more came up than failed? If each good seed should produce two ears of corn, how many would we have? What would they be worth at a given price? etc.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 45.--Pueblo Indian village. Second grade. Columbia, Missouri.]

In an ungraded school, while the younger children might confine their efforts to counting as above, the older children might answer the same questions in terms of percentage and in the probable quant.i.ties on a real farm. The stock farm may be treated in the same way. How many cows? How much milk will they give? What will it be worth? How much b.u.t.ter would it make? What will it cost to keep the cows? What is the farmer's profit?

These and many other questions will suggest themselves to both teacher and pupils, once the subject is opened up. They will be _practical questions in so far as they touch the experience of the children_ in such a way as to appeal to them as real questions. Each individual teacher must decide how far and into what field it is worth while to lead any particular cla.s.s.

=The Sand Table.=--The various types of sand tables range all the way from the hardwood, zinc-lined article, provided with a drainpipe, down to the homemade structure evolved from a goods box.

The quality of the table does not greatly affect the quality of the work to be done on it, but there are several points which affect the convenience of the workers. The height of the table should allow the children to work comfortably when standing beside it. A long, narrow table is seldom as satisfactory as one more nearly square, but it should never be too wide for the children to reach the center easily. Any table with tight joints in the top and four- or five-inch boards fitted tightly around the edge will serve the purpose. The inside of the box should be painted to prevent warping and leaking. An "ocean blue" is a good color, as it makes a good background for islands.