Thanksgiving

Bess Dixon

American children will have a broader conception of this nation wide celebration this year than ever before. Just think of Thanksgiving this year. Almost three hundred years ago, our forefathers were praising God because they were enjoying all the principles for which they at first so willingly suffered. Today, we are praising God because those principles are being extended to lands across the ocean and our brave Americans are giving all to do this. Almost three hundred years ago, the Indians participated in the Thanksgiving Feast. To-day, it is the privilege of our allies. Almost three hundred years ago, the Pilgrims conserved by working out ways to utilize materials about them. To-day, we are conserving. Through the history work, these ideas can be brought

out.

The ways and means of conserving can be made a study which will be of much interest to children. Here comes a fine opportunity to plan a Thanksgiving dinner. Let us talk first about the Thanksgiving dinner of the Pilgrims, then about a Thanksgiving dinner in America before the war. Now let us plan a Thanksgiving dinner for Nineteen Eighteen. Let us suppose that this dinner is for six people: mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, brother and sister. Let the children make the menu, choosing meats, vegetables, desserts, drinks, etc. In order to see that we have chosen wisely, let us make a study of: 1 The number of calories a child should have each day.

2 The number of calories grown people should have each day.

3 Best foods to choose in order to get the right amount of calories and also a variety.

6 Amount of money which should be spent for this dinner.

7 Amount of each kind of food to prepare for the dinner for six people.

Now with the knowledge of, food stuffs to be used and not to be used, make the final menu. Let the children bring War Recipe Books and find how the foods decided upon are prepared now. This will be a very interesting and instructive study. What a wealth of knowledge is the heritage of the children of today. With all this knowledge, what a wealth of meaning Thanksgiving will hold!

If this study is carried out in grades two or three, in place of points (1) and (2), find the relative food values: fats, sweets, starches, etc. Then (3) should read: Best foods to choose in order to get the fats, sweets, starches etc. and also to have a variety. The youngsters will be very interested in this and it can be given to them in a simple, attractive way.

Reading in Third Grade.

Bertha M. Cushman

The methods I use are probably new to none of you, but as the interchange of ideas is always helpful I am bringing mine to you.

In beginning third grade work in the fall, review a book used in the second grade. It takes but a short time to read this and keeps the children from becoming discouraged by too many new words. It is seldom necessary to mark any of these words, for they come back readily to their minds, especially if they have been stories the chil

dren have enjoyed, and it is my experience that children learn to read more easily when they get pleasure from what they are reading.

But when I start with another book, I put the new words on the board and mark them. Each child sounds at least one of these words and tells a story about it so that he will understand what it means and be able to read more intelligently. After the words are sounded we go over them a few times without sounding. There is a long list of words like through, though, thought, was, when, where, etc., that we have in a separate drill and try to get firmly fixed in our minds.

When we have finished the "Progressive Road," we take two other books, one for forenoon work and another for afternoon work. The reading in the afternoon is mostly for pleasure and the phonic drill is not used. We are reading "Merry Animal Tales" now, and the interest is such that the method may be forgotten.

I find if the children choose whether we are to go around the class or to skip here and there more interest is shown and better reading is the result.

Children enjoy reading to the class from the front of the room with the teacher sitting among the pupils. This is only another way of awakening an interest without which the best results are impossible.

The children read to the teacher; why not the teacher to the children? If a book is brought from home and I am asked to read it, if it is a book I think they will understand and enjoy, I take the first ten minutes each afternoon to read from it. We always have a story Friday afternoon and the children look forward to it with pleasure. Lessons of kindness, politeness, and truth can perhaps be taught better in this way than in any other.

As a means of learning to see the beauty in the thought of the author and enjoying the rhythmical flow of his words the memorizing of poetry is a great help.

The children love poems and are able to grasp their meaning better than we think. This month we take three of Longfellow's poems, "The Village Blacksmith," "The Children's Hour"-"Edith With Golden Hair," as one of the girls called it and "The Arrow and the Song." I read the poem as a whole, and then take it stanza by stanza, unless the meaning is made clearer by taking two or more stanzas together:

In concert recitations it is difficult to know whether the children are getting the right words or not. If some individual work is done you are sure that the line

"There is no dew left on the daisies and clover".

is not rendered

"There's an old dude left on the daisies and clover"as one child is said to have given it.

I find it important to put the right inflection into the poem the first time I read it, for this is the inflection the child invariably gets and keeps. In teaching Words. worth's "We Are Seven," I read the second stanza

I met a little cottage girl,

She was eight years old, she said;
Her hair was thick with many a curl
That clustered round her head

giving the impression in the second line that she was not eight years old, but said she was, and the children have kept that impression so far.

I believe that some of the most valuable lessons can be taught through the poems that we teach the children and a love for real poetry fostered, which means much in this day when there is such a tendency to abuse the English Language.

Week End Home Work for Every Child

E

Ossana Benruth

VERY teacher knows that the usual preparation for Monday's work, as presented by normal "Young America," is best passed over in charitable silence. We have continued our assignments, not because we have hoped for any real improvement, but rather through custom, and a sense of duty. As I look back over my own school days, the teacher whose influence was most marked, and who helped me more than all the rest, gave out her heaviest assignments of home-work to be done for Monday, and the work was not only done by every pupil, but done with eager enthusiasm. The outline of this teacher's method, which she used with such wonderful success in High School English, I have found can be applied with profit to any year of school work, from the littlest people in "Primer" to the most advanced classes. It is so thoroughly practical, so simple and reasonable that any young teacher can make use of it, and by this means bind together the weeks, turn "Blue Monday" into a day of special joy, and give her children a real zest for study.

In the first place, we must be very definite in our plan. We must take the time to go over exactly what we wish accomplished. We must decide upon minimum requirements, and never expect the pupils to understand just what we want them to do, unless we have made a clear statement of what we wish them to do, and they have made note of it. A "home-work" book is an absolute necessity. In this book, which should be a large composition book or staple-bound tablet, the required work to be done between Friday and Sunday should be briefly stated, under a neat heading, thus: "Home Work, June 21, 1917." On the next line should appear the heading of the lesson, for instance, "Arithmetic," and the problems follow. The spelling words can be set under the word "Spelling," and the lesson should never be written each word five times, but the words, one after another as they come, once, and then again, along the line and not in columns; then each word should be written in a sentence. At least one hour of work should be required, and it must be required. A child may be appointed in each row to collect the books, which that child will examine to see if the work has been done, anything omitted of the assignment or any failure in neatness, and make a written report, to be filed. The delinquents lose a certain per cent without privilege of making it up, unless there be an extraordinary exThe daily class work that is handed in can be lightly passed over, and need not be corrected in detail if the Friday home work is a comprehensive review of what has been done during the week, and the strictest possible account required. That work should be a little weekly test the value of which should be so strongly emphasized that the pupils will realize it to be a definite task that spells success if performed.

cuse.

In the lower grades gold stars affixed to lessons that are satisfactory and silver stars for work that is passable will be found stimulating, while a rubber stamp marked. ACCEPTED" and "EXCELLENT" will help in the higher classes. "NO CREDIT" is a dire punishment once this work is well started, and "REWRITE" is much more terrible to a young offender than any spoken words that could be uttered. To put this plan into successful practice will require perhaps two hours of concentrated labor on the part of the teacher, and it must be done every week without fail. You can divide the books into four piles for careful correction, and any work needing to be rewritten may not be handed in before the following Monday.

From the babies who have just learned to make "1's and 2's" to the pupils who can prepare a concise Grammar or History outline, this method of making the week-end home-work a definite end to accomplish with credit, gives

form and shape to the child's effort that carries him for ward because it helps him to see just what he is aiming for. When it is accomplished, he knows what he knows, there is no doubt about it. If he has failed, he knows that it is simply because he has not tried, and not that success was impossible. The work should be always "easy," because clearly presented. When you have written out your questions, read them aloud and consider whether a child who is in the grade beneath yours could comprehend the words you have chosen.

The questions cannot be too simply and clearly stated, but the work required of the pupil should be sufficient to tax the capacity of the class in alertness, neatness, memory, and

exactness.

I

That Spelling List

Grace Boteler Sanders

'N hunting for something absolutely new to encourage and inspire boys and girls to make an effort to be spellers, I began to place after the names upon the board a red mark. "Oh, we know!" they chorused and were not at all enthusiastic. "It's to be a star. We are tired of stars."

"No," I calmly returned, "it is not a star!" and was immediately put to it. If not a star, what then? It cost me some anxious thought, but the next day when I put another red mark after the names of the winners I inquired:

"Did you ever see the cross of the Legion of Honor?" All of them had in picture shows or upon the pages of their favorite magazines and enthusiastically waved their hands.

"And for what are they given?" The answers again came quickly. I continued to enthuse and added, "As many battles are fought with words as with swords. To be successful, you must be a good speller. In the future I intend to give three red marks, two white ones and three blue to the successful winners of hundreds. These eight marks will give you a red, white and blue cross of honor.

Enthusiasm began from the moment that an outline of a white cross, filled in with red and blue, appeared. Even my oldest boy, who in trying to be manly scorned such a subterfuge, became chagrined when a visitor noticed our list and the omission of Marion's name. Immediately after he began to dig that his name might join the others.

When interest waned I offered an extra mark per week to each one who had a hundred each day. I next offered two extra marks to each person in the row whose every member had a hundred each day for a week. This row was called the Star Row and its number was posted in red chalk upon the board. The Booby Row's number was also conspicuously displayed. A gay poster of cardboard on which was printed black and gold letters and hung before the Star Row on an easel was a help. The card read:

WE ARE

WINNERS

On our board above the list of names written in yellow chalk and followed by a row of crosses is this announce

ment:

"The Red (red chalk) White and Blue (blue chalk) Cross (a Maltese cross in red white and blue) of Honor represents eight one hundreds. The Crown, ten crosses or eighty one hundreds."

A large yellow crown replaces the ten crosses and is the pride of the boy who has earned one. Yes, it has paid. Even my bad boy anxiously watches the board each day to see if the coveted mark is placed after his name. This room, or rather the grade, was notorious for its poor spelling.

We are now getting daily twenty-six hundreds from thirty-six and often more And not only that, they are copying that patriotic cross of honor on text books, letters and cards. It has made an impression that will last.