ལམས་་ པཔJ་ཆ་

Teach the children the relative position of the parts of the body. Describe and illustrate the meaning of names of collections of things; as a cluster of grapes, a heap of stones, a flock of sheep, a herd of swine, a crowd of people, a group of stars, a bunch of flowers, a wood, a forest, a grove of trees, a fleet of ships, a shoal of fish, a covey of birds, a street, and a square of houses.

Scattered. The stars appear to be scattered over the sky; corn is scattered over the ground for seed; grain is scattered in the poultryyard for the fowls to feed on; if a shepherd leave his sheep, they no longer remain as a flock, but become scattered abroad.

Compact. In a hayrick, or a stack of oats, the stems and seeds are all pressed together in a compact mass. The same may be said of a stack of wood or turf; rocks are compact masses of stone; the leaves of grass in a field stand close together, but the flowers are scattered over the field; in a garden, the flowers are arranged in order. Many other terms should be illustrated in the same way.

Make the children well acquainted with the cardinal points as relates to the school-room, and try to extend this knowledge by the relative position of their respective homes. On the blackboard make dots or points in different positions at the top, bottom, right hand, and left. Make points in the position of the angles of triangles, squares, and other figures. Make dots to represent the capital letters, or to suggest the form of any other objects, and let the children describe their positions.

Show a picture to the class, and make them describe the relative position of its parts. Remove the picture, and require them to do the same from memory. Make a simple arrangement of dots or figures on the blackboard; let the children look well at it: erase it, and let some one of the class try to reproduce it, the rest trying to correct him when wrong.

Specimen Lesson.

Let the teacher sketch a small but accurate plan of the school-room on the blackboard, and mark across it two lines at right angles to each other, directed to the cardinal points. First allow the children to point out the different parts of the plan, and particularly the position they themselves occupy on it. If we go out at the front door of the school, what street do we get into? Which way does it lie? Tell me, that I may add it to the drawing. Now it is drawn, one part goes northward and the other to the south. Who lives in this street? I do. Point in the direction of your home; is it north or south from us? What must I put behind the plan of the school-room, or to the east side of it? The playground? What shape must I draw the play-ground? Where must I mark the swings? What street is behind the play-ground? Yes, street lies north

and south. Does any one go home that way? Do you go along any other street besides? Yes, street. Then you go to the east; see, have drawn

the two streets that form your way home; first you go so far to the south, then you turn to the east. In the morning, the sun would shine along this street, or from the east. At midday he would shine only on the north side of the street, or from the south. Show me which side of the school the sun is on in the morning? At noon? In the evening?

Of course the above must be varied to suit the locality, but its use in leading to first ideas of geography is obvious, and its gradual extension, as the ideas of the children enlarge, must be left to the teacher. When much more advanced, a large map of the town or neighborhood should be used, and each child required to trace its own way home, and any streets or roads it has been accustomed to traverse. This is a work full of interest and real instruction. Mr. Wilderspin recommends maps on a large scale made in oil cloth, on which the children could walk, and movable models to be placed on them. This is no doubt an excellent plan, but also an expensive one. It might be very useful, however, to chalk a large plan on the floor for the younger classes, as it would possess more reality to them from its size and position than a small map suspended vertically.

Number.

First ideas of number are best communicated by reference to familiar objects, and these should be of several kinds, to prevent the association of the numbers with one class of things only. Let the younger children learn to count cards, books, pence, or any objects which may be at hand. When a large number of units are required, let one child first hold up a finger, then the next, and so on as many as are wanted. Or let them hold up a finger of each hand, then two, then three, or more. One hand may be held up with the fingers

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aquior, we antmeticon serves the purpose of giving combinations

of number, and of working any arithmetical problem.

me.

Specimen Lesson.

The teacher should be furnished with several sets of small objects.

Teacher. I have here five books, five pence, and five sticks; count them with Now, I have placed them all on the floor, and I want some little child to bring me two books. That is right. Now who can bring me three books? Quite right; now put them back again. Who can bring me a penny and two books? Now bring three sticks and a book. Now a book, a penny, and a stick. How many are they together? Who can bring me four sticks, five books, and five pence? Who will answer me a question? I will. Well, how many brothers and sisters have you? Try to tell me their names. William, Peter, and Mary. How many together? Who can count the legs of the chair? The bars of the grate? Clap your hands once, now twice, now three times.

This subject is too simple to require further detail; yet it must be taught progressively, otherwise the mind of the learner is apt to become confused. It will be perceived that it is entirely preliminary to arithmetic, and therefore it is best in this stage to keep to small numbers; and when arithmetic is commenced, still to carry on the previous process in conjunction with it, in order to give reality to the value of figures. It is particularly useful to give easy exercises in mental arithmetic, in which the notion of real objects is associated with number.

Weight.

In commencing this subject, the teacher should first call attention to such general facts as the falling of bodies towards the earth, the tendency of water to flow downwards, the difficulty of raising any heavy object up from the ground, and the sensation of weight in the human frame. Cubes or spheres of equal size, formed of lead, stone, wood, cork, or other substances, strikingly different in weight, should be examined and compared by the children. Bodies that are lighter or heavier than water may be distinguished by actual experiment. The resistance of the air to falling bodies may be easily shown by letting fall at the same instant such things as wool, cork, and lead, and watching their unequal rate of descent. The pupils should be allowed frequently to handle and compare objects of different density and size.

The next step is to make the children acquainted with the standard weights, and then to let them judge of the weights of various things, testing the accuracy of their guesses by weighing the objects before them

When a pretty accurate knowledge of small amounts of weight is acquired, it may be extended by degrees to familiar examples of

greater quantities; but in this, as in the case vi

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to attempt to expand the idea too rapidly; the process must be progressive, and, if hurried, would lose its reality.

The use of wooden bricks and other mechanical toys in the playground, greatly assists in developing the perception of weight.

Some idea of the nature of the mechanic powers should be given in connection with this subject, and this may be easily done by means of models and by simple experiments.

Specimen Lesson.

The teacher should be provided with several different substances for experiment. Wool, cork, pumice-stone, marble, wood, lead, or such objects as are within reach, may be used for illustration.

Teacher.--You see in my hand two balls of equal size. I want some one to try for me which is the lighter of the two. They are very different in weight; one is a ball of cork and the other of lead. If I let the leaden ball drop from my hand, can you tell me the direction in which it will go? It will fall down to the floor. Yes, for we never see any thing fall up to the ceiling or to one side, but always downwards, because the earth draws all the smaller things which are near it towards itself. The earth draws all you little children towards it, and when you try to climb a hill, you find that lifting your feet from the earth is hard work. Will you watch what takes place when I let the ball of lead fall from my hand? It strikes the floor and makes a loud noise. Now see if the same takes place when I drop the ball of cork. No, it makes only a faint sound. Why is this? The lead is heavy and the cork is light. I have here two more balls, one of wood and one of stone. Who will come and try their different weights? I am now going to place the four balls in this glass of water, and you must observe what happens. Two of them sink and two swim. Why do the cork and wooden balls swim? You can not tell; well, I must explain to you that wood and cork are lighter than water, and so come to the surface; but lead and stone are heavier than water, and sink down in it. A fish swims in the water, because it is about the same weight as water; but an oyster lies at the bottom of the sea, because it has a heavy shell. If things upon the earth had no weight, men and animals would not require to be strong; but the larger an animal is, the more strength it must have, to be able to move about. Could any little child here lift me from the ground? No, I am too heavy, and you are not strong enough. Quite true, but I could lift any of you, because you are all lighter than I am, and I must have strength enough to be able to move my own weight. A horse can carry a man because a horse is larger and heavier than a man, and has more strength. If a little child were to run a great way, would he not be tired? Yes, he would have to carry the weight of his own body all the way he went, and this would tire him. Look at the walls of the school-room. What are they made of? Are they not very heavy? Why do they not fall? Because they are upright or vertical. Would they stand if they were inclined? No, they would then fall; for all heavy things which are not supported will fall straight down. When we stand, we take care to stand upright, or else we should fall. When people fall, we say they lose their balance; that is, they throw more of their weight to one side than to the other, which causes them to come to the ground. Would you stand near a wall that leaned to one side? No, it would be dangerous to do so; it might fall and kill you.

Some things are very light, compared with others of the same size. Will you tell me of all the light things you know? Now name those that are heavy. Will you try to think of things that are bought and sold by weight? I have here a penny and a halfpenny; why is the penny worth more than the halfpenny ?

metals are valued by weight

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size. All things which we see have weight. Even the air has some weight, as you will learn in a future lesson. If it were not so, we should have no power to move or to work; without weight, the workman's hammer would not strike, the water would not turn the mill to grind the corn, or the wind move the great ships over the sea, to fetch us good things from distant countries. Even the rain could not fall from the sky to make things grow, if it had not some weight; so that when we find it difficult and laborious to move about, or carry heavy things, we should remember how useful and necessary it is for things to have weight, and how God, in his wisdom and goodness, made every thing just as heavy as it should be. He made the air light for us to breathe and to move about in, the heavy stones to build our houses, light wool and cotton to make us warm clothes, and heavy metals to make our tools. Let us always think that Ile has made every thing in the way it should be.

Sound.

First lessons on this subject should not be of a musical character, but chiefly confined to the discrimination of ordinary sounds. The attention of the pupils may be directed to the varieties of the human voice in children and grown persons, in men and women, and in different individuals; also to the different modes of utterance, as speaking, calling, singing, whispering, and so on. Sounds may be produced experimentally, as by the ringing of bells, the noise made by striking various bodies, and by other means; and these should be divided into sharp, grave, loud, faint, or as many varieties as can be exhibited.

The next step is to require the pupils to observe sounds for themselves. Children, when first called upon to mention the sounds they are acquainted with, will not, perhaps, be able to remember more than ten or twelve; but we have known many who, in a week or two after their attention had been directed to the subject, could enumerate upwards of one hundred. It is useful to lead them to classify their observations, as into the voices of beasts, birds, sounds produced by insects, by the footfall of men and animals, by the motion of carriages and machinery, by workmen in performing various mechanical operations, sounds produced by the motion of water, air, and by other natural causes. Sounds may also be divided into kinds, as roaring, rumbling, crashing, crackling, murmuring, rolling, tinkling, echoing, and so on; the intention of such exercises being to connect words with definite ideas, and to cultivate habits of correct observation.

Directions for a Lesson on Sound.

Strike in succession two bells, one much sharper in tone than the other, and call attention to the different pitch in their sounds. Let the children try to produce high and low tones with the voice. Produce sudden sharp noises, as by striking hard substances, by the breaking of wood, or by the children calling out in a high key and stopping suddenly; then sounds of an opposite character, as by