Exercises in Fractions.

XXIV. Find the half of 647.

What is the half of 32 ?

What is the third of 79 ?
What are of 64 ?

What is the fourth of 78 ?

Give the fourth of 78 ?

Express in terms of halves.

Find the difference between and of 12.

Which is greater, of 6 or 3 of 9 ?

And so on, with 4,,, etc.,,, etc., in fractions with a denominator not greater than 12.

XXV. The aliquot parts of £1, a yard, and 1 lb. avoirdupois must be learnt, and told at sight.

PRACTICAL HINTS FROM REPORTS OF H.M.'S INSPECTORS ON THE "3 R's" OF STANDARD IV.

READING.

"Absence of anything like correct modulation of the voice, a total disregard of all stops, and an apparent inability to pronounce strange words, are the prevailing faults. Children will often run through all the letters of a long word, after being told to spell it, without any notion of dividing it into syllables, and when told the syllables do not seem to know the value of the letters."MR. CODD.

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"I would reiterate my conviction that the universal institution of school libraries would do much to remedy the bad reading."-MR. PAREZ.

"I take reading with intelligence to include two things:

explanation of the more unusual words and phrases, and the reproduction of the general scope of the lesson.”—Mr. STEELE.

"The amount of information derived from the reading lesson should always be thoroughly tested by examination at its close."—-MR. VERTUE.

"In teaching the art of reading to a class which has already mastered the rudiments, I am convinced that dialogue is a most important instrument. Poetry has many of the advantages of dialogue in the demand which it makes for animation, expressiveness, and modulation of tone on the part of the reader, and has of course other advantages peculiar to itself as an instrument of moral and intellectual culture."-MR. WARBURTON.

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WRITING.

I believe the strict enforcement of dictating once, and once only, after the piece has been read over, is most useful in training children to listen carefully to what is said, not only in that lesson, but at other times.”—MR. SYNGE.

"In polysyllabic compounded words, a little knowledge of etymology is the best security from blunders." -MR. WARBURTON.

ARITHMETIC.

"Children are too exclusively practised in working such problems as are expected to be given at the annual inspection, instead of being systematically exercised in general principles by means of very easy examples."— MR. FUSSELL.

"In many schools the failures evidently result from the mechanical way in which the Arithmetic is taught.

It is no doubt difficult to lead children to exercise their mental faculties, yet a good teacher will carefully cultivate the reasoning powers of his pupils by a proper course of mental exercises preparatory to, and illustrative of, the fuller working of the different rules."--MR. VERTUE.

CHAPTER XVII.

SCHEDULE II.: CLASS SUBJECTS (STANDARD IV.).

ENGLISH.To recite eighty lines of poetry, and to explain the words and allusions."

66 To parse easy sentences, and to show by examples the use of each of the parts of speech." (New Code, 1883.) "The examination in this subject is not limited to technical grammar. The general object should be to enlarge the learner's vocabulary, and to make him familiar with the meaning, the structure, the grammatical and logical relations, and the right use of words." (Instructions to

Inspectors.)

"It will be the duty of the teacher to submit to you for approval on the day of the inspection, a list of the pieces chosen for the ensuing year. It is not necessary that the required number of lines should be taken from one poem, etc."

GEOGRAPHY." Physical and Political Geography of· the British Isles, British North America, and Australasia, with knowledge of their productions."

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'If the managers desire, they may submit to the Inspector at his annual visit, and the Inspector may approve, for the ensuing year, some similar progressive scheme of lessons." (New Code, 1883.)

"The Code recognizes as the means of instruction in Geography, reading-books, oral lessons, and visible

illustrations. The best reading-books are those which are descriptive and explanatory, are well written, and suitably illustrated, and contain a sufficient amount and variety of interesting matter." (Instructions to Inspectors.)

SINGING. DIVISION IV. FOR STANDARDS IV.-VII.

PART I.-SCHOOLS USING THE STAFF NOTATION.

Division 4.

Note Test.-(1) To sing slowly, using the sol-fa syllables, from the Examiner's pointing, any simple diatonic passage in the keys of G (one sharp), D (two sharps), F (one flat), or B flat (two fiats); and also a similar simple passage containing a modulation into the key of the fifth above (by raising the fourth degree), or the key of the fifth below (by flattening the seventh degree).

Example.

Also, to sing in the same way as above described, a short passage in the key of A minor, introducing the sharpened seventh approached from and leading to the note A, but without introducing the sixth (major or minor) of the scale.