are in the drawing, and also how loosely the bunch is constructed, each grape hanging separately. The leaves will need consideration next. We shall find that they are not all laid out flat and smooth; many of them will have the edges curled up or twisted around so that we see the back of them rather than the front. When we draw the stems, notice all the little joints that swell out in points on each side, and how the small stems join the big ones, often growing from the top, and the weight of the leaves and fruit pulling them down so that they cross each other. If the drawings are to be finished with ink or black paint and brush, make the top of the leaves solid black, leaving narrow white spaces for the veins, from the third grade up; but below that grade spaces are not very practical for small things like veins. Leave the under side of the leaf white, drawing an ink outline over the pencil ones. When the fruit is painted, leave wide white spaces between each grape; and leave spaces where the stems cross each other or there is any detail to be shown. Draw lines around the edge of the space with either a pen or the point of a brush, and add the initials in the wide margin below the drawing. A subject from the wild things that makes a beautiful drawing is the thorn apple. Arrange to have each pupil have an individual. spray to work from. Let each child decide, for himself what shape will be the most desirable to make the drawing in, and then measure it or mark around the cards. The arrangement on the drawing paper is always an important point in getting artistic results, and time spent in teaching pupils to consider the best spacing, the most pleasing margins, sizes that fit subjects, and the placing of initials is always well used. As everything we draw is of different shape and proportion, the problem is always recurring, and each must decide for himself. When the space is drawn, decide whether the whole of the spray is to be used or part of it only.. As the fruits are small, draw the stem first with a light line, indicate the places where the branches,. thorns, and leaves come. Sketch very lightly the places and sizes of the bunches of berries and the general shape of the leaves. Then see that they are drawn a size to fit the space and that it is pleasantly filled, and decide where the initials areto be placed. We are now ready to go over the drawing and make it quite accurate, and add details. The stem seems to grow at all sorts of odd angles, but has no curves. The small stems have much detail to be suggested, in rings, and resting buds, and joints, and the stems that hold the berries are delicate and grow in clusters. The pointed leaves are twisted up, some showing the top, and some the under side. The thornson this plant are very characteristic, some being almost three inches long and very sharp and strong. The berry is round and shiny, and has the remains of the withered flower petals at the top, like the rose berry. If this study is finished in color, using either crayon or water-color, notice how the leaves change from green to yellow, with suggestions of red patches, and how they are blackened on the tips. The stems are gray, but there is a touch of warm brown to be found round the buds and small stems that hold the berries. The berries themselves are almost scarlet where the light shines on them, and deepen to a rich glowing crimson. We cannot draw everything in the limited time at our disposal, and in order that we may get the best results for our own good and pleasure, do not try to draw too many things, but take all the time that is needed, so that every drawing that is made shall be the very best that we are capable of producing at that time. DRAMATIZATION AS THE BASIS OF LANGUAGE WORK. - (III.) BY ETHEL L. QUINLAN, Decatur, Ill. HE story selected upon which to base our play was the charming fairy tale so familiar to all children, "The Sleeping Beauty." This was chosen for three reasons: First, that it abounded in dramatic situations; secondly, that it gave free scope to the imagination and contained incidents especially conducive to good language; and third, that it afforded an opportunity for each member of the school to take part, an important element in sustaining interest. The story was then reproduced orally so each child had the main points or incidents of the story well in mind. It is well then to reproduce the story in as brief a manner as will permit without omitting any of the chief incidents. This brief recital of the story is in reality a synopsis of the play and should be placed upon the board to refer to whenever desired. The children were familiar enough with plays to know that they were divided into various acts and scenes, each containing some important event. Suggestion as to what they thought the various acts should be resolved itself into the following: Act I. The Feast at the Castle. Act II. The Departure of King and Queen for the Battlefield and the Fulfillment of Prophecy; in others words, The Fifteenth Birthday of the Prin cess. Act III. The Return of King and Queen and Arrival of Fairy who puts Court to Sleep. Act IV. The Awakening of the Princess by the Prince. By way of arousing interest, the characters necessary to produce the play were enumerated and the stage settings necessary for the various acts were discussed. The motive of the children in writing the play was to present it to an audience composed of their parents and such of the school authorities as they might wish to invite. The feast was then discussed from the standpoint of parties which they had attended. The question of what they did at such parties brought about many forms of entertainment which were discussed as to the likelihood of their use at this particular party. The consensus of opinion inclined to conversation as the type of entertainment most suitable to the dignity of the occasion. The question naturally arose as to who should speak first, which was easily settled by reference to the relative duties of host and guests. From the point of rank and as host this duty was the king's. What would the king say to the fairies? What feeling would he express? Various children came forward representing the king and expressing the feeling they thought he would express. From the simple statement of the king, "I am glad to see you," was evolved the idea of bidding his guests welcome, which sentiment being voiced in various ways was finally developed as follows: "We bid you a hearty welcome to our palace." The pronoun "I" was first used but was changed to "We" on changed to "We" on the criticism of the school that the king was speaking for the queen as well as for himself, so that it was more polite to say "we." The emotion felt by both king and queen was plainly great joy over the birth of a daughter, and the children were led to see that while any parents might wish for a child, the rulers of a country were especially desirous of an heir to rule their kingdom after their death. The joy of the king and queen was finally expressed in the following manner: "For long we have been wishing for a child. At last God has granted our prayer and a little daughter has been born to us. That is why we give this feast." The question, "Why did the king invite the fairies?" brought out the fact that he wished them to act as the child's godmothers, while the question of why he asked the fairies in preference to the lords and ladies of his court brought out the idea of the supernatural powers supposed to be possessed by fairies and the fact that, they were able by virtue of these powers to do more for the baby and give her gifts that no mortal power could. All of this naturally led to a discussion of the duties of godmothers to their godchildren. This was expressed in many ways, such as help when in danger or trouble, watch over, keep from harm or evil, guard and protect. All of these various expressions were developed by asking the school to match the words or expressions suggested with words and expressions of like meaning, in this way increasing the child's vocabulary and working for variety of expression, showing them that the same thought may be expressed in many various ways. The sentence as finally decided upon reads: "We wish you to be her godmothers and love, bless, and protect her." One of the children having the king express the hope that the princess would grow up to be a good child aroused a discussion of the qualities necessary for the future ruler, thus bringing out the idea of wisdom and justice finally expressed: "We trust she will grow up to be good, kind, and wise, and rule justly over the kingdom. when we are dead." The interest aroused in this work caused the children to be constantly on the alert for words which they felt expressed the thought in a better way, and this spirit frequently manifested itself in criticism of expressions used and suggestion of words which they thought better. Thus, in the sentence just quoted, the word. first suggested was "gone," which was speedily objected to as sounding as if the king and queen had gone away on a journey, so the word dead was suggested as a substitute. One is frequently surprised at the originality of thought displayed in this work, as in the latter part of the king's speech where a child voiced the presentiment of evil in this way: "There is one old fairy whom I cannot find and I think she must be either dead or enchanted. I have not seen nor heard of her for fifty years, and if we do not find her I fear she will try to do some evil to our little princess." By allowing the children to play the various parts after careful questioning had brought clearly to mind the emotions to be expressed, accepting the somewhat inadequate words offered and asking the school to suggest others which they thought would express the situation better, variety of expression and increase of vocabulary were secured, the words emanating from different children but becoming part of the vocabulary of all by the time this work was completed. WHILE LOOKING ABOUT. Stock Words. Last month I referred to the phonic work of Miss Winifred Lacey of Ishpeming, Michigan. Now I wish to speak of the way in which her little boys and girls master the art of reading so as to eliminate their foreign characteristic, so as to pronounce correctly, articulate distinctly, enunciate clearly, and read effectively. She makes independent readers at an early day. The child never questions its ability to know what a word is that is made up of phonic parts. He comes to know instinctively the difference between a word like "in-de-pend-ence" and a word like "slaughter." He never tries to analyze "slaughter." The child is given "stock" words from the start. "Fire," "bird," "doll," "dog," "house," are stock words and are developed objectively. So are proper names like "John," "Sarah," "Michael." Miss Lacey's children discern almost intuitively the words that they can take apart and pronounce of themselves and those that they must learn as a whole and from authority. She has no nonsense with little children as to bough, cough, dough, plough, rougl., and tough. Supreme common sense reigns at all times in Miss Lacey's teaching. Notable Fifth and Sixth Grade Work. Cat and Mice Game. FIRST GRADE-DETROIT. One of the very live active games which Miss Ethel Perrin, physical director of Detroit, has in the first grade is a game of "Cat and Mice." One little fellow, the cat, hides under the teacher's desk and the other children, mice, come up to Some of the most interesting and suggestive the desk and scratch it with their fingers. work that I have ever seen in the fifth and sixth grades was in the room of Miss Bill, State Normal Training school, Marquette, Michigan. It was an exercise in oral reading. Each pupil selected something that all had read. When he announced the selection the teacher asked the children why they thought that was selected, and with remarkable discrimination they fitted the selection to the temperament and taste of the reader. Each pupil took his place before the class and ' shifted his point of view until he could look every child in the eye, and he had the alert attention of all before he read. Then he read his best, read to interest and impress his classmates. After he was through reading, while he stood there, the children told what they especially liked in the reading. By and by the cat mews lightly, the mice listen, the cat mews louder, and the mice run and the cat after them, catching as many of them as he can. One of the mice, a very frisky fellow, does not try to get to his seat, but gives the cat a lively chase. Lively Action Between Recitation. Ethel Perrin, physical director, Detroit, succeeds in getting a lot of exercise for the little firstgraders. There are many lively action games with real racing about the schoolroom. Then, between recitations the children all run to and from their recitation seats and their desk seats. It is the real thing, not a hop and skip, nor do they take the shortest way, but make a bit of frolic of it for the minute. This breaks the monotony wholly and keeps the relish keen. As a result a1l class work is hearty, and every child is alert in Finally the reader told what he particularly liked everything. The children show it all the time. SPELLING.--(III.) BY WILLIAM ESTABROOK CHANCELLOR. 1,000 WORDS. — (II.) The list has been arranged alphabetically for the convenience of critics. Various other arrangements were tried. It is not, however, feasible to arrange by parts of speech, for many words are perfect rhymes, e. g., "pound," "well," and some are perfect alliterations, though pronounced differently, e. g., "wound." Nor is it feasible to arrange by topics, as "household affairs," "markets," etc., for many words require several entries. Arrangement by number of letters and of syllables was tried, but proved fantastic. In making such a list as this, I have proceeded upon knowledge that every word is both a phonogram and an ideogram. Consciousness that "hear" and "heard," or "receive," "receipt," and "reception," are concerned with one another, being etymologically one group-word, does not help any one to spell the different forms. For spelling purposes, the rules for spelling are worse than useless. Though the variations are less, yet I hear and see "need," "needing," and "needed" as different words quite as truly as "am," "is," "was," "were," "be," "been," and "being." The only exception admitted here to the principle that every form is a different spelling word is the final "s" for singulars of verbs and plurals of nouns; and even this is an exception in appearance and in custom only. Consider these pairs: "Doe, does", "does, do"; "fly, flies"; "flies, fly"; "time, times"; "times, time"; "it, its"; "your, yours." It is patent that each pair consists of different phonograms to the ear and of different ideograms to the eye. It is expedient, however, to make the exception above noted, despite its difficulty to beginners in language and to educated foreigners studying English. All proper names are omitted, though at least twenty such names, e. g., one's own name, "American," the name of one's post-office, are quite as indispensable to the literacy of writing as any common words. In fact, of all words, the ones that we most need to write are "I" and "John Smith"; and there is no error quite so humorously, yet plainly, the mark of illiteracy as writing "i" and "john smith." Not a week passes without my receiving one or more notes or letters misspelling this pronoun of the first person, or some proper name of almost equal importance. My experience, however, believe that few persons ever spell any considerable number of long and difficult words until after they have acquired with almost perfect accuracy the spelling of several hundred short and easier words. Experi causes me to learn to ence also causes me to think that it is more incon venient and disgraceful to write "citty," "truely," and "serous" for "city," "truly," and "serious" than not to know "amelioration" and "pneumonia." At any rate, "softening" and "lungfever" serve fairly well as synonyms. Every word in this list is more important than any word that appears properly in a list of (say) the third 1,000 useful words. Whether or not a word should appear in the first or the second 1,000 may be a matter for consideration, or whether it should appear in the third or fourth 1,000; but that is poor grading of words which drills a seventh-grade class on "judiciary" and an eighthgrade class on "obsequious," but does not include "police" and "clothes" in the spelling course. [Every word in the following list every American needs.] Note.-Every word is a phonogram. Every word also is an ideogram. A star (*) affixed to a word indicates that it represents more than one idea. A dagger (†) so affixed indicates that the word represents more than one sound (or set of sounds). A. A, able, about, act, across, add, after, afraid, again, against, agree, agreeable, almost, always, am, among, an, and, angle, angry, any, animal, already, *arm, are, arrest, around, aunt. B. Back, bad, badly, baby, bake, ball, bathing. *bank, beans, *bear, *beat, beast, bed, be, been, being, before, beginning, behind, believe, below, best, better, beef, berries, blessing, *bound, black, blind, blame, big, bitter, *bill, birth, blood, *board, boat, boil, blow, blue, book, body, bodies, bore, born, boy, bought, brick, bring, brown, broom, bread, breakfast, build, building, bushel, busy, business, *but, butcher, butter, button, bundle, busy, buy, brass, brave, bridge, break. C. Came, can, capital, car, care, carry, catch, cause, cat, cattle, carpet, child, children, chimney, ceiling, circle, cent, chain, chair, change, choose, clay, clean, *clear, *‡close, *club, coal, cold, color, come, coming, comfortable, committee, common, complete, chicken, cost, clothes, clerk, *cook, cooking, corn, corner, cotton, custom, could, count, country, courage, cloudy, criminal, cup, cruel, cousin. D. Damp, dark, daring, day, date, daily, danger, daughter, debt, defeat, deep, dentist, depth, dead, dear, death, deceit, deceive, deserve, desire, did, *die, dime, differ, different, difference, difficult, dinner, direct, dirt, dirty, dislike, die, discovery, discharge, dish, dishes, distrust, divide, do, *dog, doing, done, dollar, *down, doubt, doctor, door, dozen, drink, dress, dream, drawing, drain, drive, *drove, *draw, *drawing, *drew, dull, dust, duty, dying. fellow, fever, few, field, *fine, fight, find, finding, *found, foundation, fifty, fish, five, *figure, finger, fix, floor, flour, flow, flower, foolish, *foot, food, following, force, form, forest, fork, four, forty, foreigner, free, freeze, freezing, friend, frozen, farther, fresh, front, fruit, furnace, future. G. Gave, garden, gas, gather, gaily, *game, gallon, *general, gentleness, get, give, girl, glad, gold, glass, glasses, good, goodness, go, going, gone, got, govern, government, grand, gracious, grain, *grave, gray, grass, grease, great, greatness, green, grocery, *ground, grew, guide. H. Had, half, hat, happy, happen, happiness, has, have, having, hard, hate, hateful, hated, hammer, *handle, hall, hand, hair, he, head, hear, heaving, heard, heart, height, heavy, heaven, healthy, heat, her, hear, *help, helpful, *hide, high, higher, highest, him, hill, hive, hived, hog, hollow, hope, hot, horse, house, how, however, hungry, hundred, hurt, husband. BLACKBOARD READING LESSON. • May and Alice were in the garden. They played with their little dolls. Alice found a robin's flown away.) Alice put her doll in the nest to sleep. : She forgot her. The doll stayed in the garden all night. The fairies came to see her. The doll danced all night with the fairies. fest Alice found her doll in the me next day. But the doll did not tell Alice about the fairies. |