What is growing in the field? Is there a long or a short growth? Did the mother bird make much noise as she rose from the nest? Did this help to reveal its presence? Is the nest easy to see? The cla.s.s will halt a few paces from it and try to find it. How many eggs? Their colour? Note the arch of gra.s.s so beautifully concealing the nest.
Returning to school, the facts observed are reviewed. The pupils may then express themselves by written composition or by drawings, paintings, or modellings of the nest, the eggs, or the surroundings.
Frequent visits to the nest should not be made, and the pupils should be warned not to disturb the bird, as she may desert the nest on slight provocation.
A second excursion may be made, when the eggs are hatched, to see the young birds.
~A Wasp"s Nest.~--A nest having been discovered, the pupils note how it is suspended and how it is situated with regard to concealment or to protection from rain, its colour, the material of the nest, and the position of the entrance. Is the opening ever deserted? How many wasps enter and how many leave the nest in a minute? Try to follow one and watch what he does. Wasps may be found biting wood from an old board fence. This they chew into pulp, and from this pulp their paper is made.
Get the children to verify this by observations. If the nest is likely to become a nuisance, smoke out the wasps, take the nest carefully down, and use it for indoor study, examining the inside of the nest to ascertain the nature and the structure of the comb which, in this case is entirely devoted to larvae.
COLLECTIONS
General school collections of such objects as noxious weeds, weed seeds, wild flowers, noxious insects, leaves of forest trees, rocks or stones of the locality, etc., should be undertaken.
All the pupils should contribute as many specimens as possible to each collection and should a.s.sist in the work of preparing them.
In addition to the above collections it is advisable that pupils who show special interest in this phase of nature work should be encouraged to make individual collections.
Collections, when properly prepared, have a value within themselves, because of the beauty and variety of the forms that they contain, and also because of their usefulness in ill.u.s.trating nature lessons and in the identifying of insects, weeds, etc. Nevertheless the chief value of the collection rests in the making of it, because of the training that it gives the collector in carefulness and thoroughness, and also because it causes the child to study natural objects in their natural surroundings.
ANIMAL STUDIES
DOMESTIC ANIMALS
The teacher, before attempting to teach lessons on domestic animals, should carefully consider how his lessons will best fulfil the following important aims:
1. The cultivation of a deeper sympathy for, and a more complete understanding of, farm animals.
2. The development of more kindly treatment of domestic animals through awakened sympathy and more intelligent understanding.
3. Implanting the idea that the best varieties are the most interesting and profitable.
The following domestic animals are suggested as being suitable for study: horse, cow, sheep, dog, cat, goose, duck, hen.
There are two practical methods of observation work; namely, home observation and cla.s.s-room observation.
The observation work on some of the animals named must of necessity be done out of school. In this the teacher can direct the efforts of the pupils by a.s.signing to them definite problems to be solved by their study of the animals.
The results of their observations can be discussed in the cla.s.s in lessons of ten or fifteen minutes length. It may frequently be necessary to re-a.s.sign the problems in order that the pupils may correct their observations.
It is possible for the teacher or the pupils to bring to the school-room certain of the animals, as the dog, cat, duck, hen, and the observations may then be made by the whole cla.s.s directly under the guidance of the teacher.
REFERENCES
Crawford: _Guide to Nature Study._ Copp Clark Co., 90 cents.
Dearness: _How to Teach the Nature Study Course._ Copp Clark Co., 60 cents.
Shaler: _Domesticated Animals._ Scribners, $2.50.
Smith: _The Uses and Abuses of Domestic Animals._ Jarrold & Sons, 50 cents.
BIRDS
The chief aims in developing lessons on birds are:
1. To teach the children to recognize their bird neighbours, to love them for their beauty, and sweet songs, and their sprightly ways.
2. To train the pupils to appreciate them for their usefulness in destroying insect pests.
Many persons spend their lives surrounded by singing birds, yet they never hear their songs. Many children see and hear the birds, but if they have not been brought into sympathetic relation with them, they never learn to appreciate them; on the contrary, their att.i.tude becomes one of indifference or of destructiveness. Too often, boys cruelly destroy the nests and young and persecute the old birds with stone and catapult. The cowardice of such acts should be condemned, but more effective lessons may be taught through leading the children to find in the birds a.s.sistants and companions that contribute to their material progress and to their joy in life.
With these aims in view, the teacher will readily perceive that the most effective work in bird study results from observing the living birds in their natural environment. Field excursions are valuable for this, but good results can seldom be attained when the cla.s.s is large, for birds are shy and will hide or fly away from the unusual excitement. Quietness is absolutely necessary for success. Better results are obtained when only one or two accompany the teacher. If the teacher selects a few who are interested in birds, and there are always some pupils in every school who are readily interested in bird study, these few can soon be made sufficiently acquainted with the more common birds, so that they will be able to point them out to the other pupils of the school, and thus they become the teacher"s a.s.sistants in the work.
By beginning with the most common and conspicuous birds, an acquaintance grows rapidly. Early spring is a good time to begin, when the first birds return from their winter sojourn. The teacher and pupils may now learn to recognize the birds, because there are only a few, and these are easily seen, as the robin, blue-bird, junco, meadow-lark, goldfinch, bronzed grackle, sapsucker, blue jay, downy woodp.e.c.k.e.r, and flicker.
The teacher, a.s.sisted by the pupils who already know these birds, directs the younger pupils to where these birds may be seen, and they are also required to describe the birds observed and to identify them by means of the bird chart or colour key.
The description should include:
Size (compare with some common bird); shape; colour of head, back, and breast; conspicuous markings, as crest, stripes, bright patches of feathers; movements in flight or on the ground; song, call notes; whether in flocks, or pairs, or single birds.
Later in spring, other birds will attract attention, as the song-sparrow, phoebe, wren, horned lark, cowbird, and red-winged blackbird; while in summer the oriole, catbird, vesper sparrow, American redstart, night hawk, scarlet tanager, and crested flycatcher are some of the birds that will call for attention, because of their plumage, songs, or peculiar habits.
When a nest has been found by a pupil, he should report it to the teacher, and the other pupils should be permitted to visit it only upon promising not to molest the nest or to annoy the mother bird by remaining too long near it. While it is well that the pupils should see the nest with the young birds, they should be taught to respect the desire of the bird for quietness and seclusion.
In studying the nest, observe: Concealment, protection, size, comfort, number and colour of eggs, young birds, size, colour, covering, food.
The pupils should be asked to observe the feeding of birds thus:
Watch the wrens returning to the nest; what do they carry to their young? Where do the wrens get the snails and grubs? Observe how the robins find the worms and how they pull them out of the ground. Follow the downy woodp.e.c.k.e.r to the apple tree and find out what he was pecking.
Watch the crow in the pasture field and learn whether this bird kills gra.s.shoppers and crickets.
Observe the birds that pick seeds out of the weeds.
Collecting birds" eggs should be condemned, because it nearly always leads to the robbing of the nests. The practice of exchanging eggs is the chief cause of this; for although an occasional boy will collect wisely, the greater number are simply anxious to add to their collection without regard for the sacredness of the birds" homes.
A collection of birds" nests may be made after the nests have been abandoned for the season, and it will be found useful for interesting the pupils in the ingenuity, neatness, and instinctive foresight of the builders.
REFERENCES
Chapman and Reed: _Colour Key to North American Birds_ $2.75
Reed: _Bird Guide, Pts. I and II_ .75
Silc.o.x and Stevenson: _Modern Nature Study_ .75
Cornish: _Thirty Lessons in Nature Study on Birds._ Dominion Book Company 1.00