The children will be interested in sowing seeds and in seeing them germinate, and the window garden affords opportunity to cultivate this interest in school.

I. Get some neat boxes, or earthen flower pots, fill them with good, rich, sandy loam soil and place in sunny windows.

2. At this season of the year sow tomato seed, cabbage seed and lettuce seed for vegetables, and morning glory, nasturtiums sweet peas, pansies or some other old fashioned flowers. Such plants as the tomatoes, and cabbage may later be transplanted in the home gardens. The class period of one day may be used in an exercise having the children help in preparing the soil, planting the seed, watering and placing the pots or boxes in the window.

Title: The Chick.

LESSON VI

Aim: To learn interesting facts about chickens, and to deepen interest in them.

Material: Several or a single chick.

Subject-matter and method:

I. Bring a few little chicks in a cage before the class and let the children watch the action of the chickens as the lesson proceeds. 2. Ask introductory questions similar to these: Why do you like little chicks? Where did they come from? How did they get out of the egg? (See the little tooth on the tip of the upper part of the beak.) What good are the chickens to us?

3. Give some bread crumbs to the chicks and watch them eat. Do they chew their food? What do they eat? How does the chick drink? Why does it drink this way?

4. Where do the chicks sleep?

5. How does the hen call her chicks? How warn them of hawks? What notes do little chicks make?

6. Tell the children that the covering on the body is called "down." What becomes of the "down" as the chick grows older? 7. Name some of the things little chicks like to do.

8. What misfortune often happens to little chicks? How can we help the mother to raise them? Tell or bring out the fact that shrubs furnish good hiding places for hen and chicks; that little chicks should have fresh water to drink; that they should have clean dry coops; and that they need plenty of good food.

9. Ask the children to tell of any pet chickens they may have had.

LESSON VII

Title: The Robin.

Aim: To arouse interest in the robin and teach interesting things about it.

Material: The robin in sight.

Subject-matter and method:

I. Take the class to the window or out in the yard and watch a robin for a few minutes. Ask all to sit down, then talk with the children about what they saw the robin doing.

2. Ask the following questions, to be answered from the children's observations:

(a) What colors have the robins?

(b) Did the robins spend the winter with us?

(c) At what time of day does the robin sing most?

(d) Does a robin run or hop or walk?

(3) Did you ever see a robin pull a worm from the ground? Tell how the bird acts. What food does the robin eat?

(f) Why do you like the robin?

3.

Have a robin's nest to show the class, if possible. Bring out facts about where the robins build their nests, the material from which it is made, and how we may help them in their work of next building, by supplying nesting places, mud, and lining materials for the birds to use.

4. Question about the number and color of robin's eggs. How do young robins differ from little chickens? What do robins feed their young? What are some enemies of the robin's nest and nestlings?

5. How does the robin help us? How can we help and protect it?

6. The children may make a little robin booklet, with drawings and the answers to some of the questions written out.

7. Tell the legends of how the robins got their redbreasts.

Title: Pigeons.

LESSON VIII

Aim: To learn interesting facts about pigeons.

Material: Pigeons to observe.

Subject-matter and method:

I. If there are pigeons in the neighborhood, ask the children to observe them and report in class. Begin with some interesting

story about pigeons and a few questions which will arouse the children's interest in the birds. A pigeon in a cage before the class may be desirable.

2. Question the children's observations:

(a) Color of the pigeon you saw? (b) What do pigeons feed upon? (c) How does the pigeon drink?

(d) Do they sail through the air in flying, or constantly flap their wings?

(e) What sounds do pigeons make?

(f) Describe the nest, eggs, and young birds.

(g) How do parents feed their young, and on what material?

(h) Are pigeons of value to us? How?

(i) How can we help them in any way? (j) Would pigeons make good pets?

(k) Where do they like to stay and nest?

3.

Read to the pupils "Arnaux," in Animal Heroes.

LESSON IX

Title: The English Sparrow.

Aim: To teach interesting facts about the English sparrow. Material: The birds for observation.

Subject-matter and method:

I. Let the pupils make their observations on the English sparrow about the homes or on the streets wherever they can find the birds.

(a) Are all the sparrows in the flock colored alike? Describe the colors. The ones with the black cravats are the cock sparrows, the ones less ornamented are the hen sparrows.

(b) What is the food of the English sparrow? Where do they find it?

(c) Are these sparrows kindly or quarrelsome?

(d) Do they go south or remain with us in winter?

(e) Where does this sparrow build its nest? Describe the nest. (f) Are the English sparrows our friends or foes? Why? (g) Tell why and how the English sparrows came to be here. (h) Are there any successful ways to get rid of them?

3.

Make it clear that there are many other kinds of sparrows, and that all the rest are good birds and should never be killed.

The Brook is getting wider and occasionally there is a boulder in its bed.

The Story of Vanishing Brook

MADELINE AVERY LIVERMORE

One would never guess, from visiting the source of our brook, that it had ever done a great work. No matter how tired you were, you would surely be rested after spending an hour or so by the side of this little brook. The whole atmosphere is so calm and peaceful, the sky is so blue and the grass so green.

There are two small branches which unite not far from their origin to form this stream. The left branch begins near a fence, with two wild cherry trees to mark its source. It is a sluggish little stream-with first a little pool, and then a tiny silver thread till it reaches another pool. It is doing practically no work now, but that it because its days of work are over. For the old banks are deeply cut, showing that one day this little stream was carrying a big load. The left bank is higher than the other. There are many big flat stones in the brook, and occasionally a little dam or a plank which show that the children play in it, and that grown folks cross it too.

There are grasshoppers and cabbage butterflies along the banks, water-striders in the water, and the air is full of the fragrance of apple blossoms from some nearby trees. Up in the very top of one of these trees is a bobolink calling to his mate.

This

The right branch has some apple trees to mark its source. little stream does not flow thru comparatively level ground as the other one, but flows down a rather steep grade, and is still doing work in the spring, for there is a great deal of fresh erosion. This stream is not sluggish and marshy as the other. There are big flat stones here also. Some cows are grazing nearby, and just thinking of coming down for a drink.

After these little branches unite, the valley becomes more and more marshy, until the stream itself finally disappears almost entirely. And here we find cat-tails, with a red-winged blackbird swinging on the very top of one. At the right is a big lone pine, looking very picturesque against the sky. When the brook appears again it is for only a little ways, for it soon reaches another swamp and this time it is a big one just full of cat-tails, beset with skunk cabbage which is just unrolling its big leaves near the edges. At the left is a beautiful hawthorn all in bloom. The grass on the