The Chemawa American, May 01, 1913, Page 17, Image 17

THE CHEMAWA AMERICAN
13
W e are now giving little accounts of w hat we saw on the way to
school, and especially are we interested in th in g s seen on the Beach,
out in the w ater and along the dock. From th is, we will go on to d e ­
scriptions of home, the people in it, and th eir various w ays of keeping
busy. It is w onderful how m any of the details of housekeeping th e
children g ath er up; and, by th e wav, here is a good place to speak of
our m uch loved “ rid d le-g am e” and “ I s p y .” T he children like th ese
gam es to the ex ten t of u tter self-forgetfulness, w hich is precisely w here
the value of using riddles lies. W hen we have worked over the hom e
and the schoolroom , we tell riddles, beginning th is way;
I see a little girl who has light curly hair. She wears a plain blue
apron trim m ed in red. and, today, has a big red bow on her hair. She
has big, brown eyes and is very fair. She holds som ething sharp and
pointed. H er han d s move back and forth in this way. (Im ita te c u t­
tin g p ap er.) W ho is the girl and w hat is she doing?”
I his draw s upon the c h ild ’s im agination and very soon he will be
able to give a very close description of each one in t1.
oom. Not only
does this help his E n g lish , but m akes him very observing.
O ur gam e of I Spy is too well known to m ention here. N everthe­
less, it is very useful.
I ossibly th e best aid to the formal w ork is th ro u g h the use of pictures.
U nfortunately , the Indian children in th e day schools are not tau g h t
nor brough t in contact w ith m any of the best pictures. T h e pictures
found in the New E ducation R eaders, now in use in our schools, are
very useful and especially good oral language work.
In the earlier work we hold up one picture w here all may see and let
several little folks describe it in tu rn . From th is sim ple exercise, it is
but a short step to the riddle-gam e, in which one ch ild looks at a pic­
tu re and describes it w hile the others guess. A nother gam e is sim ply
ad ap tin g the old sense train in g gam e, in which th e children are allowed
only a lim ited tim e to look and then describe. T his may be made sim ­
ple or com plex, as the occasion dem ands.
It would be m uch easier if we m ight be able to have more of the
m asterpieces in our schoolroom . T h e w riter has collected a few from
different teach ers’ journals. “ F eeding H er B ird s,” “ F irst S te p .”
Can t Y ou Talk —H o lm es,” alw ays appeal to children. But any pic­
tu re will do th a t is full of action, still the interest of the people d e te r­
mines, in a great m easure, the th in g s th a t most appeal to the children.
Here, especially, pictures, stories and songs of boats, w ater, fish, and
things found along th e beach are ofinterest.
It m ight be well to select a few pictures th a t are rath er above th eir
little heads, but it is well th ey should become acquainted with them
early and always cherish them th ereafter. It is only through theschool-
/