A LESSON IN NATURE STUDY INVOLVING A REAL PROBLEM
This lesson was planned and taught very successfully in the third grade by Miss Roxana A. Steele of the Speyer School, Teachers College, Columbia University.
Teacher’s aims:—
1. To teach pupils why and how to transplant.
2. To prepare for the transplanting of the salvia plants in our school garden.
Pupil’s aims:
1. To be able to select good plants for transplanting.
2. To know how to transplant in order to plant salvia plants without help.
Subject Matter
I. Choice of Plants.
Very small plants:
Do not root well.
Are slow in getting started.
Large plants:
Stalks too long and weak.
Bend very easily.
If used, need to be planted deep.
Roots have not had room enough in hotbed.
Medium-sized, strong plants:
Best for planting.
Good roots.
Good stalk.
Green leaves.
Crooked plants.
Can be straightened by the sun.
Method of Procedure
II. Manner of Planting.
Preparation of hole.
Water at roots.
Planted deep enough for branching of first leaves to be but an inch or two above ground.
Earth pressed firmly around plant.
Practice planting of cabbage and tomato plants in a box of earth.
Trowel.
Choice of plant.
Water.
Account of what is being done.
Summary.
How to select a plant for transplanting.
How to plant it.
Now that we know what kind of a plant to select, can you think of something else we must learn before we are ready to transplant our salvia plants?
(Statement of Pupils’ Aim.)
Can you think of some things which might help a very young plant to get a good start?
Has any child ever seen a farmer plant cabbage or tomato plants?
Tell us exactly how he did it and why.
Several children who can select a good plant may plant them in this box of earth. The class will decide whether they are good gardeners.
Each child will have an opportunity to plant a salvia plant in the garden. Can you tell which plants will be most liable to grow well?