The Circle of Knowledge: A Classified, Simplified, Visualized Book of Answers

by Unknown

FORM AND COLOR

In many schools a lesson is given on Form and Color at least once a week. The different forms should be kept in a box, in which there should be also squares of cardboard, showing the various colors. This apparatus should, however, be amply extended. Pieces of silk or colored paper should be kept in another box, and colored wools wound on pieces of cardboard show the colors nicely.

The Object of the Lesson.—The object of the lesson is not simply to teach the shape or color of one particular piece of wood, or cardboard, but to enable the child to distinguish the same shape or color whenever it sees an example of it. Thus the child is helped to observe and compare, and its interest in life is strengthened as it learns with joy to find out things for itself.

FORM

The Circle, or round, is the first form to be taught, and it should be illustrated by numerous examples, such as a plate, a round cake, coins, etc.; all these things should be shown to the children.

Then the circle may be compared with the ball, and the children are asked: “What things are round like the ball?” “Orange, apple, etc.” “And what things are round like a circle?” “A penny, a shilling, etc.” “What has the circle that the ball has not?” “The circle has two flat faces, and the ball has only one round face.”

The Square is somewhat familiar to the child, who has noticed the shape of his books, and the table. It has four sides all the same length; this fact may be taught thus:

Take a long stick or ruler. Teacher says: “I will measure the sides of the square. Johnnie shall hold it for me” (measure the top edge, and cut off a piece of stick just the length). Show it to the children, and say: “This stick is just as long as the top edge of the square. I will give it to Mary to hold. Now we will measure the bottom edge” (again cut the length). “This is the length of it” (holding up the stick).

The right and left sides are measured in the same way, and the child now holds four sticks. Let the children count how many sticks there are, and notice also that all four measure exactly the same, and then they will see that the square has four sides all the same length. Then ask for objects of this shape.

The Oblong is measured in the same way as the square, and the sticks are cut the lengths of its sides. The children then see that the sticks cut to represent the sides of the oblong are not all of the same length, but that two are short, and two longer, so the oblong must have two long sides and two short sides. Let a child point to the two long sides, and another to the short ones.

Then the children are asked to name all the things they can see that are oblong in shape, such as the table, door, window. They may also name objects at home—dresser, piano, bed, and many other things.

The Oval is frequently taught after the circle, but as the difference between square and oblong is more marked than the difference between circle and oval, the former comparison if taken first may help the child to understand the latter.

Take a square and draw a circle on it, then take the oblong and draw an oval shape upon it. Ask the children, “How is this shape different from the round shape on the square?” “It is longer.” “Why?” “Because the oblong is longer.”

Now show the oval with the round or circle. “How is the oval different from the round?” “It is longer.” “What things do you know that are shaped like the oval?” “An egg, a basket, a bathtub, a dish, etc.”

The Sphere, Cylinder, Cube, Cone and Pyramid are solid figures. The cylinder can be explained from the sphere, the cone from the cylinder and the pyramid from the cube.

The pyramid points upward, so,
But it is square and flat below:
The cone is pointed, too, and round;
A sugar loaf like it is found.

The children soon learn the difference between the Cone and Pyramid, and if they are allowed to make all these solid figures in clay they will remember them more easily.

1. The oval shape is like an egg,
The circle’s round as all can tell,
The sphere is round, just like a ball,
The cylinder you know quite well;

2. We roll it gently on the ground,
For it is very smooth and round;
It has two faces flat, you see,
And stands, as well as rolls for me.

3. The cube has six square faces, flat,
And corners eight, just think of that!
And edges twelve, three fours you know,
Which round the faces always go.

The Pentagon, Hexagon, Octagon and other similar forms should be learned by drawing them on checkered slates or paper. These figures introduce the obtuse angle, and before the children learn the shapes, they should understand clearly the difference between the right, acute, and obtuse angles. The hexagon and octagon can be combined so as to make pretty designs which may be used for perforating and embroidery.

The “Forms” may be further impressed on the mind of the child by means of a [Story]; see the one given after “Color,” at end of this chapter.

COLOR

Color should be taught if possible from objects and pictures. The six colors can be illustrated by fruits, as an orange, a rosy apple, a purple plum, a red cherry. The children’s dresses, their eyes and hair, can all be brought into a lesson on color. In spring and summer flowers make charming illustrations, e.g., different colors seen in roses, and the autumn-tinted leaves can be used likewise.

Then there are colors in pictures, trees, besides colored wools, beads, tablets, etc.

Ask for flowers and fruits of certain colors, e.g., what flower is yellow? What fruit is red?, etc. Also colors of birds and animals, and let the children say what colors look nice together. In summer this may be shown by arranging a number of flowers in a bouquet.

In the flowers themselves colors always harmonize, e.g., forget-me-not is blue, and has a yellow center, because blue and yellow look pretty together.

Spring flowers are mostly yellow, and have pale green leaves, for green and yellow look pretty together.

The red poppy and blue cornflower look pretty among the yellow corn, and there are yellow flowers among the corn also.

Harmony of color may be further illustrated by the dressing of a doll, or a story of a little girl who was taken to the shop by her mamma. The little girl was to have a new dress, cloak, and hood; what colors would her mamma choose?

Secondary Colors.—Teach that red, blue and yellow are the first or primary colors, from which other colors may be made. A child’s box of paints and six small tumblers are required for the following illustration.

Pour a little water into each tumbler, and mix a little red paint in one, a little blue in the next, and a little yellow in the third. These are the primary colors.

Let us see what can be made by mixing two of them together. Take an empty tumbler. Pour in a little blue water and a little yellow. Mix together and the children will see that green is produced. Now take another tumbler and mix blue and red in it; this makes purple.

In another tumbler show that red and yellow make orange. “What beautiful thing have you seen in the sky showing all these colors?” “A Rainbow.”

This is a most interesting lesson, and if the tumblers, etc., are not obtainable, the same experiment may be shown on a piece of white cardboard. Paint the colors in stripes on the cardboard, first the three primary, which should be allowed to stand; then the secondary are produced by rubbing one color over another, e.g., paint over the red with blue, and purple is produced. Over the blue stripe paint a little yellow, and we have green. Over the yellow stripe paint red, and orange is seen.

The primary colors are Red, Yellow, Blue,
The Red and Blue mixed will show Purple to you;
Mix Yellow and Blue if you wish to make Green,
Mix Yellow and Red, then bright Orange is seen.

Color Story

After the forms and colors have been learned, they may be woven into an interesting story, thus:

“A man had a large piece of land to make into a garden; he gave a piece to each of his children, and said they might make small beds of any shape that they liked.

“So Johnnie made a round bed” (draw shape on board, and let children copy on slate), “and Willie had a square bed; Mary said her bed should be oblong, and Nellie made hers oval” (draw each on board, and let the children copy). “Then Gerty wanted hers to be the shape of a semicircle, and Harry said his should be very pretty, for he would make it crescent shape, like the moon.”

When the blackboard is full of shapes the teacher might say: “Now you would like to know what these children had growing in their beds. Johnnie had a pink rose-bush in the middle of his bed.

“Willie sowed red Poppy seeds in rows in his square bed, and Mary had a yellow Iris in the center of hers, with blue Forget-me-nots all round. You remember that blue and yellow look pretty together.”

Whenever possible, pin the flower named on the shape representing the flower bed.

The story should be continued until all the “beds” have flowers in them. The children may be allowed to suggest names of flowers and should be encouraged to choose colors that will harmonize.