Correction Exercise. The teacher will now write three lists on the board. The first will give the names of all the birds the class knows. The second will name all the flowers the class knows, and the third all the flowers and all the birds and other animals that have been seen this spring. Compare your own lists with those on the board, and correct any mistakes in spelling that you may have made.
Group Exercise. Think of one of the birds or flowers or animals in your three lists. Tell your classmates an interesting fact about it. Tell it in two or three sentences. Thus, you might choose the bluebird from your list and say:
A pair of bluebirds is building a nest in a bird-box my father put up. They lived in the same box last year.
Your classmates will tell about some bird or flower or animal in their lists. The teacher will write some or all these groups of sentences on the board,[64] or ask some of the pupils to write their own on the board. Then the class will try to improve each of these short accounts. Thus, what was said about the bluebird might be changed to read as follows:
A bluebird family has rented the birdhouse that my father built in our back yard. They seem to like it, for they lived there last year. Perhaps they will buy it some day and decide to live there always.
Or:
Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird have started housekeeping in a little flat near my home. I saw them getting the straw mattress ready. They are old neighbors, for they lived here last summer.
56. Story-Telling
CERES AND APOLLO[62]