Bobby and Betty with the workers

by Katharine Elizabeth Dopp

Riddle:

Round as a well, deep as a bowl,

Long handle, little hole.

A frying pan

SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS

It may be that supervisors and teachers of primary grades have been looking for a book dealing with the occupations in the neighborhood of a city child. The author of this book looked for such a book years ago and found it not. So for years materials have been accumulated for the preparation of this reader. It is hoped that all who use it will enjoy it and gain something of value from it. If the activities recommended in the following pages are introduced, the work is bound to prove a joy to teachers as well as to their pupils.

For study and play. Each story is followed by related rimes, riddles, and games which may be used in different ways even by children of the same class. For instance, one child may be able to read and memorize a rime which another child finds difficulty in reading. The latter, however, can read parts of the rime and find familiar words and phrases, and when he hears the rime repeated in class the jingle of the words is likely to stay with him and aid him in his second attempt.

These old rimes and jingles are a part of the child’s social heritage. They have come down through the centuries. It is right that every child should become familiar with them and enjoy their humor and rhythm. Nearly all of them are full of action. Let children use them in dramatic play; let them make drawings to illustrate points where they discover a mental picture.