The Tree-Dwellers - Katharine Elizabeth Dopp

It costs but little to supply a class with clay, for the same material may be used again and again. It is desirable, however, to have a sufficient supply to permit the preservation of the best work for some time. Clay may be bought ready mixed at art stores and in kindergarten supply stores. The common gray clay costs two or three cents a pound. Artists’ clay costs five cents a pound. A cheaper kind can be obtained of manufacturers of sewer pipes. The teacher will find suggestions regarding the use of clay in Frye’s Child and Nature, pp. 36-8; Kellogg’s Forty Lessons in Clay Modeling; Prang’s Art Instruction in Primary Schools, First Year, pp. 27-39, Second Year, 32-43; and in Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith’s Froebel’s Occupations, pp. 32-43. Excellent articles illustrated by the work of children appear in The University Elementary Record, which is published by the University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Basketry. The materials of which baskets are made are less pliable than clay or sand, yet the child of seven is able to manipulate some of them. Where possible he should be encouraged to exploit his environment in the search for raw materials that are adapted to this purpose. In many localities tough grasses, willows, rushes, or other pliable materials are present, and even though the child finds little that is adapted to the purpose, the mere search for materials enables him to appreciate the value of the commercially prepared ones and aids him in picturing these materials in their raw state. The pleasant days of autumn should be used for collecting such supplies as are available at that time. These may be prepared for use and stored until they may be needed later in the year. If the child makes a ball of braided grass he will find many ways of using it later in making baskets, mats, cradles, sandals, or anything which he may choose to make of it.

Where natural materials cannot be obtained, commercially prepared ones may be substituted. Raffia, uncolored or colored with vegetable dyes, rattan reeds, and splints may be obtained wherever kindergarten supplies are kept, as well as in large seed stores and in most of the department stores in large cities. Of the many books that are appearing upon the subject probably none is more suggestive with reference to the significance of the art than George Wharton James’s Indian Basketry, and none more helpful with reference to mastering the processes than Mary White’s How to Make Baskets.

Drawing and Painting. Since these arts were originally derived from gesture language, it is not strange that gesture and pantomime are the best means of preparing the child for these modes of communication. The child who has difficulty in expressing his image by means of drawing and painting should be given the opportunity to experiment by means of pantomime until his image has become so clear that he can express it in a less real way. Few children fail to draw and paint reasonably well when afforded this opportunity that should be denied to none. In order to secure the best results the teacher should be careful not to repress spontaneity by criticising too severely; on the other hand she should induce the child to make such comparisons of his work with his image and with the object when present, as to prevent the formation of careless habits of work. Although water colors are used in some schools, such materials present more difficulties than it seems worth the while for the child to encounter. More satisfactory results have thus far been reached by the use of blackboard crayon, colored crayon, and charcoal.

Language. When the child talks about what he has experienced, his language is almost invariably simple and direct. The lessons in this book afford ample opportunity for the use of the fundamental forms of language in communicating actual experience. Many of the stories may well be supplemented by stories that the child tells himself. Care should be taken, however, to keep the child within the limits of what was possible during the age to which his story refers. Much benefit is derived from allowing the children of the class to dramatize a story after they have read it and represented it by means of pantomime. Although there is ample room for written work, it is oral rather than written language that should receive emphasis at this time.

Field Lessons. The geographical phases of the work are referred to so frequently throughout the text as well as under the special suggestions for each lesson, that little need be added at this time except to emphasize the fact that the teacher should make use of every opportunity to cultivate in the child an intelligent interest in his natural environment. Perhaps nothing will contribute more toward developing this interest than field lessons. The value of these lessons will depend upon whether an adequate motive is aroused in the child for taking the trip and upon whether he is given the opportunity to make use of the experience gained in a practical way. There are schools in crowded quarters of large cities where it does not yet seem practicable to take an entire class out on a field lesson. But it is always feasible to make use of informal observations that the child makes from day to day as well as the results of trips that have previously been taken by some members of the class. During the time that this book is used it is hoped that at least two or three of the following field trips or excursions may be made:

1. To uncultivated spots on hillsides, in the woods, and on natural meadows to find—

(a) A place where the Tree-dwellers might have lived.

(b) Wild foods, and to discover if possible the reasons for abundance or scarcity of certain forms.