When you are reciting in class, do you think how your voice and
the words sound to the other people in the room? Show the class how
you can make your speech sound just as you want it to.
Give three ways in which you can take care of your throat and
voice. Put your hand on the place where your voice is made. How is
it made?
On your own picture of the throat, show where those little
folds of skin are (the picture on [p. 86]
shows, of course, only the fold of skin, or vocal cord, on
the right half of the windpipe).
VIII. Thinking and Answering.
With two or three of your classmates, play telephone;—one
must be “Central” and one “Information” at
the central office, and one must receive your message and answer
it. A number of the other children may join hands to make a long
“wire” on each side of “Central”; they will
repeat the message softly from one to another all down their
“wire.”
Now, suppose that you all represent the telephone system in the
body. Could you act out this “Body-Telephone”
call:—The eye sees a burning match on the floor, and sends
the message to its center in the brain; this center consults the
memory (“Information”) as to what to do. Memory recalls
that burning matches are likely to set fire to other things and
ought to be put out. So the brain sends a message to the muscles of
the foot to get to work and stamp out the flame. In this play, what
will you each call yourselves?
Make up some other “Body-Telephone” plays.
What are some of the messages that are being carried by your
nerves, that you know nothing about?
Think how many messages a baby stores away before he is ready
to answer them; what are some of these? Why can he not answer them
at once? What makes his brain and nerves and muscles grow? How can
you take the best care of yours?
In the picture on [p. 96], point to the
brain; to the spinal cord. How near the surface of your back is
your spinal cord? What keeps it from being easily injured?
“Absent To-day?”
I. Keeping Well.
Why do our bodies need “housecleaning”? How do we
get rid of the waste part that is a gas? Of the part that is water?
What carries the carbon dioxid to the lungs? What carries the waste
water to the sweat tubes and the kidneys? What other waste is there
to be gotten rid of?
Suppose that you and your chum each have an equal chance to
take a bad cold from someone else; your chum catches it, and you
don’t. What might be one reason why you don’t? Place
your hand over your liver. How can you keep it in good working
order?
What is the bladder? Why is it so very necessary to empty the
bladder regularly? When you perspire freely, how does that help the
kidneys?
II. Some Foes to Fight.
You have seen moldy bread? What is, the mold? What makes it
spread?
Suppose you take some pieces of moldy bread or potato and turn
a glass jar or bowl over them. Catch a few flies and put them under
the glass, and leave them to crawl over the moldy food.
After a day, put the flies under another glass with some pieces of
fresh bread or potato. If you find that the fresh food quickly
becomes moldy, how will you think that the mold germs came to it?
(If you keep the jars in a warm place, the germs will grow faster,
and you won’t have so long to wait before you can see the
mold.)
What other kinds of germs do flies carry? How do they carry
them?
A Board of Health caused a liveryman to be fined because he
allowed a manure pile to remain behind his stable. Why was his act
a misdemeanor? From what do flies come, and how do they grow?
On your way to and from school, what have you noticed that
could breed or attract flies? How could these things have been
avoided?
The next time you go into a butcher shop or grocery store,
notice how the things are kept and be ready to tell the class what
you think about it.
In what ways may germs be carried, besides by flies?
What do we mean by the “Great White Plague”? Why is
it called this? What are people doing to try to cure it?
What can you do to help prevent it?
Why ought you to stay away from other people when you have a
cold? What do you need most in order to get well?
Do you always have your own towel to use? Why should you?
Write a little story about the picture on [p.
112].