Is there a Board of Health in your town? If not, what takes its
place? See if you can find out some of the things that the Board or
the Officers have done for the town.
What do we mean by quarantine? What is the
quarantine station in ports where passenger steamers land?
See if you can find out about any time when a city or port was
guarding its people against an infectious disease.
Have you been vaccinated? How was it done? Why was it done? How
do we all know that it is a very wise thing to have done?
How can you help the Health Officers to keep your town a
healthful place?
Work and Play
I. Growing Strong.
When you play out of doors, what do you exercise? What do you
exercise when you study? How ought you to play and study so as to
get the most good from each? Why is it good to play, and work too,
out of doors?
What games have you played in the last day or two? How did the
players divide the muscle exercise of the game? Did they divide up
the thinking part, too?
Why must the blood be sent to the muscles? Why must it be
carried away again? When you feel tired, what is happening in your
body?
What are muscles like? Show how the elastic bands of your legs
work when you sit on your heels. What makes the muscles at the back
of your legs feel thicker?
What bones of your body can you feel? Put your hands on them,
as you tell what you can about each.
Why do we need bones? What do we call our whole framework of
bones?
Have you ever seen anyone who had to stay all the time in bed
or sit in a wheeled chair? How did this person show the lack of
exercise?
Choose one of the other pictures in this chapter and write a
story about it to show how to grow strong.
II. Accidents.
When you hear the word accident, what do you think of?
What have you to help you to prevent accidents? If you have used
your “look-out department” as well as you can, and
still the accident happens, what will you do then?
Show the class how to care for a very deep cut. What do we call
a medicine that kills disease germs?
How would you treat a bruise? A burn? Frost-bitten ears?
Chilblains? A bee sting?
If you are told to take some medicine from a certain bottle or
box, do you always look at the label? Why is it dangerous not to?
What do you think of having medicines about not labeled or poured
into old bottles with wrong labels?
If you should happen to swallow something poisonous, what ought
you to do right away?
Suppose your clothes or your hair should catch fire; what would
you do?
How did you celebrate last Fourth of July? Write a short story
about the picture on [p. 144].
With one of your classmates, show how you would try to restore
a person who had just been saved from drowning. How can you try to
save yourself if you fall into the water?
III. The City Beautiful.
Have you a park near your home? When the people leave at the
end of the day, how do the lawns and paths look? Are there cans in
the park to hold the papers and scraps?
How are the streets in your town cleaned in winter? In
summer?
How do the houses get rid of their waste?
If the waste goes into a river, is the river water used for
drinking? Who decides where the drinking water for the town shall
come from?
Why are drinks containing alcohol harmful to take (give four
reasons)? What is a narcotic? How does drinking alcohol
lead to crime?
Write down five ways in which you can help to keep your town or
city beautiful. Five ways in which you can help to keep your own
home beautiful.
Why should every city have parks for the children?
The Evening Meal
Play housekeeping, and order the dinner.
Write down a list of things for a good supper.
Why does Nature give us so many different kinds of food? How
does she teach us not to eat too much of one kind at a time?
Write down on the board as many of each of these kinds of food
as you can:—meats; vegetables; fruits; breads; sweet foods;
fish; grains; food (not fruit) that does not need cooking; food to
drink.
How do you help to make meal times pleasant? Make up a story
about the picture on [p. 159], and tell it in
class.