s you have taught the children to love trees and
birds and flowers".

GENERAL METHODS IN NATURE STUDY

CONCRETE MATERIAL

It is evident that concrete material must be provided and so distributed
that each member of the class will have a direct opportunity to exercise
his senses, and, from his observations, to deduce inferences and form
judgments. The objects chosen should be mainly from the common things of
the locality. The teacher should be guided in the selection by the
interests of the pupils, first finding out from them the things upon
which they are expending their wonder and inquiry. Trees, field crops,
flowers, birds, animals of the parks, woods, or farmyard, all form
suitable subjects for study.

TOPICS AND MATERIAL MUST SUIT THE SEASON

The material should be selected not only with reference to locality but
also with due regard to season. For example, better Nature Study lessons
can be taught on the elm tree of the school grounds than on the giant
Douglas fir of British Columbia; and on the oriole whose nest is in the
elm tree than on the eagle portrayed in Roberts' animal stories; and it
is manifestly unwise to teach lessons on snow in summer, or on flowers
and ants in winter.

MATTER MUST BE SUITED TO THE CHILD

For the urban pupil the treatment of the material must be different from
that in the case of the pupil of the rural school. Rural school pupils
have already formed an extensive acquaintance with many plants and
animals which are entirely unknown to the children of the city. The
simpler facts which are interesting and instructive to the pupils of the
urban classes would prove commonplace and trivial to rural pupils. For
example, while it is necessary to show the city child a squirrel that he
may learn the size, colour, and general appearance of the animal, the
efforts of the pupil of the rural school should be directed to the
discovery of the less evident facts of squirrel life.

USE OF THE COMMONPLACE

It must be kept in mind that besides leading the pupils to discover new
sources of interest, the teacher should strive to accomplish that which
is even greater, namely, to lead them to discover new truth and new
beauty in old, familiar objects. It may be true that "familiarity breeds
contempt" and there is always a danger that the objects with which
children have associated in early life may be passed by as uninteresting
while they go in search of something "new and interesting".

For