[The Kindergarten Curriculum: Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1919, No. 16]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
BUREAU OF EDUCATION
BULLETIN, 1919, No. 16
The
KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM
BY THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CURRICULUM OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION COMMITTEE of the
INTERNATIONAL KINDERGARTEN UNION
WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1919	'
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
BUREAU OF EDUCATION
BULLETIN, 1919, No. 16
The
KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM
BY THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CURRICULUM OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION COMMITTEE of the INTERNATIONAL KINDERGARTEN UNION
WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1919
ADDITIONAL COPIES
OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON, D. C.
AT
10 CENTS PER COPY
CONTENTS.
Page.
Foreword______________________________________________________________ 55
Chapter I.—General Statement.
Subject matter and activities of the kindergarten curriculum__________ 9
Reading and writing as extension of language control__________________ 9
Chapter II.—Subject Matter: Community Life and Nature Study.
Aims____________________________________________________________________ 11
Selection of subject matter..___________________________________________ 11
1.	Plays of interest and significance to children________________ 11
2.	Plays that have social value_____________________________________ 11
3.	Nature experiences_______________________________________________ 12
4.	Experiences incidental	to	child life_____________________________ 12
Method__________________________________________________________________ 12
1.	Recall of experience through object, picture, conversation____ 12
2.	Extension or interpretation of experience________________________ 12
3.	Interpretation and organization of experience through play----	12
Explanation of subject matter outline___________________________________ 14
September, October, November____________________________________________ 14
1.	Life in the home____________________________________________ 14
2.	Sources of food_____________________________________________ 14
3.	Seasonal interests and activities_________________________ 15
December—Preparation for Christmas______________________________________ 16
January, February, March________________________________________________ 17
1.	Life in the community_______________________________________ 17
2.	Seasonal interests__________________________________________ 18
April, May, June________________________________________________________ 18
1.	The need and supply of clothing--------------------------- 18
2.	Seasonal activities and interests___________________________ 19
Attainments____________________.___________________.__________________	21
Bibliography____________________________________________________________ 21
Chapter III.—Manual Activities.
Aims, general and specific---------------------------------------------- 22
Subject matter-------------------------------------------------------- 22
1.	Play material suggestive of household activities----------------- 22
2.	Materials for construction_______________________________________ 22
3.	Supplementary materials------------------------------------------ 29
Method__________________________________________________________________ 30
1.	Experimentation with materials___________________________________ 30
2.	Solving problems through use of materials------------------------ 31
3.	Imitation________________________________________________________ 31
Attainments____________________________________________________________  32
Bibliography------------------------------------------------------------ 32
Chapter IV.—Art.
Aims, general and specific---------------------------------------------- 33
Subject matter---------------------------------------------------------- 33
1.	Experience of children in nature and industries------------------ 34
2.	Motivation through celebration of festivals---------------------- 34
3.	Books containing pictures________________________________________ 34
4.	Furnishing the doll house---------------------------------------- 34
5.	Illustration of stories, rhymes and excursions---------------- 34
Method__________________________________________________________________ 33
1.	Experimentation and techinique___________________________________ 35
2.	Use of color and arrangement_____________________________________ 35
3.	Development of ideas--------------------------------------------- 36
4.	Development of appreciation------------------------------------- 37
3
4
CONTENTS.
Attainments---------------------------------------------------------- 38
Chapter V.—Language.
Aims, general and specific--------------------------------------------- 39
Subject matter--------------------------------------------------------- 40
1.	Experiences of the kindergarten-------------------------------- 40
2.	Experiences of the individual---------------------------------- 40
Method_________________________________________________________________ 41
1.	Wrong methods__________________________________________________ 41
2.	Right methods------------------------------------------------ 42
Attainments____________________________________________________________ 44
Bibliography-------------------------------------------------■---—	45
Chapter VI.	—Literature.
Aims, general and specific------------------------------------------- 40
Subject matter------------.------------------------------------------ 47
1.	Types of stories for the kindergarten------------------------ 47
2.	Choice of language------------------------------------------- 48
3.	Story form and illustrations of good form-------------------- 48
Method_____1_________________________________________________________ 49
Attainments____________________________________________________________ 50
Poems and rhymes------------------------------------------------------- 51
Typical kindergarten stories------------------------------------------- 52
Books of reference.---------------------------------------------------- 53
Chapter VII.	—Plays and Games.
Aims, general and specific--------------------------------------------- 54
Subject matter and method----------------.---------------------------	54
1.	Sense-plays: Touching, hearing, seeing------------------------- 55
2.	Plays for muscular control : Apparatus, ball games------------- 55
3.	Rhythmic and singing games------------------------------------- 56
4.	Dramatic play__________________________________________________ 57
Attainments------------------------------------------------------------ 59
Bibliography----------------------------------------------------------- 59
Chapter VIII.	—Music.
Aims, general and specific--------------------------------------------- 64
Subject matter_________________________________________________________ 61
Method_________________________________________________________________ 62
1.	Right condition for encouraging	singing----------------------   62
2.	Listening to music as a means of developing appreciation----- 62
3.	Sharing a musical experience through group singing----------- 63
4.	Emphasizing the esthetic aspect	of the	subject matter---------- 64
5.	Establishing tone of pleasing quality------------------------ 64
6.	Developing the sense of rhythm------------------------------- 65
7.	Making tunes and learning tunes------------------------------ 65
Attainments---------------------------------------------------------- 68
last of songs for the kindergarten----------------------------------- 69
FOREWORD.
The curriculum here presented is a response to a definite need frequently expressed by kindergarten teachers, primary teachers, and school men. The work of the different grades has been fairly stand-.ardized as to subject matter and method, and is usually outlined quite definitely for the guidance of teachers in the course of study. But because the kindergarten is a relatively new movement and its work has not yet become standardized, the course of study seldom includes a similar outline to guide the kindergarten teachers in their work. This fact was brought out by an inquiry recently made by a committee appointed by the International Kindergarten Union. In order to determine to what extent the work of the kindergarten had been definitely formulated to correspond to that of the grades in the course of study, the chairman, Miss Anna Littell, wrote to 120 representative cities, asking what had been done in this direction. Of the 80 replies received, 30 contained the statement that only a general plan existed and that each kindergarten teacher was allowed to carry on her work as she thought best; 25 contained typewritten copies of plans which were being carried out-by the kindergarten teachers in a general way; and 25 contained copies of the printed course in which the work of the kindergarten was outlined as was that of the grades.
The fact that the work of the kindergarten has been put into organized form in so few places is no evidence that it is not being well done; but there can be little doubt that it would be better done if the scope, aim, and method of its work were definitely given wherever the kindergarten has been adopted. Such a statement, if adequately made, would be of great value to hundreds of kindergarten teachers in places too small to furnish expert supervision. It would interpret the kindergarten to those primary teachers who are still unacquainted with it and show them what foundation it furnishes for their own work. It woidd give superintendents and principals a basis for evaluating the kindergarten, and enable them to indicate how its work should be coordinated with that of the grades to follow. Since the kindergarten can not really function in the school as a whole until the coordination in question has been effected, the statement referred to is important as a means to a much-needed end.
The kindergarten has exerted a marked and lasting influence upon the spirit and methods of the school. That influence is due in part
5
6	FOREWORD.
to the fact that in the early years of the kindergarten movement kindergarten teachers were allowed freedom to work out their own ideals and methods. The value of the kindergarten as an institution has been amply demonstrated. As an organic part of the school as a whole, however, its value can be appreciably increased. In order to realize this greater value, its work needs organizing so as to show how its own lines of work form the foundation of that which is to follow. This doubtless implies some reorganization of its own work and also of that of the first grade.
The present-day conception is that the period from four to eight years in a child’s life is psychologically one period, and that the methods of both kindergarten and first grade should possess the same general characteristics. Where this conception is logically carried out, there is no break between kindergarten and first grade. Where the break exists, it is evident that either the one or the other lacks the right foundation, or that the work of the one has not been organized with reference to the work of the other.
The fact that a more fundamental coordination between the kindergarten and the first grade is needed is increasingly recognized, and some valuable beginnings in this direction have been made. Much remains to be done, however, and the problem seems to be one for the kindergarten-primary supervisor to solve in cooperation with both kindergarten teachers and primary teachers. One of the difficulties that such supervisors meet in attempting its solution is the lack of a common viewpoint on the part of the two groups of workers. The first step, therefore, is to increase the acquaintance of both groups with present-clay educational theory and its implications as to methods in both the kindergarten and the first grade. Several books have been written recently that will further this acquaintance. These interpret the work of the grades to the kindergarten teacher more adequately than they interpret the work of the kindergarten to the grade teacher. An understanding on the part of each group of the work of the other is essential, however, if the desired coordination is to ba effected.
It is because a better knowledge of the kindergarten on the part of school people is necessary to enable kindergarten teachers to do their own best work and to make possible the needed coordination, that the advisory committee to the kindergarten division of the Bureau of Education has undertaken to organize a curriculum showing in some detail the aims, methods, and results of kindergarten education in its several aspects. The group of kindergarten teachers to whom the task-was delegated believe a restatement of aims and methods in terms of present-day educational theory to be essential to its fullest accomplishment. They hope that such a statement will enable kindergarten
FOREWORD.
7
teachers who are still following traditional methods to see their work in a new light and to understand the reasons for the changes now advocated in kindergarten material and methods. They hope that the statement will aid primary teachers to see the psychological basis for kindergarten procedure, and show them wherein their own meth-1 ods may need changing in order to secure real continuity of experience for the child during these early school years. It can not fail to show, if only by implication, that the larger knowledge of the child’s development now available has made experimentation inevitable. The work here suggested is experimental in the sense that it is a departure from the method of the past, but it is guided by a clear vision of the problem to be solved by means of it. Experimentation of this kind will be needed in both the kindergarten and first grade1 before the unification called for can be effected. The committee hope that the curriculum here presented will stimulate both kindergarten teachers and primary teachers to the end that each may function more fully in the development of the child and in the administration of the school.
The general plan of organization followed by the committee in preparing the curriculum for the kindergarten was determined in preliminary conference. Each member of the committee then selected or was assigned one or two subjects of the curriculum in which she was to prepare a tentative course of study. These several courses of study, when completed, were submitted to all members of the committee,' criticized by them, and returned to their respective authors for revision. In some cases two persons collaborated in preparing a single course of study.
The curriculum here offered is the outcome of the effort of the committee to formulate certain general principles as to aims, materials, and methods which they believe should control all curricula, and to illustrate these in their application to a particular situation. The committee wish to emphasize their belief that a course of study for the kindergarten, or for any single grade, should be made with reference to the particular needs of the children with whom it is to be used, these needs differing with locality, the experience of the children, their degree of maturity, the social status of the parents, etc. The committee hope that this contribution to the problem may bo suggestive and helpful in determining standards for kindergarten procedure.
Subcommittee on kindergarten curriculum.
Alice Temple, chairman; Director Kindergarten-Primary Department, School of Education, University of Chicago.
Julia Wade Abbot, Supervisor of Kindergartens, Minneapolis, Minn.
8	FOREWORD.
Louise Alder, Head of Kindergarten Department, State Normal School, Emporia,’ Kans.
Elizabeth Harrison, Principal National Kindergarten and Elementary College, Chicago, Ill.
Anna II. Littell, Supervisor of Kindergartens, Dayton, Ohio.
Grace E. Mix, Head of Kindergarten Department, State Normal School, Farmville, Ya.
Luella A. Palmer, Assistant Director of Kindergartens, New York, N. Y.
THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
Chapter I.
GENERAL STATEMENT.
The curriculum of the kindergarten is composed of a variety of subjects and activities selected because of their value in meeting the needs of children from 4 to 6 years of age.
The subject material of the kindergarten curriculum represents experience common to the group of children concerned. It includes experience gained from their contact with (1) natural objects and phenomena (nature study) ; (2) human beings and human activity (home and community life); and (3) some of the products of human intelligence (literature, music, art, etc.).
The activities of the curriculum, oral expression, manual work, drawing, singing, dramatic play, games, etc., are avenues of expression through which experience is defined, interpreted, and organized. Each of these forms of activity satisfies some one or more of the fundamental impulses of the child, and, if rightly used in the school, contributes its peculiar share toward his development and education.
Each phase *of the kindergarten curriculum finds its counterpart in the curricula of our best primary grades, with reading and writing as additional forms of activity and expression. The work in each subject or type of activity common to the kindergarten and primary grades, therefore, should be so arranged that continuity is secured.
Now that the kindergarten has become a well-established part of the public-school system, the question is often asked whether reading and writing should not be introduced in the latter half of the kindergarten year. In answer, it may be said that it is now generally conceded that not all children are ready to begin these subjects at exactly the same age. At some point, almost anywhere between the years of 5 and 7, the child is eager to write his name and to interpret some of the printed and written forms which he sees about him. He is ready to extend his control of language to include ability to read and write, activities which his elders apparently find so interesting 108100°—19---------2	9
10
THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
and important. When this time comes, the teacher, whether her class is designated as kindergarten or first grade, should be prepared to teach these subjects according to the best-known methods.
Methods of teaching reading and writing are now very generally included in the training of kindergartners. Teachers in the field who have not had such training should secure it for themselves. AH teachers woidd then be able to give their children these next steps ’’ in the development of language control when in their judgment the time is ripe.
Likewise, teachers of first grade should be prepared to carry on successfully the types of work characteristic of the kindergarten with those children who, because of immaturity, are not ready to profit by instruction in reading and writing. Indeed, it is probable that the teaching of these subjects is more often begun too early in the child’s school life than deferred too long. Both mistakes will be more easily avoided, however, when all teachers of the kindergarten and lower grades are equipped to teach a child whatever he needs to be taught during the first three or four years of his school life.
A committee is now at work upon a curriculum for primary grades based upon the curriculum for the kindergarten which is here presented. This committee will doubtless do full justice to the subjects of reading and writing, and will show the intimate relation of these subjects to other phases of the kindergarten-primary curriculum. It is not necessary, therefore, to discuss the matter further in this document.
In the following pages the several subjects of the kindergarten curriculum will be discussed in terms of: Aims; Subject Matter; Method; Attainments.	.
Chapter II.
SUBJECT MATTER: COMMUNITY LIFE AND NATURE STUDY.
Little children do not differentiate between experiences gained from social contacts and those having their source in nature. They are interested in what people are doing, and in natural objects and phenomena as these are connected with human activity. It seems desirable therefore to make no sharp distinction between these two types of experience in organizing the program.
AIMS.
To encourage interest in the significant phases of the environment. To correct, extend, interpret, and organize experience.
To cultivate desirable attitudes and habits.
SUBJECT MATTER.
If these purposes are to be realized, certain fundamental considerations must be kept constantly in mind when planning the program.
1.	The subject matter selected must be something which appeals to the children as interesting and significant. It must be, for the most part, therefore, something which they may use and enjoy in the pursuit of their activities and play projects, or which satisfies the desire for new experience. Children indulge spontaneously in imaginative play, which is suggested by the familiar occupations of adults and of older children. They play at housekeeping, caring for children (dolls), building, buying and selling, traveling, going to school, skating, etc. Materials, facts, ideas (subject matter), which enable them to carry on these plays more completely and satisfactorily are eagerly appropriated. Similarly, nature materials and forces which the children can make use of in their play occupations are the things in nature which hold their interest longest.
2.	The aspects of home and community life which are selected must not only be of interest to the children but they must be selected with reference to their importance and meaning in social life, for these are the interests which are worth while to develop. Activities, and objects
11
12	THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
related to such universal human needs as food, clothing, shelter, rest, recreation, beauty, etc., are among these.
3.	The daily experience of the children will include some interests, impulses to activity, and emotions, which, although not related to the scries of topics which have been selected, should nevertheless be given opportunity for expression. A rainy day, with its interesting accompaniment of rubber boots, raincoat, and umbrella, might call for expression through dramatic play, drawing, or song, which would be much more significant on that day than anything relating to the larger unit of work or project which was being carried on. Many valuable nature experiences are incidental to the daily program. Little children delight in the movement of animals, the color of leaves and flowers, the curious shapes of shells. They gaze in wonder as the moth slowly emerges from its cocoon, and spreads its brilliant wings. They are attracted by the appearance of the moon and stars and other natural objects. As these interests manifest themselves from day to day, they should be encouraged through suitable forms of expression.
4.	Finally, there are forms of play and activity needed for the children's complete development which are not suggested by the subject matter referred to above. Children need opportunity to experiment with and express their own images and ideas in concrete materials; they need many songs and stories which bear no relation to the selected subject material, but which are closely related to the interests, impulses, and emotions of childhood; they need freedom to move about, change their position, and thus through spontaneous activity of one sort or another expend accumulated surplus energy. Examples of these various types of activity will be found in subsequent chapters.
METHOD.
In general, the method of using subject matter selected from home and community life, or from nature study, involves the following:
1.	Recall of familiar experience through real objects, toy representations, pictures, conversation, or through some closely related experience.
2.	Extension or interpretation through excursion, or by means of objects or processes in the schoolroom, etc.
3.	Interpretation and organization through one or more of the several avenues of expression or forms of play. The third step usually involves for the child a problem which he will be interested in solving. For example, suppose the children have been shaping cookies of clay. The question of baking may present itself, and they then realize that baking tins and ovens are needed. The first problem for the child
COMMUNITY LIFE AND NATURE STUDY.	13
may be, “ How can I change this piece of paper into a pan to hold my cookies ? ” The next problem follows, “ How can I make an oven in which to bake this pan of cookies? ”
SUBJECT MATTER OUTLINE.
Ihe following outline of topics is offered as illustrative of ihe standard set forth in the foregoing pages. It is subject matter which has been been found valuable in a school located in an open city district. The children come from good homes. The parents are educated, American-born citizens. The material represented in Ihe outline has been drawn directly from the experience of this particular group of children. It is believed, however, that the general topics will be suitable in many environments. The subtopics will necessarily vary with different communities.
September, October, 'November.
1.	Life in the home: Ihe family; care of the home: preparation of food for the family.
2.	Sources of food: The garden and farm; the market, the peddler, the dairy; occupations related to the supply of food; direct attention to the food products, fruits, vegetables, grains, eggs, milk, bread, butter, and to some of the simpler processes involved in food getting.
3.	Seasoned activities and interests: Preserving and canning for winter; planting bulbs; gathering flowers, leaves, berries, seeds, nuts, etc.; collecting caterpillars; preparation for and celebration of Thanksgiving.
December.
Preparation for Christmas: “Santa Claus;” the toy shop; making gifts; the Christmas festival and tree.
January, February, Marell.
1.	TAfe in the community: Houses for different families; streets, walks, street lights; modes of transportation in the community; public buildings needed by the many families; various shops and stores; post office; fire department; school; church.
2.	Seasonal interests: Out-of-door play in snow and ice; heating and lighting of homes and other buildings; celebration of St. Valentine's Day; recognition of Washington’s Birthday; care of plants now grown from bulbs planted in the autumn; care of pet animals, fish, birds, etc.
April, May, June.
1.	Occupations related to clothing: Making clothing; buying material at store or shop.
14
THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
2.	Seasonal activities and interests: Life in the park and playground; excursions to observe signs of spring, budding of trees, birds returning, coining of wild flowers; out-of-door play with marbles, tops, etc.: gardening: raising chickens or doves; celebration of Easter; celebration of May Day.
EXPLANATION OF OUTLINE.
September, October, November.
1.	Life in the home: The necessary work involved in housekeeping, especially that related to the supply of food for the family, furnishes excellent subject matter for the fall program. It is all very familiar: the activities involved are simple and objective, and they are intimately related to the welfare and happiness of the children themselves.
A few well-selected toys, such as a bed, a stove, a broom, a tub, and some dolls, will suggest the housekeeping plays. Large floor blocks may be used to make more beds, stoves, ovens. Clay may be used for bread, cookies, cake, etc., to be baked. The older children may make bedding for their doll beds. Paper napkins and doilies will be needed to carry on the dining room plays. Designs developed from berry .and seed stringing described below are sometimes applied in decorating the doilies. The art impulse may be conserved also by attention to the arrangement of table furnishings and the effective placing of flowers on the table.
In order to keep the children's interest and attention centered on the household activities and to furnish motive for many of the plays and occupations, a playhouse may be provided in one corner of the room by means of a screen. Here the toys and block constructions may be kept from day to day, additional furnituie and equipment supplied as need arises, and the life of the family in the home, their work and their pleasures, dramatized fully and freely.
The teacher may suggest a real luncheon or tea party which will necessitate a trip to the grocery store, the dairy, or the bakery. A cereal or some other food easily prepared may be bought, cooked, and served by the children themselves.
A series of plays and occupations of this kind, developed laigely by the children themselves and supplemented by pictures and conversation, serves to bring isolated ideas, experiences, objects, ami processes into their true relation in the children’s thought, and to stimulate them to further organization of experience through play.
2.	Sources of food: The excursion to the store suggests the desirability of a play store in the schoolroom, and this may now become the next project. It will call for much experimentation with building
COMMUNITY LIFE AND NATURE STUDY.
15
blocks and boards. It can be worked out on a small scale by each child and later reproduced with the large building materials by the group as a whole. To stock this store, which is largo enough for several children to play in at one time, furnishes numerous problems for the children to solve, and affords them excellent experience in selecting and shaping materials to serve their play purposes. Further suggestions as to materials and method, dramatization, etc., will be found in subsequent chapters.
The extent to which garden and farm become centers of interest depends necessarily upon the children’s experiences. A miniature sand table farm, showing buildings, fields, farm animals, etc., is an interesting and valuable play project for children who are familiar with farm life.
Play with real fruit, grains, and vegetables in the grocery store or in connection with preparing and serving food in the home will give an opportunity for as much emphasis upon the process of food getting as is desirable. The mal»ng of butter is a process which even little children can carry on successfully, and they may help in making jelly. Both butter and jelly may be saved and used at the Thanksgiving festival.
3.	Seasonal activities and interests: Parallel with the interest in these domestic and industrial activities will be interest in the season and some of its characteristic aspects. Bulbs may bo planted in the fall for early spring blossoming. Seeds, berries, and autumn leaves may be gathered, sorted, and made into chains and wreaths. As autumn flowers are brought in, the children may arrange and place them in the room. Interest in observing the caterpillar spin a cocoon will be stimulated by taking the children out to find caterpillars and helping them to provide some means of keeping them.
The program for the season culminates in the preparation for and celebration of Thanksgiving. The children have had some share in preparing food for future use in the butter making and preserving. They have seen fruits and vegetables in abundance in the markets. They have gathered some vegetables from their own gardens. These direct experiences, enriched by pictures, conversation, song, and story, will help the children to some realization of the meaning of the harvest season. They may prepare for Thanksgiving Day by decorating the room appropriately and beautifully, and by preparing and serving a simple luncheon for their mothers. The bread may be spread with the butter and jelly which they have helped to make, and they may construct little paper baskets to hold the nuts they have cracked.
Children of kindergarten age can not understand the historical significance of this holiday; hence it is a mistake to give it to them.
16	THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
The social significance of the clay, however, may be realized by the children through associating it with the harvest and the pleasure that comes from sharing good things with their family and friends. This will lay the foundation for the appreciation of the spiritual significance of the festival, which will come to the children at a later period in their development.
Halloween is a day for the children to enjoy with other children. It may be made the occasion for a kindergarten and first-grade party, and thus help to foster the social life of the school as a whole. The celebration should emphasize the wholesome, legitimate humor that is associated with the jack-o-lantern and the antics of the elves and brownies.
December.
Preparation for Christmas: The outline for December suggests that the three school weeks of this month be devoted to work and play related to Christmas. The little child’s associations with this day are in terms of Santa Claus and toys. The story, The Night Before Christmas, recalls all the joys of the Christmas season. The children should be given full opportunity to reproduce parts of the story through materials and in imitative and dramatic play. Thé making of a toyshop and toys will stimulate the children to their best efforts in construction and supply incentive for further dramatic play. Songs and stories which interpret the activities in which the children are engaged, or the mood aroused by the experiences they are having, will enhance the value of the entire Christmas experience. The song, Who Will Buy My Toys? is an example of a play activity in poetic form. The Shoemaker and The Elves is a story closely related to the Christmas experience, because it deals with the making of gifts and contains the element of surprise. The spiritual significance of the festival may be emphasized in some communities by telling the story of the First Christmas.
After such happy experiences as these, the children will be ready and eager to plan and make gifts for their parents. This Christmas festival should be the most beautiful of the year. The work should be so planned that hurry and strain in connection with making gifts are avoided. All preparations should be accompanied with pleasure in doing and joy in anticipation. The gifts should be carefully wrapped and tied or sealed. Attractive and appropriate invitations to the festival should be planned and made by the children. The children may buy and trim the tree, and so enjoy it for several days before the final time when parents and younger brothers and sisters come to share it with them.
COMMUNITY LIFE AND NATURE STUDY.	17
January, February, March.
1.	Life in the community: Occupations related to food, clothing, and shelter, represent both home and community activities in relation to each other ; but the home life supplies the background in each case, and the several neighborhood industries become interesting in connection with some one or more needs of the home and family.
It is desirable, in addition to these, to emphasize the needs of and provision for the neighborhood or community as a whole. There are families, represented by the children themselves, living in their several homes; these homes are located on roads or streets; walks and street lights must be provided so that travel and transportation may be safe and comfortable. There are numerous stores and shops on the business street of the neighborhood which supply many of the needs of the community. Provision is made for the protection of the people by means of the fire department and the police service; and for communication through the work of the letter carriers and post office. There is the school for all of the children; and the church attended by the. different families.
A miniature community as a project may be easily developed out of the building of individual houses on the same street or in the same neighborhood. These structures will be characteristic of the environment—single houses only, or single houses, blocks of houses, and apartment buildings. As the houses are completed, other necessary buildings of the community suggest themselves. The stores and shops of the miniature community may be distinguished from one another by their window displays. Sidewalks, street lights, mail boxes, and vehicles of various sorts may be added as need for them is felt. In the early spring the playground and park may become additional projects especially interesting and significant as the days grow warmer.
Associated with the construction are the plays in which the children carry out in imitative and imaginative form the various community activities. They play at shopping, visiting, going to school and church. They play postman, car driver, policeman, etc. They visit the fire department and see the firemen and engines. Illustrative drawing and modeling are other forms of expression used to interpret these different interesting and important phases of community life. The play is simple and the products crude, but they represent the child’s mode of entering into the life of which he is a part and learning something of its interrelations and interdependencies.
These objective and relatively permanent representations of the objects and ideas involved in the subject matter hold the children’s interest and attention for several days or weeks.
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THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
2.	Seasonal interests: At Christmas time the use of the holly, mistletoe, and evergreens will call attention to the trees which keep their leaves all winter.
In winter, if environment favors, the children will make snow balls and snow men. The melting of the snow men will serve to show the change of snow to water under the effect of warm sunshine.
During the short winter days attention should be directed to the moon and stars while they are visible before the children’s bedtime; and verse and song expressive of childlike feelings and interest in these heavenly bodies, may be used to deepen the children’s pleasure in them.
The bulbs planted in the autumn may be brought- from the cellar and kept in the classroom where the children may watch them grow and give them the care they need.
The planning and making of valentines will furnish good problems in construction and design, and this day, like Halloween, may be used to further the development of social spirit between the different grades in the school.
Washington’s Birthday is a holiday which has interest and significance for the older children in the school and for the community in general. The younger children tend to reflect, without understanding, a community interest of this kind. They are, obviously, too young to appreciate the service of Washington to his country; but they will be satisfied with the explanation that he was a great soldier and the first president of the United States. They may help to celebrate his birthday by making suitable room decorations and soldier caps for themselves, by carrying flags while marching to martial music, and by hearing and joining in the singing of our national songs. Thus will pleasurable and right associations be made by them with the name of George Washington, a national figure too great to be introduced to children through anything so trivial as the commonly used cherry tree story.
April, May, June.
1.	The need and supply of clothing: As occupations related to the supply of food may be initiated through suggestive toys, so interest in clothing and occupations necessary to supply it may be approached through dolls and doll plays. Dolls which need garments made of actual cloth materials may be used, or paper dolls, or both kinds; in any case the problem is one which will make a strong appeal to the children.
Material is the first necessity. The children may go to purchase it themselves. The planning and making of the garments will follow. This work will suggest the stores and shops again as places
COMMUNITY LIFE AND NATURE STUDY.
19
where not only materials, but also ready-made garments may be secured. It may involve the dry goods store, or the department store, according to the circumstance and environment.
The plays and occupations will bring the children in contact with a variety of textile materials. With a few groups of children interest might carry back to the sources of wool and cotton, and the processes involved in converting the raw materials into fabrics. These processes are so interesting to the teacher that she often includes them in the kindergarten program when the children’s experience does not justify such subject matter. All occupations related to clothing take on an added significance in connection with the out-of-door life of the season. When the subject is a part of the spring program, the need of cotton clothing, shade hats, sunbonnets, and parasols may be emphasized. If it is included in the winter work, heavy coats, caps, mittens, rubbers, and leggings are necessities to be provided. In either case, the merchant as a factor in supplying human needs becomes a person of special interest and importance.
2.	Seasonal activities and interests: During the late spring and early summer, when the children can be out of doors much more than at any other time of the year, the central interest of the program may be selected from the activities and interests relating directly to the season of the year.
The playgrounds and parks are being macle ready for summer use. As suggested elsewhere, the representation of a playground or park in miniature may be the final project of the work growing out of the interests in community life.
In the early spring, the effect of sunshine on seeds and bulbs planted in the window boxes will have been noted. Excursions will be planned in order that the children may discover signs of new life as they appear in the grass, leaf buds, and early wild flowers. Interest in these may be stimulated through drawing and paper cutting as well as through language and poetry.
Observation of returning birds should be encouraged and an effort made through pictures, conversation, drawing, etc., to help the children recognize readily a few birds common to the locality. The children may also make a bath for birds in the school yard and keep it filled with water.
The out-of-door experiences will supply motive for construction. Paper hats or sunbonnets will be needed to shade the children from the heat of the sun; baskets for collecting flowers; and clay bowls or vases for holding the gathered flowers.
As the older boys and girls are playing with marbles, tops, and kites, the little children may make these or similar toys to play with on bright or windy days.
20
THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
In addition to these experiences incidental to the objects and phenomena of nature, the activities of gardening and the care of animals should be carried on. Children of kindergarten age are too young to carry gardening activities very far. They should, however, have the opportunity to plant some flower and vegetable seeds which will mature quickly. Seeds planted in pots, bowls, or boxes made or decorated by the children will help to keep the interest active through appeal to the ownership instinct. Furthermore, the plant growing in the little pot on the window sill is much more in evidence than the plants growing in the relatively remote garden in the school grounds. It is worth while, therefore, to plant seeds in the spring and bulbs in the autumn, both indoors and out. Lettuce and radishes planted early in May will be ready to harvest by the time school closes in June. The seeds of these and other plants may be gathered in the early autumn. In case there is a garden belonging to the school in charge of a capable garden teacher, the kindergarten children may help in planting and caring for it.
Animals which are interesting in their habits and which may be easily cared for in or near the schoolroom are gold fish, canary birds, ring doves, rabbits, and a hen and chicks. In a number of instances kindergartners have succeeded in raising a brood of little chicks. In one school the hen and fertile eggs were brought to the classroom. The children made a nest of straw in a barrel turned on its side, placed the eggs in it, and fed the hen daily while she was setting. When the eggs hatched, some of the children saw the little chicks actually coming out of the shell. One morning they heard the peep of one chick still inside the shell. After all were hatched, the children made a runway with large blocks. The hen and her brood were kept in the schoolroom for several weeks, the children giving them the necessary care during that time. Later, they were kept in a coop out of doors. In the course of time the mother hen began laying eggs again, and these were used for the closing party of the year when the children served their mothers a luncheon of lettuce and egg sandwiches and radishes, the lettuce and radishes having been gathered from their own gardens.
Opportunity thus to become intimately acquainted with two or three types of animal life is far more important for the children than merely to be introduced to a larger number and variety of animals, although the aspect of number and variety need not be neglected.
The festival days of the season, Easter and May Day, should be recognized in appropriate fashion. Since Easter comes at the beginning of spring, the associations with it should be those of new life. The season is one of promise.
May Day, like St. Valentine’s Day, is a time for surprises. It should be so celebrated as to give pleasure to friends and neighbors.
COMMUNITY LIFE AND NATURE STUDY.
21
The old custom of hanging baskets of flowers on neighbors’ doors is a charming one to perpetuate. The schoolroom doors serve as well as any others for this purpose.
ATTAINMENTS.
The attainments are realized so largely in terms of the various activities of the program, handwork, language, drawing, excursions, and so on, that it is difficult to formulate them apart from these several activities except in very general terms. A year’s work as outlined below should result in the following values for the children:
1.	Attitudes, interests, tastes: A broader and more intelligent interest in those phases of social and natural environment included in the content of the curriculum.
An eager receptive attitude toward new experience resulting in the development of new interests.
2.	Habits, skills: Increased ability to relate and organize experience.
Increased ability to adjust oneself to social situations.
Increased power of attention shown in ability to concentrate on a series of related ideas and activities.
Increased power to think and work independently.
3.	Knowledge, information: A considerable fund of valuable information concerning the home and neighborhood activities and natural objects and phenomena to which attention has been drawn.
Some realization of the social relationships and moral values involved in certain of these activities.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Bobbit, Franklin. The Curriculum. Boston, Houghton, Mifflin Co.
Course in community life, history, and civics, University Elementary School. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
Dewey, John. Froebel’s educational principles. In his School and Society, rev. ed. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Ch. V.
Martin, Katherine. The kindergarten. In Public School Methods. Chicago, The Methods Co. Vol. I, Ch. I.
Miller, Irving. Education for the needs of life. New York, The Macmillan Co.
Palmer, Luella A. Some reconstructive movements within the kindergarten. Psychological Clinic, Vol. VII. June, 1913.
Chapter III.
MANUAL ACTIVITIES.
The impulse to experiment with materials is one of the strongest of early childhood. It shows itself first in the mere handling of objects and materials for the pleasurable sensations which result. Each material, according to its nature, offers suggestions to which the child reacts and thereby discovers further characteristics and possibilities of the particular object or material. Soon the child begins to use material to make objects or express ideas of his own.
GENERAL AIMS.
To stimulate a feeling of power which comes from control over environment.
To develop energy, resourcefulness, and persistence in realizing a purpose.
To give means of control over surroundings and means of interpreting processes. .
SPECIFIC AIMS.
To satisfy the child's desire to experiment with materials and thus become familiar with their properties.
To help the child take the initial steps in art and industrial processes.
To develop ability to work with others toward common ends.
SUBJECT MATTER.
Children of 4 years of age who have had a variety of well-selected toys and play materials in the home’ will begin very early to use the materials of the kindergarten in imitative and constructive play. Less fortunate children will need a greater variety of suggestive toys to stimulate the underfed play and constructive instincts. For example, a child from a home of the first type will be interested almost at once to make a bed and chair for himself or for a doll with the blocks he finds in the school, while the other type of child will need time to play with a doll, a toy bed and chair, and also lime to experiment with the blocks as suggested above.
22
MANUAL ACTIVITIES.
23
Much of the children’s natural constructive play with materials is an outgrowth of their attempt to imitate or reproduce the familiar adult activities going on about them. The toys listed below have been found of value in creating for the children in the kindergarten suggestive social situations leading to play representative of home and neighborhood activities and giving natural and childlike motives for construction.
Toys: Dolls, large and small; doll furniture; a playhouse; toy utensils; toy animals.
Dolls, large and small, appeal at once to the child and represent to him members of the human family with needs which must be satisfied. Many of the problems throughout the year will arise from providing for the dolls a house, furniture, wagon, train, station, clothes, food, etc. As the children provide for the needs of the doll family, they become more conscious of the ways in which their own families have been provided with these necessities. Work and play become more purposeful and are entered into with more zest if each child has his own small doll to build for, to sew for, etc.
Doll furniture, beds, chairs, tables, bureaus, cupboards, and carts can be made by the children as described in the section on wood work.
A playhouse may consist of a screen with windows and a hinged door, to be used in one corner of the room. While not a necessary part of the equipment, this furnishes an excellent motive for housekeeping plays and construction.
Toy utensils encourage plays related to home life, and suggest to the children ideas for construction.
Toy animals suggest the need of shelters, inclosures, food, etc., and thus supply motive for construction and material for play.
Materials for construction-. Blocks, sand table, clay, paper, textiles for weaving, textiles for sewing, wood, miscellaneous materials.
Blocks may consist of Froebel’s building blocks enlarged, large floor blocks in the form and relative proportion of the Froebelian building blocks but enlarged six times, and boards of different dimensions to be combined with these; or the Patty Hill floor blocks and boards can be made to order by a planing mill or the school manual training department. Maple or other hard wood should be used.
Much of the construction with this material is done upon the floor in order that the children may have more freedom and that the larger muscles may be called into play. The floor should be kept clean and the children should be provided with small individual rugs or mats. Cardboard can be furnished for roofs with the Froebelian blocks, and boards with the floor blocks when the children feel the need for them.
At first the children experiment freely with their material, discovering for themselves what can be done with it. They soon begin to set
24
THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
for themselves problems which may have been suggested by their discoveries of the possibilities of the material. For example, they may pile the blocks to make towers, or they may lay sidewalks, or construct trains of cars or houses; or their construction may be in line with some present interest or past experience. One child may build with cubes and oblong prisms a porch and steps like those which are just being added to his own home, while a second child may construct the long table and benches in the grove where he had his picnic supper the evening before. The social situation created by the presence of the kindergarten dolls and the dishes may suggest the use of the blocks to make chairs, tables, stoves, beds, etc., and housekeeping plays develop which may continue for several days, improvements being made and equipment added in the way of napkins, table spreads, bedding, brooms, etc., as the children feel the need for them. At times each child will build to carry out his own ideas in his own way; again, two or more children will unite their blocks and cooperate voluntarily to solve a problem; while at other times a group of children will cooperate to solve a larger social project chosen by themselves or suggested by the teacher. When the teacher sees an interest growing in any problem which she wishes especially to emphasize in her program, she seeks to center the interest of all the children upon it. For example, when a number of children become interested in the housekeeping plays, she brings out the screen playhouse to give a stronger motive for construction and to make the situation more real and interesting. She may then suggest problems which will carry forward the play.
Some of the projects for construction with blocks arising out of the subject matter of the program are: Furnishing a house in the play corner; building the grocery store.
The grocery store may first be made an individual project, each child building with Froebelian blocks counters and shelves, adding cans of fruit and vegetables and glasses of jelly represented by cylinders of the beads, large and small. Objects constructed of other materials may also be added to make the equipment complete. Later, the group may combine efforts to produce a store large enough for several children to enter at once, using the large floor blocks and boards for counters and shelves and the cylinders for cans of fruits and vegetables. Other material may be used with the blocks as the representation and play are carried forward and as the children discover a need for them. Real fruit, vegetables, and grains may be used, or clay fruit and vegetables may be made and painted, and Loxes and baskets constructed to hold these. Money may be made, a pocketbook to carry it in, and a delivery wagon for the goods. At the approach of the Christmas season the grocery store will be transformed into a toy shop and decorated and equipped by the children
MANUAL ACTIVITIES.
25
with a large variety of toys of their own construction. In the spring the need for new clothing may lead to the building and equipping of a dry goods or department store.
Another project is laying out the farm, building fences, constructing the farm buildings, such as the farmer's house, the barn, the shed, the chicken house. While the children are interested in the source of their food, an excursion will be made to a farm if it can be provided for. The morning will be spent in playing in the hay, feeding the chickens, and getting as much valuable and happy farm experience as possible. On the following day, in the kindergarten, the toy farm animals may be brought out and the children may build with their blocks to provide the animals with proper shelter, water 1 roughs, and barnyards. Fields, gardens, and perhaps an orchard will be laid out and fenced in, and gradually a miniature farm will develop in the sand table or in one corner of the room. Here, as in the grocery store, other materials may be combined with the blocks to complete the project. If the excursion to the farm is not possible and if a farm visit has not been a part of the experience of the individual children, less time will be spent upon the problem, and only those phases of it will be reproduced in manual activity which seem most interesting and closest to the children's experience; for example. the construction of the fanner's wagon which they see bringing the produce into the grocery store, building a shelter for the toy animals, providing for feeding and watering the toy animals.
The construction of typical and familiar buildings in the community has interest and meaning for the children because such buildings serve their homes. First, houses are built similar to those in which these particular children live or with which they are familiar. These individual houses are later arranged along a street; and sidewalks, street cars, street lights, and mail boxes are provided to unite or serve these homes. Typical stores with which the children are most familiar are built into a business block. Street cars, delivery wagons, and automobiles are constructed to provide transportation. Familiar public buildings, such as the school, the church, the post oilice. the library, the fire department, the railroad station, etc., are next studied and built in appropriate form. Thus in one corner of the room a miniature community grows step by step.
Xo formal work is done with this material. For the most part it is the uses, the purposes, the functions of things and their parts which interest children at this time. There are mathematical values in the building material, and through the children's varied experiences in handling it they are laying the foundation for later discrimination of form, size, number, and arrangement of parts. The teacher, however, will not stress the formal aspect of the material, but whenever 108100°—19---------4
26	THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
a child reaches out spontaneously for some mathematical value, she will satisfy this need. In addition to this interest in mathematics, which is not uncommon in young children, a child naturally gains some knowledge of mathematical values when form, size, number, and arrangement become conscious factors in carrying out a project which he has himself initiated. For example, if, in building, a child exhausts his supply of oblong prisms and asks for more, the teacher may suggest that he has before him blocks with which he can make more oblong prisms. Because of his need for the blocks, the child will be interested in discovering that two long square prisms or two short square prisms may be so arranged as to make an oblong prism.
A sand table with shells, pebbles, tin or granite dishes, etc., is a valuable item of equipment. Children will first experiment in the sand, setting their own play problems, patting, piling, sifting, digging, stirring,- making hills, caves, tunnels, rivers, and wells, or cakes and cookies. Later, as children become interested in cooperating, group problems are carried out in the sand table. The farm with its buildings, fields, and gardens; the school playground; the park; a house, garden, and garage; “our” street or typical buildings in “ our ” town or neighborhood are problems suggested by the subject matter of the program which are solved in the sand table. Constructions are made of blocks or paper; people and animals are cut from paper or molded from clay; trees are represented by twigs or made from paper. Plans are simple, and are made and carried out by the children. The teacher, by her questions, helps the children to think their plans through and to organize; but the working out is the result of their own initiative rather than of the dictation of the teacher.
Clay, because of its plasticity and ready response to the children’s touch, may be used successfully for the shaping of many forms. Experimental play, beginning with patting..pinching, rolling, making holes, is carried over through some suggestion which grows out of the child’s first aimless handling of material into the conscious working out of ideas, the making of cakes and pies, dishes, dolls, or balls. A few of the objects which may be worked out with clay in connection with the content of the curriculum are: Bread, cake, and pies for baking; dishes and cooking utensils; fruit and vegetables made and painted for the farmer’s wagon, the grocery store, or the Thanksgiving table; animals and figures of people for various play projects; nuts and squirrels; Christmas toys for the toy shop or for Santa Claus to leave by the fireplace; a candlestick or paper weight to be enameled for a Christmas gift for mother or father; flower bowls; flower pots to be painted, covered with shellac and used for the planting of seeds in the spring; bird nests and birds; and marbles to be painted and
MANUAL ACTIVITIES.	27
covered with shellac for actual play. Clay may occasionally be used for the illustration of a story, for example, the Three Bears.
Paper for construction is one of the most valuable materials in the kindergarten because of the variety of possibilities which its use affords. It must be tough, pliable, and of good color, and the objects produced must be simple and in line with the children’s interest.
Before construction can be undertaken, control of the scissors should be gained. The first cutting will be making little snips, which can be used to fill a pillow for the dolls; paper may be fringed for rugs and table runners for the playhouse; table spread, rugs, and bedding may be cut, and napkins cut and folded for the playhouse. By this time the children should have sufficient control of the scissors to cut successfully from the magazines pictures with straight edges. This calls for a scrapbook, and folding the pages and cover of the book follows. Later problems will be making baskets for gathering seeds from the garden; tins for baking; boxes, baskets, bags for the grocery store; baskets, lanterns, cornucopias, and bells for the Christmas tree; toys for the toy shop; envelopes for valentines; kites, pinwheels, fans, parasols for use in the spring; paper dolls, with their wardrobes, and a suit case or trunk to hold the clothes; furniture for the doll house made by the group, or for the single room made from a box and furnished completely by the individual child. Paper construction may be used instead of blocks for representing in the sand table or on the floor a farm, street, or community, which calls for the construction of houses, barns, stores, churches, and other public buildings, as well as wagons, street cars, automobiles, fences, etc.
Many of the problems suggested, such as the book, basket, box, fan, lantern, doll dress, and rug, furnish excellent opportunities for applied design.
The method followed with paper construction is similar to that used with other materials. The first steps are experimental; ideas and problems grow out of this experimentation, and the children improve their products as they test them out or follow the suggestions of other children or the teacher. Later the teacher helps the children evolve forms which are more satisfactory, making sure always that the process suggested is in line with the children’s own thinking and stage of progress.
Textiles and tools for weaving include looms of wood or cardboard made by the older children, cotton roving, eight-ply worsted, jute, cotton cloth brought from home by children or teacher and dyed in attractive colors with diamond or easy dyes, and cut into wide strips. Children may make their looms of wood or strawboard and set up the warp with little, difficulty. Suitable problems for weaving are rugs for the doll house, hammocks, caps, and muffs for the dolls.
28	the kindergarten curriculum.
Paper-mat weaving, because of the frailty of the material, the difficulty of handling it, and the unsatisfactory results obtained, has been discarded in many places in favor of larger and more durable materials and a process more closely related to industrial weaving. These materials are not only more easily handled by the children, but the results produced are of greater value in their eyes because they are of use in their play life. However, because of the prolonged effort which the accomplishment of the result demands, and the accuracy which is required in the process, even the industrial type of weaving should be used only to a limited extent and with the older children.
Textiles for sewing include cotton and woolen cloth, zephyr, mercerized cotton, heavy thread, large needles.
Sewing cards have been discarded by many kindergartners. It is felt that there are more plastic and satisfactory mediums through which the child may express his ideas. However, sewing upon construction paper is occasionally introduced for the production of articles which can be used by the child; for example, a pocketbook for the store play, a postman’s bag, etc. The simple overhand stitch is used. Like weaving, sewing is used only to a limited extent, since, although interesting to the kindergarten child, it calls into play the finer muscular coordinations. The materials should be coarse, in order to secure large, crude work. The needs of the kindergarten dolls furnish a most natural and interesting motive. Woolen dresses, wraps, and bedding must be provided so that the dolls may be made ready for winter, and in the spring cotton clothes and sun hats are required. Children are often able to bring from home scraps of woolen or cotton cloth left over from the making of their own clothes. Their first attempts at dressmaking are purely experimental; little shaping is given to the material, the dresses often being sewed upon the dolls with large, coarse stitches. Results are compared, suggestions are made by children and teacher, and other attempts follow with a gradual improvement in results as a consciousness of better form develops. Soon a need is felt for a pattern, and this is worked out by the children for a simple two-seam dress.
Sewing, like weaving, is an occupation valuable for the more mature children.
Wood for construction should include odds and ends of soft wood; pieces of wood cut in various sizes and shapes; nails; glue; hammer; saw; and bench hook.
At first the children experiment with tools, using odds and ends of boards. They are often satisfied with merely pounding and sawing until they have gained some degree of control over these processes. Then they begin to assemble pieces of wood, making simple objects which are often suggested by the shape of the pieces. Later, ma-
MANUAL ACTIVITIES.
29
ferial cut in appropriate dimensions for making objects in which the children are interested at that time, are placed in a box; the children’s problem is to select the pieces which are best adapted to their individual purposes, and to fit and nail these together. Occasionally the children measure and saw a board to meet their need. Care should be taken to select wood that is soft, such as bass and white pine; but the pieces must not be so thin as to split easily.
The curriculum suggests some suitable problems to be solved with this material. They are: Simple furniture for the large dolls; smaller furniture for the doll houses which the children make for themselves from wooden boxes; a cart for the dolls; a wagon for the grocery store or farm; toys for the Christmas toy shop; equipment for the miniature playground or park; bird houses; and boxes for spring planting. Many of these objects are painted or stained by the children. The results are crude, but they make most satisfactory and durable toys.
Miscellaneous materials, such as wooden and pasteboard boxes of various sizes, spools, ribbon bolts, corrugated paper, milk-bottle stoppers, collar buttons, etc., offer suggestive and inexpensive material for the construction of articles for house or store play, or toys and articles of use. Work with this material tends to make children re-' sourceful and to suggest to them the use of odds and ends of material for home construction. With this as with all other material, the teacher must realize that the objects made must necessarily be simple and crude. The test of the educative value of the work accomplished does not lie in the completed article, but in the power which the children gain in thinking and working independently. The teacher must guard against letting her ambition to get results lead her into giving too much assistance to the children.
Supplementary materials: Enlarged sticks of various lengths; beads; enlarged peg boards.
The enlarged sticks are rarely used for picture making. Better mediums through which the child can express his ideas of objects about him are furnished by the more plastic occupations, drawing and cutting. The sticks are useful, however, in combination with blocks and other material for constructive plays; for example, for representing street car tracks, sidewalks, etc., and in combination with large beads for making fences, lamp posts, etc. They may also sometimes be combined with coffee beans and other large seeds for making designs, as a conscious preparation for the decoration of some object which has been constructed. The children may experiment with arrangement, and select their best design to be reproduced with stick dyes, crayons, or paints, for the purpose of decorating wall paper, rugs, table covers for the doll house, and books or other objects of interest.
30	THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
Beads in the form of spheres, cubes, and cylinders of one-half inch and one inch in diameter are included in the material.
Bead stringing, which is particularly suitable for the younger children, will at first be experimental; then simple arrangements will grow out of the children’s experimentation, leading step by step to varied forms of organization and rhythmic arrangement as the children or teacher may suggest. Nature materials, such as red haws, rose hips, large berries, beans, acorns, and other large seeds of various kinds, may also be strung, sometimes with straws or hollow rushes cut into short lengths.
Enlarged peg boards call for experimental activity which usually leads soon to some kind of organization. Children often inclose a space with pegs of one color and ask for the toy animals in order to use the space as a pasture fenced in; or they arrange the pegs as flowers and have a garden; or instead of expressing ideas they merely make rhythmic arrangements which satisfy their sense of beauty. The pegs, like the beads, furnish a material which appeals to the children’s delight in color, and affords opportunity for a pleasing variety of arrangements.
METHOD.
Experimentation with materials to discover their characteristics, properties, and possible uses.—Children come to all new materials with a questioning attitude. Curious and eager to gain knowledge of and control over their environment, they find for a time the mastery of material an absorbing problem. The teacher should not hurry the children through this period of experimentation, for what they learn by direct inquiry is of greater value to them than what they are told by another, even though a longer time and greater effort are required for the learning process. If the materials are wisely chosen and hence adapted to the present needs and interests of the children, they should hold the interest for a time without the presence or efforts of the teacher. While the children are thus experimenting, however, a teacher who has a thorough knowledge of her children and of materials may direct their activities in the following ways:
1.	Study each individual child, making note of his choice of materials and problems, his natural ways of working, and rate of progress, in order to make suggestions and later set problems which are suited to his needs.
2.	Guide the children's interests and uses of materials to prevent them from becoming habitually trivial.
3.	Help the children to organize their experiments so that these, will be useful and will lead constantly to higher stages of development.
MANUAL ACTIVITIES.
31
Solving problems through the use of materials.—Educators are to-day seeking to develop in children initiative and reflective thinking. The first prerequisite of productive thinking is a problem which seems to the child real and worthy of solution.
1.	Problems initiated by the children: Experience has shown that children are often capable of setting for themselves worthy problems, the suggestions for which may come from these sources:
(a)	Ideas may grow out of the children's handling of material. Problems are suggested and formulated because of discoveries of the possibilities of material.
(b)	The children may formulate problems suggested by some present interest or some past experience which may be related to the subject matter of the curriculum.
(c)	The children may formulate problems to meet needs created by some social situation in the kindergarten. These too, will often be suggested by the content of the curriculum.
2.	Problems suggested by the teacher: The teacher will receive many suggestions for problems from watching the children during their free play periods with material, and will select those problems which children show an interest in working out or for which they feel a need. Other problems may grow out of some social situation, or be in line with some seasonal interest; in other words, may bo derived from the subject matter of the curriculum.
These problems, suggested by the teacher, must be so in line with the interests, needs, and experiences of the group that the children will adopt them readily as their own, and they must seem to the children real and worth the solving in order to produce good, productive thinking and interested effort.
Imitation of another s choice or use of material, selection of another's problem or method of solving it.—Children are highly imitative and often adopt, as their own, another’s use of material, or solution of a problem if it appeals to them as better than their own. Such spontaneous imitation enriches the children’s ideas and experiences, and often results in clarifying their vague and confused images. Imitation which helps children to do in a more effectual way what they are already struggling to do, and which leads to later independent action on a higher plane, is a valuable agent of education. If the teacher makes a suggestion for a more satisfactory solution of a problem or sets a pattern for imitation, she must make sure that it is in line with the children’s mode of thinking and stage of development. For if the teacher's contribution is not related to the needs of the children, they may follow the suggestion for the moment, but it produces no effect upon their later work unless it is to make them dissatisfied with their own crude products.
32
THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
Imitation is often used when the problem is one of technique, a better way of holding the scissors or using the hammer; but when the problem is one of expressing ideas the children should, in the main, be left free to try this or that method and to select the one which works, since this is a necessary condition governing the thinking process.
These methods will be found valuable even in kindergartens equipped with only the traditional material. The larger units of work and the problem method may be used to advantage in all kindergartens.
ATTAINMENTS.
1.	Attitudes, interests, tastes: Readiness to attack simple problems in construction, and faith in power to solve them.
Increased interest in the products of construction leading to more purposeful work and effort to secure better form.
Development of the social spirit resulting from cooperative effort toward common ends.
2.	Habits, skills: Increased control of the materials and tools which have been used.
Ability to select suitable material and construct without help a number of simple objects of the kind indicated in the foregoing-pages.
3.	Knowledge, information: Acquaintance with the properties of a variety of objects and materials.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Corbin, Alice M. The School of Childhood, University of Pittsburgh. Kindergarten Review, vol. 24, p. 423.
Dewey, John. Play. In his Schools of To-morrow. New York, E. P. Dutton and Co. Ch. V.
Gesell, Arnold L. and Beatrice C. Handwork. In their The Normal Child and Primary Education. Boston, Ginn & Co. Ch. XIII.
Hill, Patty Smith. Experimental Studies in Kindergarten Education. Teachers College Record. New York, Columbia University Press. Vol. XV, No. 2.
Martin, Katherine. The Kindergarten. In Public School Methods. Chicago, The Methods Co. Vol. I, ch. 1.
Palmer, Luella A. Plays for the development of the hand as a human tool. In her Play Life in the First Eight Years. Boston, Ginn & Co. Ch. IV.
Sargent, Walter. Educational and practical values, and A survey of the progression of work through the grades. In his Fine and Industrial Arts in the Elementary School. Boston, Ginn & Co. Chs. I, II, III, and IV.
Sies, Alice Corbin. Problems in Sensory Motor Education Involving the Selection of Play Materials and Apparatus for Small Children. Kindergarten and First Grade, Vol. I, No. 2. Feb., 1916.
Temple, Alice. Survey of the Kindergartens of Richmond, Ind. Supplementary Educational Monographs. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Vol. I, No. 6.
Chapter IV.
ART.
Children need only to be supplied with paper and scissors, crayons, paints, or clay to prove that the desire for expression is inherent. When the crude results are explained to the onlooker, one does not feel that the “ creative imagination ” needs to be developed. But scribbling and snipping, daubing and pounding may be gradually transformed into better technique through the child’s own experimental method and through suggestions from the other children and the teacher. Symbolic representation may approach more and more to the semblance of objects in the child’s environment. It is a delicate task, however, to improve a child’s technique and to make his illustrations more true to life without losing the freshness and originality of the more spontaneous expression. Some educators would say “ hands off,” and assure us that the child- will work out his own salvation in art training. While this view may be extreme, it is well to remember that too much emphasis upon technique clips the wings of creative imagination, and too much emphasis upon the expression of clear ideas quenches the desire for expression. There must be periods when the child works “ for the joy that is in him, in his own particular star.”
GENERAL AIMS.
To satisfy the desire for expression and to develop the creative imagination.
To develop a feeling for color and arrangement.
To clarify thought.
To enable the child to see beauty in nature and in works of art from a new point of view, because he has tried to express himself through art mediums.
SPECIFIC AIMS.
To gain better control of the medium.
To see objects more clearly and to express thought more definitely. To use color and arrangement more consciously.
SUBJECT MATTER.
1.	The experience of the children in their relationship to nature and to human beings as organized in the kindergarten curriculum 108100°—19-------5	33
34	THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
offers a great variety of subjects for expression. This expression may find definite and beautiful form in relation to the celebration of the festivals.
(a) Nature: Berries, flowers, fruits, trees, sun, moon, animals, children’s play in different seasons.
(&) Industries and occupations: Families and associated objects, such as houses, utensils, etc.; activities of workers in various occupations.
2.	The celebration of Halloween, Christinas, Washington’s Birthday, Easter, and May Day offers suggestions for room decoration in rhythmic arrangement. The making and decorating of invitations to parties, of Christmas cards and Easter cards, valentines, plates for the Thanksgiving party, many kinds of baskets, give abundant opportunity for motivating the art work. When patterns are given to the children to provide units for arrangement in this kind of work there is no art value unless the teacher has definite art standards in selecting the patterns, and unless the units provide some opportunity for variety in arrangement, so that the children may use this work as a means of self-expression.
3.	Books may be made throughout the year containing pictures in crayon, water color, and paper cutting, with typewritten stories or verses composed by the kindergarten children. The pictures may be made first, and the words describe the picture, or vice versa. The following verses are typical of a kindergarten child’s composition:
The moon sees
Two Christmas trees.
Three pumpkins in a row, The farmer made them grow.
Mary ate a berry, And changed into a fairy.
These books serve as summaries of certain phases of the program, such as a farm book or garden book; a Santa Claus book; a book of seasons; a book of mother’s work or work in the home.
The content of these books gives opportunity for valuable correlation between language and drawing. Decorating the cover gives a motive for design, and putting the book together furnishes an industrial project.
4.	Furnishing a doll house and dressing paper dolls involve many art projects as suggested in the chapter on Manual Activities.
5.	Stories and rhymes may offer suggestion for illustration, but kindergarten children should not be expected to picture objects which they do not use freely in their more imaginative drawing, nor should they be expected to represent a plot that involves the relationship of too many ideas. For instance, the story of the Three Pigs would
ART.
35
require the picturing of two kinds of animals, three houses built of different materials, a churn, an apple orchard, etc.; and the plot is quite involved in the relation of each episode to the climax of the story. Some of the simple songs or rhymes are better for illustration. Humpty Dumpty, for instance, is very easy to draw, because Humpty Dumpty is just the kind of creative that the child draws, the type “ man ” with which all teachers of little children are familiar.
A direct experience, like an excursion, furnishes suggestive material for illustration. Many times the children draw pictures of themselves in long lines with “teacher,” a towering individual, dominating the group. The objective of the excursion has been omitted. It matters not whether it may have been a fire engine or an art museum, the social side of the experience has made the deepest impression. But, after all, this is the true nature of art, the graphic expression of a vivid experience.
There is such a wealth of suggestion in the kindergarten curriculum that it is never necessary to improve technique apart from the children’s interest in manipulating materials or in expressing ideas. The work should always be motivated; “ drill ” lessons, such as filling in squares with color, are valueless.
METHOD IN RELATION TO GENERAL AIMS.
To satisfy the desire for expression and to develop the creative imagination.—Opportunity should be given for free expression with paper and scissors, crayons, paints, and clay. The first expression of children is from the image and not from the object. As John Dewey1 says:
Even in drawing objects the child will draw from his image, not from the object itself. As soon as the child has acquired the habit of vivifying and liberating his image through expression, then a return may take place to the original form. In one sense there is no technique up to this time, but there is the psychological factor corresponding to technique, the motor expression, its coordination with, control by, and stimulation of the visible image. This becomes through training what is ordinarily called technique. The first consideration is the doing, the use; after use comes method, the how of doing. Now, method must exist not for its own sake but for better self-expression, fuller and more interesting doing. Hence these two points; technique must grow out of free imaginative expression, and it must grow up within and come into such imaginative expression.
To develop a feeling for color and arrangement.—1. Color: A child’s love of color should be satisfied by giving him colored materials with which to express himself; crayons, water colors, and colored papers. It is better for kindergarten children to use colored crayons rather than pencils, because they satisfy the sense of color
1 Dewey, John. The Psychology of Drawing.
36
THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
and at the same time give broader, softer lines than the pencil. The first expression of the children should be free, even if the color combinations are crude. More esthetic shades and tints should not be given the child until he has satisfied to some extent his love for the more brilliant colors. He often makes barbaric combinations which are as unconsciously beautiful as primitive art. While these results may be at first accidental, through emphasis and selection by the teacher, they may form the basis for more conscious control on the part of the child.
The teacher may influence thè results, as the child becomes more familiar with the medium, by supplying backgrounds of a neutral or harmonious shade upon which the work is applied, and by occasionally limiting the choice of colors.
2.	Arrangement: In the free work of children we find many examples of unconscious arrangement; for instance, a child makes a succession of stars and moons across the top of the paper instead of drawing a literal representation of a night scene. This interest in arrangement may be developed and made more intelligent by supplying motives for design in the decoration of the kindergarten room, and by decorating baskets, plates, paper-doll dresses, etc., which furnish shapes so suggestive for design.
The use of materials which naturally lend themselves to the repetition of a unit or to orderly arrangement rather than to illustration, such as peg boards, bead stringing, stringing nature materials, all develop interest in design.
To clarify thought.—In general, all expression objectifies ideas, and so tends to clarify thought. However, if the teacher does not regard the results that the child attains as worth while, and if she fails to provide opportunity for motivation of work, the quality of the results will not improve and will most likely deteriorate. Too often teachers impose devices upon the children in the form of results which may have been suggested by an exhibit of kindergarten work, or by a visit to another kindergarten. These “results” have no value in themselves, but only as they represent a working out of a problem which is vital to the group concerned. Motive in work makes expression grow in intelligence. Problems of “how” or “what” constantly arise in the child’s experimentation, and should be made more clear by the teacher. The more instinctive activity characteristic of the first use of the material becomes transformed into a process that demands clear thinking. “Imitation of the teacher’s copy” used too frequently in art work with kindergarten and elementary school children encourages the child to mechanically repeat the result which the teacher has thought out, and not to think his way through the process, which is one of the chief values in any kind of expression.
ART.
37
To develop appreciation.—Activity is the child’s key to knowledge. He likes flowers because he can pick them, but when he has represented their bright colors, the activity involved in the process of making a picture gives him a new attitude toward the object. The interest in the art result because it is the child’s own project carries over to an interest in the object and so brings about a more intellectual attitude as a basis for the next effort. This objectifying of experience makes other people’s pictures more interesting to the child. This is one approach to picture appreciation.
METHOD IN RELATION TO SPECIFIC AIMS.
To gain better control of the medium.—The first interest in any material is in manipulation; results are secondary. As has been suggested, scribbling may be developed into firm lines and smooth rubbing on of color; daubing and scrubbing may be changed into the application of washes. When children have passed out of the experimental stage and have the ability to secure better results in technique, they may criticize their own results and those of the class. One child said frankly that the water in a picture “ looked like mussed up hair,” realizing that the lines might have been kept parallel.
When children draw, they seem instinctively to use line instead of mass drawing, but as rubbing on of color strengthens technique, mass drawing may be suggested in connection with line drawing. For instance, boats are drawn in outline, but the water is rubbed in. Soldiers or sailors may be drawn unsubstantial and stick-like, but uniforms are suggested, and again there is need for broad, smooth strokes. A book filled with illustrations may have a cover decorated with units in massed color.
When there is group instruction in art work, the children should be classified by their ability in using a particular medium, and not by age or the length of time they have been in the kindergarten. In this way, the children who are still in the experimental stage will work very freely with the medium, while those who are tending to repeat themselves, or who desire a better form of expression, may have the benefit of instruction.
To see objects more clearly and to express thought more definitely.— Many children of kindergarten age are too immature to draw from objects and should first live through the more imaginative stage of art expression. There are some children of kindergarten age, how-ever, who can draw with a considerable degree of accuracy and a grasp of details. They are able to study a flag and to reproduce it in the right colors and with the right relationship of the field to the staff and of the stripes to the field. Children in this stage of development can draw clocks with some sense of proportion, and they show their ma
38
THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
turity by making some kind of symbol around the face of the clock instead of merely making marks as do the young children. This kind of drawing would seem to have some relation to the ability to write. It is also the beginning of mechanical drawing and the drawing of still life. It should never take the place of the more imaginative drawing, but there are subjects in the kindergarten curriculum which lend themselves to this form of expression, such as the drawing of trains, houses, etc. In the spring, branches of pussywillows, wild flowers, and hyacinths that the children have planted may be drawn with some regard to correct form and color. When children, however, look indifferently at the spray to be drawn and then make a flower growing out of the ground, and even use green and red indiscriminately for flower or stem, they are not in the stage to draw from an object. A group of children whose teacher had given them a spray of bittersweet to study and represent, merely took the berries as a suggestion and worked out a variety of arrangement in spots and lines which were very decorative but which merely suggested the berry and had no resemblance to the actual growth.
To use color and arrangement more consciously.—As was suggested in a previous section, providing a motive tends to make the woi k moi e thoughtful. For instance, the younger children scatter all kinds of objects over a page with no thought of selection or arrangement. To make a book with a picture on each page brings about orderliness of thought and arrangement. When the subject matter of the curriculum has made thought more clear, the children’s illustrations will reflect this quality, and the teacher’s emphasis will be along the lines of the relationship among objects in a picture.
When the problem is a decorative rather than an illustrative one, the objects to be decorated will control the use of appropriate color and design; for example, orange and brown at Halloween and red and green at Christinas time applied to plates, baskets, and other objects associated with the festivals. The doll house presents excellent problems in combinations of harmonious color and design applied to wall paper, rugs, etc.
ATTAINMENTS.
1. Attitudes, interests, tastes: Eagerness and willingness to express ideas and emotions through the mediums of graphic art. More mtelli-o-ent interest in pictures. Feeling for color, form, and arrangement. b 2. Habits, skills: Orderly habits in using materials. Ability to handle art mediums with some degree of skill.
3.	Knowledge, information: Some idea of form in relation to expressing thought to others. Clearer idea of subject matter in the curriculum through having expressed thought through art mediums.
Chapter V.
LANGUAGE.
Tn language, the wealth of learning and aspiration of the race have been stored up, ready to be unlocked when the child has found the key of some actual experience which will give him the power to enter into his inheritance. Words are symbols; that is, they suggest and represent meanings. John Dewey says:
They stand for these meanings to any individual only when he has had experience of some situation to which these meanings are actually relevant. * * * To attempt to give a meaning through a word alone without any dealing with a thing is to deprive the word of intelligible signification. * * ♦ There is a tendency to assume that whenever there is a definite word or form of speech there is also a definite idea; while, as a matter of fact, adults and children alike are capable of using even precise, verbal formulae with only the vaguest and most confused sense of what they mean. * * * Words should be signs of ideas, and ideas spring from experience.
GENERAL AIMS.
To provide a means of communicating with others.—The kindergarten period is the one during which a child should become thoroughly grounded in colloquial, conversational English. He should gain in the ability to grasp the meanings of others as interpreted in language.
To aid in the clarification of ideas; to crystallize a meaning which the child has discovered in his experiencing, so that such meaning may he used in thinking.—As the child realizes finer distinctions in his experience, he seeks for a word that will fix his idea. If it is supplied to him or if he coins one for the situation, he can make easy reference to that situation in his later thoughts; the word gives him a new basis for discrimination.
SPECIFIC AIMS.
Improvement of the technique of oral expression.—Increase of vocabulary due to wider experiences and finer distinctions.
Better grammatical construction, sentences more complete and following each other in sequence without loss of spontaneity in expression.
Clearer enunciation; correct pronunciation; pleasing, expressive tone of voice.
39
40
THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
Organization of thought.—Tn striving for adequate expression of his ideas a child learns to emphasize the more significant phases of his experience and to relate these to his former experiences and to define them in terms of former experiences. Tn social intercourse he interprets the thoughts and feelings of others in the light of his own, and so enlarges and modifies his own.
Freedom of expression.—A child should be led to feel that ho has something to say which is worth saying. A child should be led to feel that he has an interested listener. A child should be led to feel that he will be encouraged to communicate his ideas.
SUBJECT MATTER.1
Conversation, stories, rhymes, and singing occupy a large portion of the time in the kindergarten. These will vary in different localities. Real conversation, a give-and-take between equals, must be based upon topics of common interest; therefore subjects of conversation will vary in different kindergartens, because the environments and experiences of the children will be different. The form that language development will take will also vary somewhat in the kindergartens. Where there are only foreign-born children, English must be taught as a new language, and only the simplest stories and songs can be used, accompanied by much gesture, repetition, and illustration.
The subject matter divides itself into two general lines.
1.	The experiences of the kindergarten: These supply the most vital subject matter for oral expression, and relate to activities and materials. The toys, pictures, stories, games, excursions demand continual suggestions, questions, explanations, and comments.
2.	The experiences of individuals: The experiences of individuals, cither children or teacher, outside of the kindergarten, if they are significant socially, provide occasions for the introduction of subject matter from a wider field than the immediate kindergarten experiences. Stories and pictures often serve the same purpose.
Topics of conversation suggested by the subject matter of the curriculum are as follows: How to make clothes for the doll; cleaning and dusting the kindergarten room; materials needed for making jelly; the care of the kindergarten animals, how they move and cat; planning the Thanksgiving celebration; a visit to the blacksmith; best ways to plant bulbs and seeds; appropriate decoration of the room for Washington’s Birthday; the first spring flowers; all the things that the wind does; ways of going to the park and what may be seen there.
3 See Chapter II. Community life and nature study.
LANGUAGE.
41
METHOD.
Conversation should not be limited to certain periods of the day set apart for that purpose; for in such a case, it becomes formal and forced. The methods of developing language in the kindergarten should be like the informal methods of the home. The main difference is that selected situations are provided in the school which will not only interest the child and give him the desire to talk, but will also give him a choice subject for his conversation and supply him with an adequate vocabulary in which to express his ideas. Just as there are certain occasions in the home which call the family together and the interchange of talk is general, so in the kindergarten there are times when children gather around the piano for singing, or watch together the drying wings of the new butterfly, or compose a group letter, or look at the toy brought by some child; then topics of interest to all are considered.
Throughout the day the child should have freedom of expression. He should ask questions of other children as well as of the teacher; he should ask their help in work and play; he should express his opinions and thus test his ideas by the knowledge of others who may sanction or disapprove. If the kindergarten experiences really stimulate a child to think, the conversation will be relevant to the problem to be solved. It is only when a situation does not provoke energetic thought that a little child’s talk becomes silly.
Wrong methods.—It is almost impossible to give model outlines for conversations because of their inherent nature. Conversation is a give and take, modified by the mental attitudes of the people taking part. It is easier to show what the so-called conversation periods should not be like.
1.	Question and answer method: The teacher may start the language period by asking, “What did we talk about yesterday? ” If little impression was made the previous day, no answer may be forthcoming or perhaps a random guess. “It was a tall man who carries a flag,” “Yes, a soldier.” “What did we say a soldier did?” This method rouses a half-hearted interest because the children give information only.
2.	Monologue method: The teacher may take the entire period to tell the children all about some experience. The children are passive, they may not be interested in the topic, or they may know as much about it as the teacher, but they have no opportunity for expression. The children should usually gather information from some direct experience.
3.	Desultory method: The teacher may ask the question, “ Who has something to tell us this morning? ” The result is that a number of children may talk on several unrelated topics. This method does not
42
THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
promote organization of thought. If the children are too immature to use ideas alone as a medium of expression, concrete material, such as pictures, finger plays, dramatization, and nature material, are aids in the organization of subject matter.
4.	Overorganized method: The teacher may say, “Yesterday we talked about where the squirrel lives; to-day we will talk about what he looks like.” A little child is not ready for concentration on such minute details, pigeonholed under headings. A child must respond to a whole situation if his language is to flow freely and fully.
5.	Poor method of using pictures: “ Here is a picture; what do you see in it?” is often a way that a conversation is started. Such a question is unnecessary if the picture illustrates experiences familiar to the children. The picture itself will suggest interesting conversation. But if the picture shows objects or activities entirely foreign to the children they may guess -at its meaning, but there is little language value. The children may learn to speak the words which the teacher uses in describing the picture, but as there is no content to the words, these will drop from the vocabulary.
Right methods.—1. Recall of an experience shared by the group: A vivid experience, such as watching the carpenter at work, playing in the wind, planting in the garden, is a good starting point for a general conversation. “ Language will become vigorous and effective when there has been reaction toward elemental things.” The child himself must use correct language form. “ Nothing but persistent oral repetition of the correct form will overcome the habit of using incorrect, ungrammatical, and inelegant expression in daily speech. Ihese are matters of ear training and motor habits as well as of knowledge.”
If the children describe an experience in a desultory, disjointed way, the teacher may ask a few suggestive questions and at the end of the period may combine the children’s ideas in a sequence of events, an interesting summary.
2.	Experience of one child told to the group: Kindergarten children have a tendency to run to the teacher and talk to her instead of to the group of children. When some child’s contribution is of such a nature that it is of significance for the group, the teacher should help the child to tell the experience to all the children. The responsibility for interesting a group because one has something worth while to say is an attitude that should be encouraged in a social situation.
3.	A social situation which calls for organization of oral expression: Invitations to kindergarten celebrations, letters to absent teachers or children, etc., are excellent opportunities for the formulation of ideas in written form.
LANGUAGE.
43
The following is a letter sent by one kindergarten to a little boy who had moved away. It was written down by the teacher as it was dictated by the children:
Dear Peter ;
How do you like the new school? How is your mother? How are Florence and Mary and Jimmie?	'
Could you come to visit our kindergarten some day? We are having a good time. Are you having a good time? What do you make in the new school? We made a plow and we painted yesterday.
Please tell Mary to write a letter for you to tell us how you are and about your new school.
With love. We hope to see you soon.
Kindergarten, P. S. No.------.
4.	Good method of using pictures: A question which leads to picture interpretation complies more with the spirit of art than one that suggests picture analysis. “ Who can tell me a story about this picture?” is a better question than “ What do you see in the picture?”
The following stories were told by some 5-year-old children as interpretations of Millet’s First Step:
The father is saying to the baby “ Come over hero.” And the mother is holding the baby. “ Come over here, come over here, and I will put you on the car.”
Once a man was in his garden picking up wheat and putting it all in his wagon. His mother and his baby came in to see how it was in the garden, and he put out his arms to lift up the baby, and he wanted to lift the baby, too. but he had too much work; he couldn’t. Then, after he was done with that, he planted some seeds. So many trees are there I All the people came from all over the country to see how nice it was. He had fences so that nobody could come in to touch his stuff. He took his wheat to the miller, who made it into flour so that we’d have something to eat.
After a few stories about a picture have been told by the children, the kindergartner can draw attention to different parts of the picture which have been misinterpreted. For instance, the above stories show that the wheelbarrow in the First xStep is an unfamiliar object. Conversation will then center on these unfamiliar objects in familiar surroundings. Sometimes it is the activity, the meaning of the picture which is misinterpreted. In such cases the kindergartner will question about the detail which gives the clue to the rightful meaning.
This method of studying a picture develops imagination and gives a unity to a picture and to the ideas about it. When questions lead to the mere naming of different parts of the picture, observation is developed, but it is not true picture study; that is, a consideration of the idea, the underlying meaning as expressed through the relations between the various parts.
44
THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
Aids to oral language.—Language work is greatly aided by drawing, handwork, dramatization. Any communication of ideas is really language, because the hand and the bodily gesture have a language of their own which really carries over into verbal language and enriches it.
Dramatization, drawing, and language bear a close relation to one another. A child of kindergarten age strives to fix and clarify an idea, first, by dramatization, then by oral language, then by drawing. The younger child dramatizes the different parts of the experience without much regard to the sequence in which the events happened. Uis subsequent oral expression is still disjointed, but is more related than his actions. His drawing illustrates isolated parts of the experience. As the child grows, his ideas become better organized; his dramatization shows an attempt to relate different incidents, his oral expression contains incidents woven into an embryo story, and his drawing represents several objects in some relation. Dramatization is composition in primitive language form; drawing is composition in picture-writing form. Both should be used by the teacher in conjunction with language to aid in the organization of thought.
ATTAINMENTS.
No absolute standard can be set, for home conditions exercise great influence upon the language development of children. Training in the kindergarten should result in increased control, power, and desire in the following directions:
1.	Control over tone of voice, enunciation, pronunciation, and grammatical construction.
2.	Power to put ideas into language, either in asking questions or in making statements.
3.	Ability to understand simple conversation and to respond to directions which have been stated once.
4.	Desire to find proper and adequate verbal expression for vague ideas and to add to the vocabulary.
The vocabulary should include the names of the most familiar objects in the school, home, and neighborhood; also such qualities and activities of these objects as it is necessary for a child to understand in order to carry on his life and play projects, or the qualities and activities concerning which he is curious.
Habits of courteous response and intercourse should be developed in all kindergartens. “Please,” “Thank you,” “Excuse me,” “Yes, Miss-------,” should come naturally at the appropriate time. Replying when spoken to and waiting until others have finished speaking should be one result of training.
LANGUAGE.
45
Education in language is not measured by the number of words which a child can pronounce, but by the clearness of his ideas about a number of selected experiences as shown through his adaptable, usable vocabulary.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Chubb, Percival. Early formative phases, and influences and habits in the kindergarten, and The Kindergarten and the Primary Grades. In his The Teaching of English. New York, the Macmillan Co. Chs. Ill and IV.
Dewey, John. Language and the Training of Thought. In his How We Think. Boston, D. C. Heath & Co. Ch. XIII.
Gesell, Arnold L., and Beatrice C. Phonics and Speech, and Language. In their The Normal Child and Primary Education. Boston, Ginn & Co. Chs. XI and XII.
Chapter VI.
LITERATURE.
Stories and rhymes are the literature, the art of language for children of kindergarten age. To appreciate good literature means to enjoy one of the highest products of civilization, a product which is the result of the high development of capacities which raise man । above the brute, that is, imagination and verbal expression. Good ¡literature embodies universal principles in a form which can be understood by all peoples in all times.
GENERAL AIMS.
To give pleasure, and in giving pleasure to develop appreciation of good literature.
Io rouse the imagination and the desire to create through verbal form or through dramatic representation.
SPECIFIC AIMS.
To develop control of verbal expression: 1. By supplying a choice vocabulary. 2. By giving a model of art form.
suggest lines of action which will appeal to the child and which he will produce dramatically, carrying his imagination over into situations which he has not actually experienced.
7o	promote high ideals: 1. Through stories of humorous situations. The lower orders of man enjoy unusual situations even if these bring discomfort to another. The ideal humor provokes laughter by harmless surprise.
2.	Through stories which interpret a child’s experience. The significant in the child s own experience can be isolated and emphasized or shown in its proper relations by means of a story.
3.	Through stories of moral purpose which give models for ways of acting. The moral should never be stated ; if it is not indicated obviously enough for the child to interpret for himself, the story is weak.
4G
LITERATURE.
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SUBJECT MATTER.
The real subject matter of a story is the attitude toward the world which is emphasized by the activity of the characters in the story; it is the emotional response evoked in the listener. Stories may »e-late very directly to the mood which is to be roused by the consideration of the topics indicated in the content of the curriculum, and yet may or may not treat of the topic itself. The Night Before Christmas will be told at Christmas time, because it is the interpretation of this experience given in literary form. The Old Woman and Her Pig- typifies the idea of sequence, and should be told when the children are engaged in activities, which exemplify the idea of interdependence.
Stories for older children may be classified as myths, hero tales, fables, fairy tales, humorous, and interpretative stories. There are only a few stories for children of kindergarten age that can be placed under the first three headings. A simple myth which may be told is that of Little Red Riding Hood. The stories that serve the same purpose as the hero tales are simple interpretative stories of good children, such as Busy Kitty, or How Cedric Saved His Kitten. In only a few of the well known fables is the meaning evident enough to make them interesting at this age; such are, The Hare and The .Tortoise, The North Wind and The Sun, and The Lion and The Mouse.
Most of the stories told in the kindergarten may be classified under the last three headings, fairy tales, humorous stories, and interpretative stories. The best fairy stories should be told often. The child realizes the irresponsibility, the unreality of the characters, and he enjoys the play of the unhampered imagination. Lie does not take the characters as models upon which to base his ideals of right and wrong. The humorous story generally gains its distinctive character by the unusual response of some person in a familiar situation or perhaps by the change of tone of the story-teller. It should never involve appreciable discomfort to any one; in the Gingerbread Man, the predicament creates humor, because it is the little man himself who calls out, “ Now I’m all gone! ” Such stories should never be adapted to convey an ethical meaning; they are intended for pure humor. In the stories that deal with situations of everyday life, there should be no subtle, ethical complication, but an evident struggle of right and wrong with the right always triumphant.
The story which is told for the evident purpose of instruction has small place in any curriculum.
Stories should occasionally be read to the children. A storyteller’s dramatic manner aids in holding the child's attention, but
48	THE kindergarten curriculum.
sometimes his attention should be centered directly upon the story itself. At such times the story should be read, as the personality of the reader is not felt as much as that of a story-teller. Stories that depend for much of their attraction on their peculiar phrasing can be chosen for reading. Those accompanied by descriptive pictures are good for this purpose, especially the Peter Rabbit stories and Little Black Sambo.
Choice of language — The language used in telling a story should be suitable to the theme of the story. The fable should be given in concise, terse language, the fairy tale in beautiful, flowing language. For children of kindergarten age there should be little descriptive detail; the action should be rapid. Repetition of rhythmical phrases is much enjoyed at this time.
The stories from world literature should never be simplified to any appreciable extent. It is better to wait until a child is able to appreciate the thought given, in a style suited to the subject, rather than to lower its value by omitting the shades of meaning which are part of its beauty and strength. There are good stories well adapted to each age; so that it is not necessary to give a weak version of what will later be enjoyed in a perfect form. Stories sometimes weakened to adapt them to kindergarten children are: Siegfried, King Arthur, Persephone, The Golden Touch.
Story form.—Stories should have a definite plot, with introduction, complication, climax, and ending. The principal characters should stand out distinctly and all the rest be merely a setting. Little children enjoy particularly the repetition of a plot showing the principal characters in contrast, as in Little One Eye, Two Eyes, and Three Eyes.
Illustrations of good form.
The Little Red Apple.
Once upon a time a little girl was walking under the trees in the orchard when she saw a round rosy apple hanging on the bough just over her head. “ Oh, please, rosy apple, come down to me,” she called, but the apple never moved. W little bird flew through the green leaves and lighted on the branch where the rosy apple hung. “ Please, little robin, sing to the apple and make it come down to me,” called the little girl. The robin sang and sang, but the apple never moved. “ I’ll ask the sun to help me,” thought the little girl. “Please, Mr. Sun, shine on the rosy apple and make it come down to me,” she called. The sun shone and shone, he kissed it first on one cheek and then on the other; but the apple never moved. Just then a boisterous wind came blustering by. “ Ob, please, Mr. Wind, shake the rosy apple and make it come down to me,” called the little girl. The wind swayed the tree this way and that, and down fell the rosy apple right in the little girl’s lap.
LITERATURE.
49
The Mouse, The Grouse, and The Little Red Hen.
Ono day the little red hen was pecking about, and she found a grain of wheat.
“ Oh ! See here, see here! ” she said ; “ I have found some wheat. Who will carry it to the mill to be ground? Then we can have a cake.”
“Who'll carry it to the mill?”
“ Not I,” said the mouse;
“Not I,” said the grouse;
“ Then I’ll carry it myself,”
Said the little red hen.
“Who'll bring home the flour?”
“ Not I,” said the mouse;
“ Not I,” said the grouse;
“ Then I'll do it myself,”
Said the little red hen.
“Who’ll make the cake?”
“Not I,” said the mouse;
“ Not I,” said the grouse;
“ Then I'll make it myself,”
Said the little red hen.
“ Who'll bake the cake?”
“Not I,” said the mouse;
“Not I,” said the grouse;
“ Then I'll do it myself,” Said the little red hen.
“Who'll eat the cake?”
“I will!” said the mouse;
“I will!” said the grouse;
“ I will eat it myself,” Said the little red hen.
METHOD.
The home training of children will determine the kind of story told at the beginning of the year. Children from cultured homes will generally listen to one of any length, but if the first story ever heard by a child is the one told by the kindergartner then the power < f listening must be developed. Mother Goose is very good at the beginning, as well as short, vivid tales that can be illustrated by ^ •sture, pictures, or blackboard drawing.
The number of stories told will depend upon the development of the children. As a general rule, some story should be given every day, ’ at the well known and well loved “best literature” stories should be repeated until the children can correct the kindergarten teacher if one word is misplaced. In this way the stories are absorbed and made a vital part of the child’s life, of his imagination, and his expression.
50	THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
The children should be encouraged to re-tell the simpler stories and to reproduce others dramatically. If the children do not readily recall a story, it is better for the kindergarten teacher to re-tell it than to drag the details from the children.
Children should be encouraged to tell original stories. These may be very crude, but power to control imaginative thought and give it verbal expression comes gradually through exercise. Interpretation of pictures helps the child to develop creative power in story-telling. The following was told by a boy of 4, about Millet’s First Step:
Once there was a papa, and a mamma, and a baby. The papa worked all day, and by and by mamma said, “Papa's coming.’’ Papa took baby up, and they went in the house and had dinner.
This simple tale follows the laws of good literary form.
Illustrations, preferably in paper cutting, may be made by the children for the stories, songs, and rhymes. If these are bound together in book form and taken home, the children will repeat the song or story to the family. Group picture books can be made in which different children illustrate different ideas and the teacher writes the title.
A story-teller’s manner has much to do with the interest of the story. One who expects to impress her hearers must believe that the story is worth telling, that she is giving the highest and best of the world’s thought, and that it can be imparted in no other way. She must believe that she can tell it so that the listeners will get the full value of the story. She must know the story well, not just memorize the words, but visualize it clearly. She must know why she tells it, must know the main point and how to emphasize it. She must feel and enjoy the story so much that she will be expressive in tone, face, and manner. Dramatic telling far surpasses elocution; the latter is affectation and gives overemphasis.
The full value of stories and story telling is lost when these faults are committed: Telling a story in a weak, rambling form; telling so ( many stories that none of them are remembered; telling so few that a ¡taste for them is not formed; telling stories that connect with the ! topic of the program instead of those that relate to the need and ( development of the child; telling too many on the plane of everyday 1 experience; telling stories that are adapted to older children.
ATTAINMENTS.
Appreciation of a good short story.
Ability to retell several stories, giving principal incidents in correct sequence.
Ability to create a simple, imaginative story.
Ability to reproduce dramatically several short stories.
LITERATURE.
51
POEMS AND RHYMES.
Mother Goose rhymes are good poetry for little children. Each one arouses the emotional reaction to some typical situation. Children who are not familiar with Mother Goose should be given many of these rhymes.
Phi•ases, rhymes, stanzas, and poems which are descriptive of situations and which reveal moods should be given to the children to interpret their experiences. The difficulty and length of these will depend upon the development and home education of the children. Longer poems should be read to the children.
Single lines and stanzas may often be selected from children's songs for memorization.
Poems selected from a Child’s Garden of Verses.—Robert Louis Stevenson.
Bed in Summer. Happy Thought. Singing.
Time to Rise. The Rain.
The Cow.
My Shadow.
The Swing.
The Wind.
Tocms selected from Pinafore Palace.—Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora Arehi-c .	bald Smith.
Do You Know How Many Stars. How They Sleep.
New Moon.	Sweetest Place.
One and One.	Pussy Willow.
Tree on the Hill.	The Brown Thrush.
Chickens in Trouble.
JI iscella n eons poem s.
Snow____________________________________________John Vance Cheney.
If All the Seas Were One Sea--------------------Nursery Rhymes.
Who Has	Seen the Wind?-----------------------Christina Rossetti.
Fancies_________________________________________Frank Dempster Sherman.
All Things Bright and Beautiful-----------------Sirs. Alexander (pseud.).
Rhames selected from Play Life in the First Eight Years—Luella A. Palmer.
The Farmer Reaps the Ripened Wheat.
rFhe Big Bright Moon in the Big Dark Sky.
Tell Me, Little Raindrops.
Fleecy Clouds Floating By.
Rhymes selected from Memory Gems for Children.—Jessie Carr Tyndall.
Dainty Milkweed Babies.
A Little Rain and a Little Sun.
52
THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
TYPICAL KINDERGARTEN STORIES.
Simple stories for the beginning of the year.
Three Little Kittens, in Mother Goose Rhymes.
Little Pig and His Five Senses, in Play Life in the First Eight Years.
Kitten Who Forgot Kitten Talk, in Kindergarten Review.
Three Bears, in How to Tell Stories to Children.
Little Red Apple, in Play Life in the First Eight Years.
Three Billy Goats Gruff, in Firelight Stories.
Busy Kitty, in Kindergarten Review.
Stories for special occasions.
The Birthday Present, in More Mother Stories.
Lanie Squirrel’s Thanksgiving, in Stories and Rhymes for a Child.
To Whom Shall We Give Thanks? in In the Child's World.
The Night Before Christmas.
Interpretative and ethical stories.
The Wake Up Story, and Go Sleep Story, in In the Child’s World.
Susie’s Dream (in manuscript form).
Five Peas in A Pod, in In the Child's World.
Pig Brother, in How to Tell Stories to Children.
Little Half Chick, in Stories to Tell to Children.
Three Pigs, in How to Tell Stories to Children.
Little Red Hen, in How to Tell Stories to Children.
Tig-a-me-tag My Long Leather Bag, in Play Life in the First Eight Years.
Ten Fairies, in Stories to Tell to Children.
Wishing Wishes, in More Mother Stories.
Search for A Good Child, in More Mother Stories.
How Cedric Saved His Kitten, in Story Land.
Humorous stories.
Gingerbread Man, in Stories to Tell to Children.
Wee Wee Woman, in A Kindergarten Story Book.
How Jack Went to Seek His Fortune, in English Fairy Tales.
Epaminondas, in Stories to Tell to Children.
Standard stories.
Old Woman and Her Pig, in How to Tell Stories to Children.
Thumbelina, in Stories and Story-telling.
Little Gray Pony, in Mother Stories.
Little Pink Rose, in Stories to Tell to Children.
The Wind’s Work, in Mother Stories.
Master of All Masters, in English Fairy Tales.
The Good Shepherd and the Lost Sheep, in Gospel according to St. Luke.
The Hare and the Tortoise, in Alsop's Fables.
T’ne North Wind and the Sun, in In the Child’s World.
The Lion and the Mouse, in Alsop's Fables.
Chicken Little, in For the Children's Hour.
Shoemaker and the Elves, in For the Children’s Hour.
Red Riding Hood, in Progressive Road to Reading, Vol. II.
LITERATURE.
53
COOKS OF REFERENCE.1
Bailey, Carolyn Sherwin. For the Children’s Hour. Firelight, Stories. For the Story-teller. Stories and Rhymes for a Child. Springfield, Mass., Milton Bradley Co.
Boston Collection of Stories. Boston, Hammett Co.
Bryant, Sara Cone. Flow to Tell Stories to Children. Stories to Tell to Children. Stories for the Littlest One. Boston, Houghton, Mifflin Co.
Hoxie, Jane L. A Kindergarten Story Book. Springfield, Mass., Milton Bradley Co.
Harrison, Elizabeth. In Story Land. Chicago, Central Publishing Co. Jacobs, Joseph. English Fairy Tales. New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Keyes, Angela M. Stories and Story-telling. New York, D. Appleton & Co. Lang, Andrew. Nursery Rhyme Book. Oak Tree Fairy Book. New York, Longmans, Green & Co.
Lansing, M. F. Rhymes and Stories. Boston, Ginn & Co.
Lindsay, Maud. Mother Stories. More Mother Stories. Springfield, Mass., Milton Bradley Co.
■------ A Story Garden. Boston, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.
Mabie, Hamilton. Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know. Garden City, N. Y., Doubleday, Page & Co.
Palmer, Luella A. Play Life in the First Eight Years. Boston, Ginn & Co. Poulsson, Emilio. In the Child’s World. Springfield, Mass., Milton Bradley Co. Richards, Laura E. The Golden Windows. Boston, Little, Brown & Co.
Scudder, Horace. Book of Folk Stories. Boston, Houghton, Mifflin Co.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. A Child's Garden of Verses. New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Tappan, Eva March. Folk Stories and Tales. Boston, Houghton, Mifflin Co.
Tyndall, Jessie Carr. Memory Gems for Children. Springfield, Mass., Milton Bradley Co.
Whittier, J. G. Child Life. Boston, Houghton, Mifflin Co.
Wiggin, Kate Douglas, ancl Smith, Nora Archibald. The Story Hour. Boston, Houghton, Mifflin Co.
-------Pinafore Palace. Garden City, N. Y., Doubleday, Page & Co. -------------- Posy Ring. New York, Grosset & Dunlap Co.
Wiltse, Sarah. Kindergarten Stories and Morning Talks. Boston, Ginn & Co.
i The literature committee of 1918, of the International Kindergarten Union, has published a selected list of stories to tell to young children.
Chapter VII.
PLAYS AND GAMES.
A child who plays thoroughly with self-active determination will surely be a thorough, self-determined man, capable of self sacrifice for the promotion of the welfare of himself and others.
Among modern educators there is now general agreement concerning the importance of play in education and in life, and much has been done since Froebel’s day by way of selection and organization of forms of play which will more fully satisfy the social instincts and impulses at different periods in the child’s life as well as develop his muscular control and increase his power of observation»
GENERAL AIMS.
To develop physical strength, control of the body, and case and grace of movement.
To give training in social cooperation.
To help interpret experience.
SPECIFIC AIMS.
To develop keenness of observation of a special kind through plays which involve the exercise of one sense at a time in the identification of form, sound, or color.
To develop and coordinate the muscles of the body, especially the large torso muscles and the muscles of arms and legs, which are growing so rapidly at th is period.
To encourage self expression through rhythmic activities and to help combine these activities in artistic form.
To aid in the interpretation and. organization of experience through dramatic expression.
SUBJECT MATTER AND METHOD.
All games, rightly played, involve physical control, intellectual concentration, and the joy of social cooperation, but in varying degrees.
5-1
PLAYS AND GAMES.
55
Plays and games which have special value for children between 4 and 6 years of age may be classed as follows:
Plays which call for the exercise of sense discrimination.
Plays and games for muscular activity and control.
Rhythmic activities and singing games.
Dramatic play.
Sense plays.-—During the prekindergarten period—•
the child is largely concerned with the mastery of the fundamental physical coordinations and the control of the primary sense perception process * * *. Objects have a twofold interest to the little child; they are of interest to him as centers of physical reaction and as the sources of new sensations * * *. They are manipulated largely for the enjoyment of the tactual, visual, auditory, and muscular sensations which they yield.
During the kindergarten period the child gains further sense training through the manipulation of a variety of materials used in the manual activities and through the musical experiences which the program includes. But in addition to this, he may enjoy and profit by the opportunity consciously to test his ability to identify colors, sounds, textures, forms, etc., which the sense plays offer. A variety of these plays are to be found in the books listed at the end of the chapter. Examples of sense plays are:
1.	Touching: The blindfolded child tries to identify familiar objects by handling them. The game is made more difficult by having the objects to be identified in a bag of some soft material.
2.	Hearing: The child tries to identify invisible objects by their sound, or to locate them. A similar play calls upon one child to recognize another through the sound of his voice.
3.	Seeing: Three or more objects are placed in a row while a child is blindfolded. One object is removed or the order is changed. The child who has been blindfolded names the missing object or restores the original arrangement.
Plays and games for muscular control.—1. Use of play apparatus : The formative development of the body should include remedial exercises when needed and wisely directed out-of-door activities. Not only racing games of tag, follow-my-leader, hopscotch, etc., are useful, but also forms of play which are found in the present-day open-air playgrounds, including the simpler forms of sliding boards, swings, seesaws, stair steps, short ladders, climbing pole or rope, trapeze of the right height, and other play material. These activities bring into play the trunk of the body, with its large chest and abdominal muscles, and at the same time exercise the arms and logs. They increase the child’s physical vitality and courage, and his moral determination to overcome his bodily limitations.
These forms of play apparatus may be used in the gymnasium during the winter season. It is even desirable, when space permits,
56
THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
to have some equipment of this kind in the classroom itself, available for use at any time. One very simple and interesting exercise for bodily balance is learning to walk or run on a board which has been placed on the floor of the kindergarten room. In time, this board may be elevated an inch or two above the floor. This demands of the child more careful balancing of the body. A short stepladder in the room will also soon be mastered, and joy is unbounded when the child finds that he can sit on the top step and survey the world from this new viewpoint. Young children may need a railing to the steps, which they may hold while learning to climb. Another apparatus which may be used indoors is Dr. Montessori’s invention of a fence with a 3-inch board on the top, on which a child may rest his arms and thus relieve his legs of the weight of his torso while his legs travel along the lower bars of the fence.
2.	. Ball games: Children of kindergarten age naturally use rubber balls for rolling, bounding, and tossing plays. Previous to the introduction of any games, however, the children should have ample opportunity to play freely with large 6-inch rubber balls, in order that they may discover some of the ball’s possibilities as a plaything and gain some control in handling the ball.
The ball games introduced at the beginning of the year should be simple and easily acquired. These should be followed by games which call for more skill and control. For instance, the children are seated on the floor in the form of a ring. One child rolls the ball across the ring. The child to whom it comes repeats the act, and so on. Such a play is made more difficult by having each child roll the ball to one particular child across the ring. In a third and still more difficult form of the play, a target is set up in the middle of the ring and the game is to hit the target with the ball. As the children gain skill, the target may be made smaller.
Similarly, the bouncing plays may begin with simply bouncing and catching the ball, and then be followed by a game in which one child stands in the middle of the ring and bounces the ball to the other children in turn. A number of children may be given balls to bounce for a definite number of times or during the singing of a song, after which the balls are passed to other children. Similar plays, in which the ball or bean bag is tossed, may be used to advantage later in the year. Tossing the ball or bag into an open-mouthed basket, or through a hoop to which a bell is attached, develops skill. These are merely examples of many ball games which develop alertness and skill.
Rhythmic and singing games.—Rhythmic movement play may begin with some simple, already acquired activities, such as running, walking, skipping, or hopping about the room quickly or slowly..
PLAYS AND GAMES.
57
Music of different rhythms should soon be introduced and the children allowed to reproduce the rhythm in bodily motion, each in his own way. At the beginning of the year the music should follow rather than set the pace for the child's activity. As he increases in skill he will have power to respond to different rhythms and different tempos as the music may suggest. The activities may be alternated; for example, walking a few measures, skipping, then walking again; walking, turning, walking the other way; skipping forward, then sideways, and then joining hands and skipping in a ring, etc. Many suggestions as to variations of this sort will be offered by the children. Through experimentation, the children gain control of the different simple steps and forms of movement which are characteristic of the singing games and folk dances. Very simple little dances may be developed by teacher and children by combining these movements. It is but a step from rhythms of this kind to such game forms as Come Choose a Little Partner, Dance a Little Partner, Sally Go Round the Stars, Our Shoes are Made of Leather, etc., in which the movements are suggested through the words of the game, but which allow for variation. Even the simplest rhythmic expression is valuable in developing case and grace of movement and in furnishing the material out of which the more artistic game form develops easily and naturally. Some of the folk dances which originated in the simple, unsophisticated life of the European peasants may be introduced with modifications in order that they may have content which the children can understand. But the complicated folk dances that require much directing arc for the older children who enjoy skill as much as selfexpression.
Dramatic pUty.—^ period from 4 to 8 years of age is, as a rule, “ the golden era of the child’s spontaneous imagination.”
Imitation is transferred from the physiological and sensori-motor type to the dramatic form. Ideas which appeal are carried out in action. The activities of the environment arc suggestive, they stimulate images and these images are reproduced in dramatic form.
In an earlier chapter reference is made to the informal, dramatic play in which children spontaneously indulge in connection with their toys and other familiar projects. Housekeeping and other social activities are suggested by the subject matter of the curriculum, or by any new or unexpected experience. Play of this sort represents the child’s effort to interpret activities in which his interest has been awakened. The teacher leads the child through sympathetic response to make his action truer to life, to add incidents which will enrich the meaning of his play, and to organize it into a more complete series of related acts. This may be done by giving him more direct experience with the activities he is trying to interpret, or by ques
58
THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
tions leading him to see in imagination, and carry out in play, other related activities. In Playing Store, for instance, the children are at first absorbed in the mere buying and selling. If the play tends to remain on this level, the teacher may ask such questions as the following: “What does the mother do with the things she buys for dinner ? ” “ How can she get these things if she can not go for them ?” “ What time does the grocery store close? ” etc. Some topics for dramatic play which are suggested by the subject matter of the program are: The care of the baby; the daily work in the home; a visit to the toy shop and play with imaginary toys; playing in the snow and making a snow man; the postman; the blacksmith; the fireman; train; school; gardening; and other simple activities by which the average child is surrounded.
All these games call for a give-and-take between teacher and child. Through the teacher’s comradeship and her sympathetic interest in his ideas, the child gains clearer comprehension of the significance of the play. As the children’s imagination develops, they will probably suggest the playing out of stories. Children who come from homes where their background has been enriched by the culture of their surroundings may suggest this type of dramatic play early in their kindergarten experience and will show initiative in choosing children to impersonate the characters in the story and in carrying out the plot. Thus the value of the imaginative experience supplied by the story is enhanced, but it must always be kept in mind that plays of this kind should be the result of an emotional interest which demands expression.
Plays suggested by such stories as Five Little Squirrels, Three Billy Goats Gruff, and Three Bears are examples of dramatic play suitable for the kindergarten. The relation of story dramatization, drawing, and language is discussed in the chapter on language, and therefore needs no further comment here.
Many of the rhythmic movement plays previously mentioned have dramatic elements; for example, Walking on tiptoe like fairies, walking heavily like giants; skating; marching like soldiers; running, galloping, trotting like horses; bending the body sideways with arms outstretched to represent the seesaw; whirling like a top; skipping with an imaginary rope; swinging the arm like the pendulum of a clock, etc. These forms of play are chiefly valuable when they come as spontaneous expressions of the children’s interest in the object or activity represented. Some of them may be given form through accompanying songs. Neidlingor’s Seesaw and Miss Crawford s This is the Way My Dolly Walks are examples. From other dramatic plays may be developed rhythmic games, such as I Went to Visit a Friend One Day and Who Will Buy My Toys?
FLAYS AND GAMES.
59
If the play of the kindergarten is rightly understood and wisely developed, it enables the child to express his emotional life with joy and freedom.
Some standards for the plays and games of the hind er gar ten o.re these:
The play of the child should be some self-expression of the child.
It should have a universal or at least a worth-while content so as io lead his interests toward larger experiences.
It should gradually assume a simple but genuine art form.
The worth of any game can he tested by the following questions:
Does this game arise from the children’s interests, and do the children manifest joy in it?
Can this game be gradually shaped into a form appropriate to the subject?
Does this game have a worth-while content, with possibilities of future development both in form and content?
Repetition of games other than those requiring skill and satisfactory representation wastes time and retards development unless these games are being perfected in form or varied on each repetition. When the game is continually in need of correction or suggestion from the teacher, it indicates that the form is too difficult for the children or that their interest in it has not been awakened.
ATTAINMENTS.
Attitudes, interests, tastes: Readiness to express thought in free dramatic play. Enjoyment in rhythmic activities that have art form.
Habits, shills: Correction of some physical defects. Better control of impulses. Greater bodily ease and dexterity.
Knowledge, information: Recognition of the laws that control games of competition and skill. A more intelligent interest in activities related to nature and society.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Blow, Susan E. The meaning of play. In her Symbolic Education. New York, D. Appleton & Co. Ch. V.
Dearborn, George Van Ness. Work and play. In his The Influence of Joy. Boston, Little, Brown & Co. Ch. VI.
Froebel, Friedrich. Man in the earliest period of childhood. In his Education of Man. New York, D. Appleton & Co. Ch. II.
Fulmer, Grace. Fundamental principles in the kindergarten. In her The Use of the Kindergarten Gifts. Boston, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Ch. I.
Henderson, Charles Hanford. What is it to be Educated? Boston, Houghton, Mifflin Co.
60
THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
Heiliger, Alice M. II. The Kingdom of the Child. New York, E. r.' Dutton A Co.
Hughes, James L. Play as an educational factor. In his Froebel’s Educational Laws. New York, D. Appleton & Co. Ch. V.
Johnson, George E. Education by Plays and Games? Boston, Ginn & Co.
Kirkpatrick, Edwin A. Development of adaptive instincts—play.	In his
Fundamentals of Child Study. New York, The Macmillan Co. Ch. IX.
Leo, Joseph. Play in Education. New York, The Macmillan Co.
Palmer, Luella A. Play Life in the First Eight Years. Boston, Ginn & Co.
Chapter Vili.
MUSIC.
Not only do young children respond to rhythm and melody in the singing of the lullaby and nursery plays, such as, Trot, Trot to Market, but children begin to sing before they are taught set forms in the nature of words and music. When a little child is absorbed in work or play, he often croons to himself. In the story of Muhammid-Din, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Kipling tells of the wonderful palaces the little Indian boy fashioned from pebbles and bits of broken glass and withered flowers. When Muhammid-Din one day found a battered polo ball that would lend itself to a structure more wonderful than all the others, “his crooning arose to a jubilant song."’
GENERAL AIMS.
To awaken a desire to sing.
To awaken a feeling for music, both vocal and instrumental.
To create social feeling through sharing a musical experience.
Io make subject matter more vivid and interesting.
SPECIFIC AIMS.
3 o establish a light head quality of tone and smooth connected singing in phrases.
Io develop the child's sense of rhythm.
To lead the child to reproduce other melodies and to think and voice original melodies.
SUBJECT MATTER.
Ihe subject matter of the curriculum suggests the kind of songs to be sung.
Classification of songs.
1.	Family songs.
2.	Greeting songs.
3.	Hymns.
4.	Festival songs.
C. Weather songs.
C. Patriotic songs.
7.	Songs of industry.
8.	Seasonal songs.
61
62
THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
METHOD IN RELATION TO GENERAL AIMS.
To awaken a desire to sing.—In any group exercise all the children will be eager to take part if the right spirit has been developed by the teacher. One must be very careful in dealing with monotones not to make the children feel that they are apart from the group in their inability to approach a standard. Monotones will learn to sing only through singing.
Enthusiasm of the group in singing may have a tendency to make the children sing too loud. This is bad for their voices and should be guarded against. Individual children who overwhelm the other voices should be taught to listen to the other voices and to the piano, while singing.
A happy medium should be sought between the very poor tone accepted in some kindergartens, and the suppressed, toneless singing in other kindergartens or schoolrooms, where the children have been continually hushed even during the singing of a song.
To awaken a feeling for music, loth vocal and instrumental.-^ Listening to songs: As children may develop appreciation of literature by listening to stories, and appreciation of art by looking at good pictures, so they may develop musical appreciation by listening to the singing of songs. The victrola can never take the place of the human voice. Every kindergarten teacher should sing songs to her children as she would tell them stories. The selection of the songs is controlled by the interests of the group at the particular time of year. The care of the mother for the baby will suggest the singing of a Brahms’ lullaby or the folk song, Sleep, Baby, Sleep. Many of the elaborate and beautiful songs which we used to try to teach to the children may be sung to them. These songs may be fanciful, as many of those in the Neidlinger book. Examples of the more esthetic type of song are:
The Bird’s Nest, in Songs of the Child World, No. 1, Gaynor.
It is Spring, in Nature Songs for Children, Knowlton.
If the teacher has not the ability to sing to the children, the victrola may be used, though it is doubtful whether the children gain as much from listening to the record of the human voice as to records of instrumental music. Just as in listening to a story, the child needs to look into the face of the one who is singing.
Listening to instrumental music: We have often offended in the use of the piano in the kindergarten. We have used it so constantly in some kindergartens that we have dulled the child’s faculty for listening to piano music in any intelligent way. An example of this is the stereotyped “ quiet ” music at the beginning of every circle and during rest periods.
MUSIC.
63
Another abuse of instrumental music has been the use of great music, such as Handel’s Largo, for such an inappropriate activity as playing giants. The opposite extreme of playing ragtime for marching and other types of music-hall music is still another abuse. We should not take music out of its original setting and adapt it for various uses in the kindergarten for which it was never intended. The noble strains of such music as the Largo should never be broken up and mutilated to provide a rhythm for kindergarten activities. On the other hand, music-hall music can never be anything but vulgar, no matter how skillfully played, and such an atmosphere should never invade a kindergarten. Schubert’s Marche Militaire, Gounod’s Funeral March of a Marionette, Schumann’s Wild Rider and Soldier’s March are examples of classic music which are simple in character and so suitable for kindergarten use. The character of all the instrumental music in the kindergarten, even if the children are responding to it by activity, has a subconscious effect, and it wisely selected helps in musical appreciation.
Certain striking types of music may occasionally be associated with the ideas of the curriculum, as, Stille Nacht, played or sung at Christmas time; patriotic airs of other nations played at Washington's Birthday; and parts of Mendelssohn's Spring Song and Grieg’s To Spring, played in the springtime.
At the end of the year, the children may classify in a simple way songs and instrumental music as: Lullabies, music for dancing, church music or organ music, soldier music.
New music with these characteristics may be played to the children, and they may tell to what group each selection belongs.
To create social feeling.—The social element in group singing is one of the chief values in music. This element is the basis for the recent development of community singing all over the country. The sharing by the whole group of a common experience is the reason that the kindergarten teacher plays with the children and sings with them. Many music supervisors say that the teacher should never sing with the children. The reason that they make this prescription is that the children are made too dependent on the teacher's singing, and that her voice overwhelms their lighter voices. Moreover, if the teacher constantly sings with the children, she can not hear the separate voices and so can not test each child's ability to sing a melody correctly.
While it is true that there are some lessons when the teacher should listen to the children's voices, we should distinguish between the times when technique is being improved and when music is being used to voice a social experience, as in a greeting song or a
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THE KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM.
song that expresses patriotic feeling. The teacher is then identified with the group.
To make subject m-atter more vivid and interesting.—There are certain phases of subject matter which can best be presented through sound. Pictures make direct and tangible appeal to the child, but it is more often an intellectual rather than an emotional appeal. If one wished to awaken the emotion of reverence, the singing or playing Stille Nacht to the children would create the proper atmosphere for showing the Christmas pictures.
Certain ideas are better represented by sound than in any other way, as the clang of the blacksmith's hammer or the sound of church bells. This kind of musical characterization has a very close relationship to musical appreciation.
METHOD IN RELATION TO SPECIFIC AIMS.
To establish a light head, tone of pleasing quality.—1. To secure good tone production: By pitching songs so that the children shall not sing below F (the first space) nor above G (space above fifth line).
By not allowing children to sing with loud voices in group singing.
By encouraging much individual singing, so that the child may hear the quality of his own voice.
By listening to the teacher's voice as a model and to kindergarten children who sing with pure tone.
2.	To secure smooth connected singing of phrases: Breath control is an important element in tone production, and the habit of smooth, legato singing should be established from the first as well as pure tone. Do not teach songs which are naturally rhythmic, as Jack and Jill or Here’s a Ball for Baby, until the habit of singing legato is established. We should teach short songs and through imitation of the teacher encourage the singing of a fairly long phrase on one breath, as Our Goodmorning We will Say. The children can be led to do this intelligently by saying the phrase, as one would talk the whole sentence, smoothly, not in broken phrases.
All songs should be sung quite slowly at first. We expect the children to master words, rhythm, and melody too quickly. When this is done, during the first weeks of school, one will always hear some children drawling out the song after all the others have finished. Mother Goose rhymes and Finger Plays may well be spoken at the beginning of the year and not sung. If they are said expressively and in a flexible speaking voice, they are just as interesting as when ; sung. Instrumental music may accompany the dramatization of the Mother Goose rhymes.
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Children should not sing while playing active games. Usually the activity is so engrossing that the children forget to sing.
In games like The Farmer in the Dell and Itiskit Itasket, where the children are pacing around slowly, action would not interfere with breath control. Care should be taken, however, not to have this singing degenerate into the poor tone quality heard at children’s parties or in games played on the street.
To develop the chil