55. Telling Interesting Things[63]
Reading edition
55. Telling Interesting Things[63]
THE RETURN OF SPRING
Have you noticed any signs that spring is coming? The bluebirds are usually among the first to tell us that winter is over. Soon after, the robins tell the same glad story. Then the song sparrow puts the good news into a beautiful song. At about this time boys and girls begin to talk of going into the woods for flowers.
But the air still seems a little too cold. The ground is still too wet. The tramps into the country are put off a while. In the meantime a pretty flower, an early dandelion perhaps, shows itself here and there along the roadside or on a green lawn. Then, suddenly, one fine warm day, a boy brings to school a handful of yellow marsh marigolds. He found them in the low meadows. Now every boy and girl starts out, and spring flowers are seen in every schoolroom and in every home.
Gradually the pleasant weather grows still warmer. One boy sees a snake. Another finds a turtle. These have been enjoying their long winter sleep deep down, a yard or more, in the ground. Now they are glad to lie in the pleasant sunshine, as if they needed to thaw out. In the ponds the frogs sing day and night. More and more flowers start up, more and more birds arrive and begin to build their nests. Boys play marbles and make willow whistles. Farmers start their early plowing. A veil of delicate green shows clearly on the forest trees. Spring has come.
Written Exercise. Make a list of all the birds you know. Make a list of all the flowers you know. Make a third list of all the flowers, birds, and animals other than birds, that you have seen this spring.
Correction Exercise. The teacher will now write three lists on the board. The first will give the names of all the birds the class knows. The second will name all the flowers the class knows, and the third all the flowers and all the birds and other animals that have been seen this spring. Compare your own lists with those on the board, and correct any mistakes in spelling that you may have made.
Group Exercise. Think of one of the birds or flowers or animals in your three lists. Tell your classmates an interesting fact about it. Tell it in two or three sentences. Thus, you might choose the bluebird from your list and say:
A pair of bluebirds is building a nest in a bird-box my father put up. They lived in the same box last year.
Your classmates will tell about some bird or flower or animal in their lists. The teacher will write some or all these groups of sentences on the board,[64] or ask some of the pupils to write their own on the board. Then the class will try to improve each of these short accounts. Thus, what was said about the bluebird might be changed to read as follows:
A bluebird family has rented the birdhouse that my father built in our back yard. They seem to like it, for they lived there last year. Perhaps they will buy it some day and decide to live there always.
Or:
Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird have started housekeeping in a little flat near my home. I saw them getting the straw mattress ready. They are old neighbors, for they lived here last summer.