Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1892 — Home-Made Apparatus. [ARTICLE]

Home-Made Apparatus.

i A set of language tablots will provide Useful and entertaining busy-work for pupils in the lower primary grades. The aim in jhe use of these tablets is simply to teach the names of familiar objects and the correct use of these words in sentences. Tho material needed in their preparation will be a quantity of cardboard dr stiff -paper (cardboard is preferably because it lasts longer), and a number of small pictures; those furnished by newspaper advertisements will be suitable for this purpose. In selecting, the teacher should endeavor to choose pictures that represent familiar objects. She should use only those that will harmonize perfectly with the results she is aiming to obtain by tho use of this device. The next step will be to cut the cardboard or paper into small sheets. Eight by five inches is a very good size for this work. On the upper half of each sheet place a picture leaving a narrow margin at the top and equal spaces at the right and left. The remaining part of the tablet is to be devoted to writing and should be lined to correspond exactly with papers and slates. This will insure accuracy on the part of tho pupils. Tho name of the object, preceded by the indefinite article should be written on tho first lino. Following this should come sevei'al simple sentences in each of which the name should be used in connection with a familiar idiom. , The same idiom should not be used twice. The remaining space on the tablet should be used for elliptical sentences. As it is the teacher’s aim in this work to teach'the correct use of tho word that has just been introduced, a number of these sentences should be so arranged that the new word can be used in filling the blanks. When the tablet is given to tho child, the teaching tolls him that just below the picture, he will And its name. He is' directed to look at it closely, and write it on his own paper, also copy carefully the following sentences and wherever he finds an omission to supply, if possible, the name on the first line. After this work has been completed it will bo well to have the children go over their papers and underline the word whereever It is found. This will enable thp pupil to fix more definitely in his inintl the form that he has just leamed.-*-School Journal.