1072
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 32

STANDARDS III.-VI.

The geography of Standards III.-VI. is divided into two courses—A and B—of which A may be considered part of nature-study (see clauses 53, 54) and B may be treated as indicated in clause 42.

COURSE A.

As in the case of other portions of nature-study, the teaching should have reference to the surroundings of the school, and the scheme of work should be drawn up accordingly. The following programme will indicate the kind of work that is intended to be done under this head, but any suitable programme may be accepted by the Inspector. It will often be convenient to include this work in the definite course of nature-study or elementary science that is taken up (see clause 54).

This division of the subject is to be taught continuously through the four classes S3–6.

Standard III.

The elementary geographical notions should be taught, or, if geography has been taken in Standard II., be extended as far as possible from actual observation (or, where this means cannot be used, from pictures), models, and plans being constructed by the teacher and the children. The children should also be taught to observe the length of the shadow of a post at noon at different times of the year, noon being the time on any given day at which the shadow is shortest, and at which, therefore, the sun is highest in the sky (with indoor illustration of the same principle by the shadow of any object cast by a lamp or candle held at different heights); the more exact position of the north and south line, being the direction of the shadow at noon (the north and south line when found should be marked by two wooden pegs in the playground and by two brass nails in the class-room); the directions N.E., S.W., N.W., S.E., &c.; the compass, the fact being observed that the north and south ends of the needle point to the east and west respectively of the north and south line; the phases of the moon, and the number of days from new moon to new moon, from new moon to full moon, and from full moon to full moon; if the children live near the sea, they should know, further, the time of high tide and low tide, and the interval between high tide and high tide, or low tide and low tide, or high tide and low tide; the chief forms of clouds—the “feather-cloud” (cirrus), the “heap-cloud” (cumulus), the “sheet-cloud” (stratus), the “rain-cloud” (nimbus); the most common birds, plants, and insects found near the school; the fact that water sinks very quickly through sand but not through clay.

Further lessons might be given outside on the action of water and the drainage of the earth’s surface; river channel, source, mouth, tributary, wearing-away or denudation of the surface and deposition of alluvium (the terms “denudation,” “deposition,” “alluvium,” need not necessarily be used); the formation of deltas.

More extended and more accurate plans of the neighbourhood should be drawn to scale, observations and measurements being made by the children. There should be in every school a map, on a large scale, of the town or district, and a map of the education district or of the provincial district in which the school is situated. The children should know three or four of the most important places and geographical features within that district; but it is not desirable that any name should be known merely as “a name on the map”: every name (and this is true throughout the whole course in geography) should be introduced to illustrate some principle, or in association with some interesting fact. Pictures of places or geographical features not known to the children should always be used, if available. The map of the district should be laid flat upon the ground with its north towards the true north, and the children should be led to connect the information it gives with the knowledge they have already acquired, and with the plans they have drawn. This method might then be extended to the map of New Zealand, the positions of, say, twelve places in other parts of the colony being known in relation to the education or provincial district in which the school is situated.

Standard IV.

The work of Standard III. is to be extended—e.g., the action of rain and of rivers should be more fully treated, especially as regards denudation of the earth’s surface, and the deposition of alluvium in the lower course of a river, or at the inside of a bend in its course, or at its mouth, and the formation of bars and deltas.