APPENDIX.

SUGGESTIONS FOR COURSES IN VARIOUS SUBJECTS.

[The contents of this Appendix may from time to time be modified or expanded, and other subjects may be included for the information and guidance of teachers as the Minister of Education may direct.]

GEOGRAPHY

JUNIOR DIVISION

In all schools the nature-study lessons and observation-talks in the Junior Division should include some topics bearing on geography. Where S2 has a separate teacher the following list of topics will give an indication of the kind of work that may be done at this stage; much of it may be done where the Junior Division has only one teacher.

Elementary geographical notions are to be taught as far as possible from actual observation—e.g., the nature of hills, plains, valleys, rivers; also of lakes, bays and gulfs, straits, islands, peninsulas, if examples of these are found in the neighbourhood of the school; the position of the sun at noon and at other times of the day; the position and length of the shadow cast, say, by a post in the playground at different times of the day; the rough determination of the north and south line and of the east and west points; the position of the school and class-room, and of buildings and other objects visible from the playground, with reference to the cardinal points; the direction of the wind on different days, and whether a given wind brings rain, is hot or cold; the snow upon the mountains and lower hills, whether always seen or not; the distinction between clay, sand, and other very common rocks.

First lessons might be given in the playground, or the roadside near the school, upon the action of water running down a gentle slope to form streamlets, streams, and rivers. Models of damp sand or clay should be made by the teacher in the playground, or on a large wooden tray or a blackboard placed upon the floor, to illustrate the geographical features seen within a short distance of the school, and the children should make smaller models of sand or clay or plasticine.

The children should be taught to make plans, first full-size, of wooden blocks or bricks, books, ink-pots, &c.; then plans, roughly to scale, from their own measurements of desks, tables, the class-room, the school, the playground; and the drawing of plans might be extended to such portions of the district within, say, three or four miles of the school as come within the common knowledge of the children. The direction of one or two of the nearest towns should be known, and a plan or simple map should be drawn upon the blackboard to show the relative positions of these towns with reference to the school. All plans should be drawn in the first instance with the blackboard, slate, or paper in a horizontal position. (The drawing of plans may be very conveniently co-ordinated with the lessons in “brick-building” if this is taken as part of the course in “handwork.”)

The geography indicated above is, strictly speaking, a part of nature-study, and should be treated accordingly.

SENIOR DIVISION

Physical and Mathematical Geography

First Year (S3).—The elementary geographical notions should be taught, or, if geography has been taken in S2, 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