122. ORAL LESSON

THE OLD GARDEN

Where are the children? How do you know? Tell all the things that show it is a garden. How garden. How many different kinds of flowers do you see? Are there any trees in the picture? What is the boy doing? What is the flower he holds in his hand? What colors has this flower? Have you ever seen it growing? What other flowers do you see? What time of day do you think it is? The pillar which the girls are looking at is a sun dial. The level top has a face with numbers on it like a clock. The pointed thing at the top is called a style. The shadow of this style, falling on the numbers, shows what time of day it is. Have you ever seen a sun dial? Do we use the sun to tell the time? What ways of indicating time do you know? How old were you when you learned to tell the time?

123. WRITTEN LESSON

Give a description of the picture on the opposite page. Be sure to tell everything that you think interesting in it. Tell what the children are doing and how they are dressed.

After your composition has been corrected, perhaps you can illustrate your story with pencil or water-color sketches, and take it home to show your parents.

Planning a Letter

124. LANGUAGE LESSON

VERBS: NUMBER AND TENSE

111

As we have seen, the verb is often different in the plural from the singular. We say, he goes and they go, the boy runs

and the boys run.

Verbs also change with the time when the action was done. We say I run now; but I ran yesterday, or I ran last week. This way of indicating the time of an action we call tense; and we speak of the present tense, and the past tense. Select the present tense and the past tense:

I slept.

He thinks.

The lion roars.

The rain came.

We thought so.

The weather was fine.

In the letter in Lesson 111, select the verbs and tell which are in the present tense and which in the past tense.

125. ORAL LESSON

PLANNING A LETTER

In the talk to-day we are going to prepare for a real letter. Every one in the class is to write a real letter to a real person. The first question to decide is, to whom will you write your letter? The second question is, about what will you write your letter? Think over these two questions, and have your answers ready.

In the class each pupil will be called on to say to whom his letter is to be addressed, and then to tell in a few words what he expects to say in the letter. Does the letter treat of several topics? Each topic should be given a paragraph or paragraphs. Make outlines or plans showing the different topics and their order.

126. WRITTEN LESSON

Write the letter you talked about in Lesson 125. Be sure that you write the heading, address, salutation, and signature correctly. If you are uncertain about any of these, turn to the models in Lessons 74 and 111. How many topics are you writing about? Make each topic a paragraph.

127. LANGUAGE LESSON

The letters written in Lesson 126 are to be exchanged and criticised by the pupils. Mark mistakes with an X.

Be sure that you find all mistakes in (1) capitals, (2) punctuation, (3) plurals, (4) possessives.

The letters are to be returned to the writers. Look your letter over carefully. Can you tell what each x stands for? If you find a sentence marked that

you are sure has no mis

take, you may

write the sen

tence on the

board. Can any one find

a mistake, then? Preserve these

letters; they are not yet ready for the mail box.