It may be that supervisors and teachers of primary grades have been
looking for a book dealing with the occupations in the neighborhood of
a city child. The author of this book looked for such a book years ago
and found it not. So for years materials have been accumulated for the
preparation of this reader. It is hoped that all who use it will enjoy
it and gain something of value from it. If the activities recommended in
the following pages are introduced, the work is bound to prove a joy to
teachers as well as to their pupils.
_For study and play._ Each story is followed by related rimes, riddles,
and games which may be used in different ways even by children of the
same class. For instance, one child may be able to read and memorize
a rime which another child finds difficulty in reading. The latter,
however, can read parts of the rime and find familiar words and phrases,
and when he hears the rime repeated in class the jingle of the words is
likely to stay with him and aid him in his second attempt.
These old rimes and jingles are a part of the child’s social heritage.
They have come down through the centuries. It is right that every child
should become familiar with them and enjoy their humor and rhythm. Nearly
all of them are full of action. Let children use them in dramatic play;
let them make drawings to illustrate points where they discover a mental
picture.
The riddles may be learned. The answers are given, for children of the
first grade rarely guess riddles. They love them, however, and delight in
repeating them for others to guess.
_Original poems by children._ In preparing the lessons it was not
difficult to find rimes and jingles of the old trades and tradesmen,
but nothing could be found in folklore on the newer occupations such as
those of the iceman, laundryman, grocer, garbage man, policeman, and
newsboy. It did not seem well to present these occupations without some
appropriate rime, so an appeal was made to children of primary grades to
assist the author by making rimes. Among those sent in by their teachers
six were selected, credit being given in each case to the grade and
school. Although the teachers are not named, they are not forgotten.
The children who use this book can make verses and should be encouraged
to do so. Such compositions foster the creative impulse found in every
child in the pre-school period, but too often atrophied through disuse on
account of conditions and methods not yet altogether out of date in our
educational system. Attention is called to the verses on the iceman by a
third grade in Hinsdale, Illinois, as being an example of the excellent
results which come from group work. Undoubtedly no one of the children
could have composed such verses by himself. But under the impulse of a
strong emotion and through united effort they produced verses we all may
enjoy. Children of the first grade cannot be expected to produce verses
to equal these, yet it may not be impossible for them to do so; at any
rate, we all know that the youngest children sometimes produce rare
literary gems.
_Dramatic play._ Let the children dramatize these lessons, using their
own experiences with the iceman, milkman, and other workers as well
as the materials given in the text. If at first they act the story in
pantomime, let them do so. Young children have difficulty in the use
of language and can secure more rapid action by means of gestures and
pantomime. Such play develops clear mental pictures which soon find
expression in words. It is well to give children freedom in dramatic
play. Such freedom will not be abused if responsibility is placed upon
them and if an atmosphere is secured which promotes concentration. The
first plays should be very simple ones consisting of the action in one
place. Sometimes it may be the representation of Bobby and Betty talking
with their mother; again it may be at the baker’s shop, and again on the
way home. Children quickly discover the natural divisions of a play and
become interested in playing the whole story and thus finding a way of
representing different scenes in an act. The dramatic play from day to
day requires nothing in the way of costume; but, if later it seems best
to represent a more finished play, the children will enjoy planning and
making simple caps, aprons, coats, and dresses of paper or inexpensive
material for the various characters. A procession of workers will prove
interesting, each child representing one of the characters. Each one
should be asked to do something which the worker he represents might do,
whether it be the imitation of movements, an action song, or repeating an
appropriate jingle. A delightful entertainment easily grows out of the
work from day to day.
_Games._ In addition to dramatic plays children should play games. “Drop
the Handkerchief” may be played in connection with the postman; “Button,
Button, Who Has the Button?” and “The Needle’s Eye” to supplement lessons
on the dressmaker and the tailor; “Hunt the Slipper” while the children
are studying the shoemaker; “The Muffin Man” and “Jack, Jack, the Bread’s
a-Burning” in connection with the baker. “What’s Your Trade?” may be
adapted to any one of the occupations and is played as follows:
Children divide into two groups by choosing sides or by any
other arrangement. Children of the first group choose some
occupation they are to act in pantomime, but do not tell the
second group of children, for they are to guess it. When all
are ready the two groups approach each other from opposite
sides of the room.
FIRST GROUP. Here we come. Here we come.
SECOND GROUP. Where from? Where from?
FIRST GROUP. Milwaukee. Milwaukee. (The name of any place the
children may choose may be substituted for “Milwaukee.”)
SECOND GROUP. What is your trade? What is your trade?
FIRST GROUP. Watch and see. Watch and see.
Thereupon the children of the first group imitate the movements
of the occupation selected until some one of the second group
guesses it. Then the second group chooses an occupation for the
first to guess.
The teacher may modify this by letting one child act an occupation for
the class to guess. In such a case when he appears the children may
repeat:
Here comes an old man from the wood.
What can you do, old man?
OLD MAN. Do anything.
CHILDREN. Work away.
The child who has the part of the old man or the old woman, as the case
may be, imitates the movements of some occupation and the others guess it.
_Songs._ Occupation songs are dear to young children and should be used
in connection with these lessons. Examine the books accessible and make a
list of the songs of the shoemaker, baker, tailor, dressmaker, and other
workers. At odd moments many songs can thus be found. If it seems best,
enlist the coöperation of children and their parents in collecting such
songs.
Among the many books containing appropriate songs to be used in this
connection are the following:
Elliott, J. W. _Mother Goose Melodies._
Gaynor, Mrs. _Songs of the Child World._
” ” _Songs and Scissors._
Gomme, Alice B. _Children’s Singing Games._ 2 vols.
Hill, Mildred and Patty. _Song Stories for the Kindergarten._
Hofer, Mari Ruef. _Children’s Singing Games; Old and New._ 3 vols.
Neidlinger, W. H. _Small Songs for Small Singers._
Poulsson, Emilie. _Holiday Songs and Everyday Songs and Games._
Smith, Eleanor. _Songs for Little Children._
” ” _The Eleanor Smith Music Course._ Book Two.
Tomlins, William. _The Child’s Garden of Song._
Wiggin, Kate Douglas. _Kindergarten Chimes._
If Book Two of the _Eleanor Smith Music Course_ is at hand, teach the
children “The Fruit Vender” and “Street Sounds” when studying the banana
man, “Perrie, Merrie, Dixi” when reading “Father Tells a Story,” “Shoe
and Slipper” when studying the shoemaker, and “The Concert” in connection
with the organ-grinder. The children’s song books listed above contain
many excellent songs of the occupations.
_Construction._ Let the children use building blocks to represent the
baker’s shop with its show case and shelves where he sells his bread
and cake and pies. His kitchen, too, is of great interest to children;
if suitable arrangements can be made, take the class to visit a baker’s
kitchen. After such a visit the baker’s kitchen and oven should be
constructed; the children will doubtless find ways of making bread tins
and long wooden shovels or paddles for taking bread from the oven.
The project will not completely satisfy unless the baker himself
appears on the scene. Whether the toy baker shall be fashioned from a
clothes-pin, a piece of cornstalk, corn husks, twigs, cloth, or wood may
be left to the children, who doubtless will be pleased to include in the
dress the characteristic white coat or apron and a white cap.
The shoemaker, and in fact all the characters included in this book,
may be treated in a similar way. If something more permanent than
block-building is desired, let the children bring small dry-goods boxes
or boxes of cardboard or corrugated paper and fit them up for shops
and stores. The furniture for such toy shops can be made of blocks of
suitable size glued together, or by use of small cardboard boxes and
empty spools. Children are able to find ways and means of making such
furniture, but they should not be deprived of the opportunity of seeing
good forms made by others. At this period in the child’s life finished
workmanship is not the aim. The product is of minor importance in
comparison with the activity itself and its place in developing clear
mental images.
Let the children mark out a familiar business street in their sand
box and indicate the location of the shops and stores, which may be
represented by small boxes. Of course, it will not do to have the stores
vacant and the streets deserted. Tiny dolls may be made to represent the
people, and tiny pushcarts, wheelbarrows, milk wagons, and automobiles
for the street and alley. Larger pushcarts and wagons may be made as
separate projects from time to time, but in the one under consideration
everything must be on a small scale.
The milliner’s shop suggests the making of hats. Whether these be simple
hats for a toy milliner’s shop, dolls’ hats of flowers of the season or
other available material, or hats for Simple Simon, Colly-Molly-Puff, the
Rabbit Woman, or any other character of the book, may be determined by
the conditions when the study is made. The making of hats, caps, aprons,
and other characteristic garments of the workers to be used in dramatic
play provides another form of interesting and profitable work.
_Drawing._ Each lesson presents suitable subjects for children’s
drawings. Use these day by day and encourage children to look for
pictures in the lines they read and to put them on paper. One of the many
interesting projects in connection with the study, and one which may be
preserved in a somewhat permanent form, may be termed a group drawing of
a street showing the shops, stores, sidewalk, and street, together with
the people and vehicles. Such a group drawing may be made in sections and
later placed on the wall so as to form one large continuous picture. If
preferred, paper-cutting may be used instead of drawing, and the objects
pasted on large sheets. Such illustrations have been made by primary
classes with excellent results.
_Ethical ideas._ Children readily understand the importance of honesty
in weights and measures as well as in making change. They also know that
their mothers prefer to buy groceries of a grocer whose store is clean
and orderly and whose stock is of excellent quality. They can easily
understand that the groceryman must understand his business, know how and
what to buy as well as how to keep his stock in good order and sell it in
a businesslike way. They will be interested in learning what each of the
workers does for the community and what we as members of the community do
for each in return for his service. They will learn to respect and honor
the efficient and faithful worker and, it may be, even at this early age,
get a glimpse of why it is that some do not succeed. Ethical ideas should
not be forced upon the children, but can be brought out in their dramatic
play and other activities. In such ways teach the children the value of
cleanliness, order, intelligence, honesty, promptness, and fidelity, not
only to the worker, but to the community as a whole.