CENTERS OF INTEREST FOR THE YEAR THE subject-matter for these lessons is selected from the child's experiences in nature, in the home and the neighborhood, and in the kindergarten. Bible stories and stories from many other sources are included as illustrative and interpretative material. It is the aim through this material to help the child to find God everywhere present in his world as the Great Father of all, to know Jesus as a friend of little children, to grow in a consciousness of his relationship to his environment and to develop in response such moral and religious attitudes and habits as a little child is capable of. I. II. III. AUTUMN Getting Acquainted. What Little Children Have at Home to Care For. IV. Changes That Surprise. VIII. What a Child Can Do to Help. IX. Thanksgiving Is Coming. X. What Thanksgiving Really Means. WINTER XII. God's Greatest Gift. XXIX. The Wind a Playfellow. XXX. The World of Living Things. XXXI. Every Living Thing Needs Care. XXXII. The May Festival. It is not the intention to prescribe in this series the activities of the children or to limit the initiative of the teacher, but to offer suitable materials and ideas from which selection may be made of those best adapted for use with the individual group. The number of Bible stories is necessarily small, since only a few are found in the Bible within the comprehension of the child of this age. The Literature Committee of 1920, International Kindergarten Union, in their selected list of stories to tell to children in kindergarten have named only three-The Birth of Christ, The Boy Samuel, and Moses in the Bulrushes. The simple realistic story of which many are included in these lessons is most suitable at this period. The songs given with the lessons are found in Songs for the Little Child, published by The Abingdon Press. There is a picture supplement for use with the series also issued by the same publishers. LESSON I GETTING ACQUAINTED FIRST impressions are all-important, and they are lasting. The little child must be made to feel at home in his new surroundings, and at ease with playmates and teachers before he can enter into new activities or appreciate other subject-matter. He needs time to get accustomed to the other children, to learn some of their names, to investigate the place in which he finds himself. Any one familiar with a child's response on the first day in a new situation, knows how his eyes travel from one thing to another, how he watches the other children, how absorbed he is in all that is going on. He scarcely heeds at all when his own name is called and very often he refuses to take part. Preparation: Therefore on these first days the teachers should make much of the greetings with each individual child, should notice any little treasure which the child is carrying or any new garment of which he is manifestly proud, should see to it that the children have the opportunity to go freely about the room, noting the pictures, the flowers, the bird, the chairs and tables. Everything will be of interest to the children. and every chance to explore will help them to feel acquainted. If the children can be brought together as they are looking at pictures or watching the bird or smelling the flowers, at first in smaller groups, and their names mentioned to one another, gradually informal conversation will take place, one hand will slip into another, and the new friends will want to follow each |