UC-NRLF 
 
 D72 
 
 -PLAYS 
 
 
 ASH FORD 
 
SENSE-PLAYS AND 
 NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
SENSE-PLAYS AND 
 NUMBER- PLAYS 
 
 FOR THE SCHOOL AND NURSERY 
 BY F. ASHFORD B.Sc. 
 
 BOSTON NEW YORK AND CHICAGO 
 
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 
 STfje Effoeratoe ^teaa, 
 
PRINTED AT 
 
 THE BALLANTYNE PRESS 
 LONDON ENGLAND 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAQB 
 
 FOREWORD 7 
 
 CHILDREN OF THE PLAYS 11 
 
 WE MAKE NECKLACES 13 
 
 TOUCH-PLAYS 17 
 
 A TASTING-GAME 29 
 
 SCENTS 34 
 
 SOUND-PLAYS 40 
 
 THE SNAKE-GAME 50 
 
 SOUND ANALYSIS OF WORDS 61 
 
 COLOUR-MATCHING 64 
 
 A TALK ON COLOUR AND OTHER THINGS 58 
 TWO CHILDREN TALK IN A FREE-DRAWING 
 
 LESSON 63 
 
 A PAPER-CUTTING "MAGIC" 66 
 
 NUMBER-PLAYS 69 
 
 WEIGHING AND MEASURING 92 
 
 ANOTHER WEIGHING 94 
 
 333819 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 A SYSTEM of educational apparatus simple or com- 
 plicated, but always conventional and formal, is 
 being advocated by the followers of Madame 
 Montessori as the best means of providing for the 
 proper sense-training of children. It was invented 
 in order to enable the teacher of a very large class 
 to have at hand employment which the individual 
 child could find for himself without much suggestion 
 or interference from without. It has advantages 
 presupposing a very large class and a large amount 
 of imitativeness and docility on the part of the 
 children, but to us in England it seems like a 
 revival of the old ' Gifts ' and ' Occupations ' of 
 Froebel. 
 
 The twentieth- century educator, like him of the 
 nineteenth century, has sought to crystallize her 
 ideas in a scheme with a particular apparatus 
 based upon the scheme. 
 
 Crystallization means constraint within boun- 
 daries and a state of rest, and such conditions are 
 inimical to life the fixation of the apparatus 
 marks the departure of the spirit which brought 
 it into being. New teachers may take and handle 
 the skeleton, but it will no longer have life or soul. 
 We can still read with profit Froebel's chapter 
 on the Boyhood of Man, but of his sphere, cylinder, 
 
 7 
 
8 SENSE-PLAYS < NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 and cube we see only the tedious formality. We may 
 gather much of wisdom, patience, and benevolence 
 from the pages of Anthropological Pedagogy, but 
 let us be chary of insets unless we cut them our- 
 selves out of paper or dough, of fitted cylinders 
 unless in the form of a little chalk-box and its 
 lid, or of sanded letters unless we want to cut them 
 out in sand-paper for ourselves. 
 
 The greater part of the apparatus in an educa- 
 tional storeroom is devised in order to interest 
 children in subjects for which they are not as yet 
 prepared. We have a fancy that they shall appreciate 
 geometrical abstractions, and we provide correct 
 cubes and spheres, and rectangular prisms empty of 
 all interest save that of form, before they are capable 
 of making an abstraction. 
 
 We have a conviction that they must be made 
 to read and write before they show the least desire 
 for these accomplishments or are able to visualize 
 sufficiently well to copy a letter from a blackboard. 
 Until a child can enunciate clearly he has no busi- 
 ness with reading ; until he can draw with a 
 bold and easy line he must not concern himself with 
 writing. 
 
 Destructive criticism is of little value. In these 
 pages I have gathered up and described a few 
 sense-plays and number-plays, most of which can 
 be taken with quite large classes of children ; in 
 which the materials used are common household 
 things or children's natural treasures x all easily 
 available from the kitchen cupboard, the wood, 
 the sea-shore, or the hedge, and not painstakingly 
 1 See Coventry Patinore's Toys. 
 
FOREWORD 9 
 
 devised with mistaken ingenuity by some adult 
 mind. 
 
 Children's play-work at its best is expressive, 
 or constructive and purposeful. But to express, 
 one must accumulate experience by instinctive 
 action and imitation. There is now no need to point 
 out that the child's earliest experiences are tactile 
 and muscular, the other senses being more or less 
 specialized from these simple and diffuse origins. 
 Next come taste and smell with localized and 
 somewhat specialized sense-organs, and lastly come 
 hearing and sight with highly complex sense-organs, 
 dependent upon so much earlier experience, and in 
 later years superseding to a large extent all the 
 simpler sensations. 
 
 The child's first experiences and first pleasures 
 are the warmth of its mother's body, the taste of 
 its mother's milk, and the touch of her smooth 
 skin. Our babies must begin by holding and 
 handling, stroking and feeling, tasting and smelling, 
 accumulating thus a store of experience which will 
 assist them to interpret objects of sound and sight 
 with speed and Tightness. 
 
 By means of these little plays sensations in their 
 likeness and unlikeness may be accumulated and 
 compared, the simpler first and the more complex 
 later on. There is no special virtue in them ; a 
 wise mother, nurse, or teacher will think of many 
 more. I should like to point out, however, the 
 simple, homely way in which they are ' played,' 
 for that is the secret of their success. The children's 
 talks are based on real conversations, the characters 
 are those of real children, and the details of the 
 
10 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 descriptions are given with a purpose. It should 
 be possible to compare the docile imitative attitude 
 of the younger ones, who spend so much time 
 repeating what is suggested to them, with the 
 more positive inventive spirit of the older ones. 
 The age of the children is not precisely given. 
 Every teacher should know better than any expert 
 what her own particular children are capable of 
 doing and (to some extent) thinking. 
 
 In these plays talking, nay shouting, and running 
 about are freely permitted unless there is a serious 
 obstacle ; the noise and movement do not hinder, 
 they help very much ; more especially do they help 
 the younger children. 
 
 The teacher is sometimes an observer and a seldom 
 interfering providence ; sometimes she is an elder 
 sister playing the game too. This role is her 
 favourite with the younger children. Her presence 
 is a quiet stimulus. Her smile, her appreciation, 
 give an additional zest to the games. She does not 
 wait upon the children, they do every possible 
 action in getting out materials and arranging the 
 schoolroom individually each one for himself, or 
 helping each other. The children are consequently 
 self-reliant, handy, and are developing a sense of 
 order. They always tidy the room and dust 
 their chairs and tables with their own hand-made 
 little dusters. The schoolroom is their room, 
 and they rise to the sense of ownership. 
 
CHILDREN OF THE PLAYS 
 
 YOUNGER CLASS 
 Ages from Four to Six or Seven Years 
 
 DICKY. Excitable, imaginative, dramatic, re- 
 sourceful. Has a vivid mental life and free expres- 
 sion of it. Small and slender. 
 
 NELLY. His sister, and a year younger. Of 
 similar build ; also quick, excitable, and imagina- 
 tive. More docile than her brother. 
 
 JENNY. Plump and rosy. Vigorous, dramatic, 
 fond of directing the others. 
 
 GEORGIE. Plump and pale. Externally placid, 
 generally reserved, observant, and when excited 
 reveals much unexpected thought. 
 
 SAMUEL. Well-grown and normal. Has an all- 
 round intelligence. Even-tempered, frank, active. 
 
 JOYCE. Rather overfed and pale. Her nature 
 seems to be curiously warped. In moments of 
 self-forgetfulness she may be generous and amiable, 
 but is usually grudging and disagreeable. She is 
 observant and reserved. 
 
 JULIE. Feminine, intelligent, irritable. 
 
 PET. Curled darling. Rather over the normal 
 in size, but has little stamina and little mental 
 power. 
 
 CHORUS OF OTHER CHILDREN 
 11 
 
12 SENSE-PLAYS & NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 OLDER CLASS 
 
 Ages from Six to Nine Years 
 
 MARY. Quiet, rather backward, " good," too 
 much restrained at home. 
 
 MEG. Lively, dramatic, hasty, and inaccurate, 
 but energetic. A leading spirit. 
 
 PATTY. Vain, without good looks, self-conscious, 
 affectionate, inclined to fall out with the others, 
 sometimes disagreeable to them. 
 
 JACK. Straightforward, unselfish, peculiarly irri- 
 tated by Patty, who is related to him. Undisciplined 
 at home. 
 
 ERIC. Slow and solid. The pleasures of appetite 
 appear to be his greatest diversion. 
 
 HENRY. Accurate, dogmatic, critical. Seems at 
 present to have no emotional life. 
 
 CHRISTOPHER. Interested, slow to develop, but 
 very promising. Left-handed. Has a knack of 
 learning through doing things the wrong way first. 
 His mistakes are wonderfully ingenious. 
 
 JIMMY. A somewhat ill-nourished and uncared- 
 for child. Affectionate, more influenced by en- 
 couragement than blame. Desirous of notice. 
 Somewhat crafty. 
 
 CHORUS OF OTHER CHILDREN 
 
WE MAKE NECKLACES 
 
 I HAVE a box of large round glass beads ; it is a 
 tin box. I keep it closed. 
 
 " Guess what's in this box ! " 
 
 " Sweets." 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Biscuits." 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Needles and cotton." 
 
 " No." 
 
 " What then ? " 
 
 " Listen ! " I give the box a shake. 
 
 " I know, I know. . . . Glass beads ! " 
 
 " That's quite right." 
 
 " Are they for us ? " " How lovely ! " " Can I 
 make a string for the doll ? " 
 
 '' What will you want besides beads ? " 
 
 "Cotton." 
 
 " I'm afraid that'll break." 
 
 "String." " And needles." 
 
 " I don't think you'll want needles." 
 
 " Shan't we ? " 
 
 " Here's a ball of thin string. You can come 
 out and cut off a piece presently when you've 
 thought how much you'll want." There is a quiet 
 interval. 
 
 " I've thought." 
 
 13 
 
14 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 " Come along then. You know where the scissors 
 are kept." 
 
 " Now can I have the beads. I'm the very 
 first." 
 
 " Take as many as you can hold in your two 
 hands." 
 
 The quick, excitable little Dicky puts his string 
 in his mouth and makes two prodigious grabs. 
 Then he retires quietly, his attention entirely 
 engrossed with holding his precious possessions. 
 He runs straight out to me again. 
 
 " Oh, dear ; they're rolling all about the table. 
 Could I have a few bricks to make a fence round 
 them ? " 
 
 " Yes." He runs to the cupboard. 
 
 " Oh ! There are those tin plates. I thought 
 I could put them in one of those." 
 
 " Give the rest out to the other children," I 
 suggest. 
 
 " Would you mind looking after my beads then ? " 
 he inquires ingratiatingly. ' 'Twould be a pity if 
 any got lost." 
 
 The children gradually settle down to stringing 
 the beads. 
 
 ' * Wet the end in your mouth . Look ! And make 
 it into a point, like this ! " cries Samuel. 
 
 " Oh dear ! As fast as I put them on they run 
 off the other end ! " sighs Nelly. 
 
 " You must make a big knot," says Julie. " Like 
 this. . . . You turn it round and make an ' O,' 
 then you push the end through the * O '. . . . 
 You try." 
 
 Julie enjoys the sense of superiority. 
 
WE MAKE NECKLACES 15 
 
 " Like this ? " 
 
 " Yes, then like this ! " 
 
 " 'Tisn't any good." 
 
 " Choose a bead with a little hole." 
 
 " I can't get the string through." 
 
 " I will ! . . . No, I can't. It's too wet and 
 squashy." 
 
 " Will you ? " she asks me. 
 
 I cut off the unpleasant end and thread the bead. 
 
 Nelly dances back to her place with it. 
 
 They take a good deal of time. Very few require 
 any assistance from me ; they show each other, 
 but I prevent any lazy people from letting others 
 actually do their work. 
 
 Gradually they finish, and tie the final knots with 
 great care and solemnity. 
 
 " I've tied three knots one top t'other at each 
 end," cries Dicky. " They're beautifully strong." 
 
 " Now count your beads, and see who was able 
 to grab the most." 
 
 They all count aloud, pulling the beads along 
 the string. After one or two false starts they 
 announce the results. 
 
 Joyce's hands were the largest, but she hadn't 
 the most beads. 
 
 " I wonder why that was." 
 
 " She's got slippery fingers ; they all ran out." 
 
 " She didn't squeeze them tight enough." 
 
 " She left holes for them to run through." 
 
 The handy and acquisitive Samuel had con- 
 trived to retain the largest number. He hung 
 his beads round his neck and swaggered up and 
 down. 
 
16 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 " He's the richest man. He's got the longest 
 gold chain," I remark. 
 
 So he chants as he walks : 
 
 " I'm the richest man. I've got the longest gold 
 chain." 
 
 Pet has lost half of hers, and we have a hunt on 
 the floor, pretending we are the ants in the story 
 who found the pearls in the wood. We pick all 
 up and run and drop them in a tin plate. 
 
 " One, two, three . . . twenty-four." 
 
 " Fancy, some people dropped twenty -four beads," 
 cries Georgie. 
 
TOUCH-PLAYS 
 
 WE have, naturally, a school rag-bag. I collected 
 most of the odds and ends from my own needlework 
 and from my dressmaker. 
 
 I begin an afternoon by saying, " Nelly, get me 
 the rag-bag, if you please." 
 
 Nelly trots across the floor, tumbles the bulgy, 
 scarlet thing out of the cupboard, and holding it up 
 by the throat with both hands, drags it into the 
 middle of the floor. She unties its strings, and with 
 a big pull opens its gaping mouth. 
 
 The others begin to crowd up to her, but I motion 
 them back to their seats. 
 
 " Find me some bits of velvet, Nelly." 
 
 She does so. 
 
 " Now choose some others to help you." 
 
 " Dicky ! Jenny ! Samuel ! " 
 
 " That'll do. Let them help you to show the 
 pieces to all the children who don't remember." 
 
 I pick out some satin, calico, and flannel from the 
 bag also, and my assistants make them known to the 
 children, who are not sure of the names. An animated 
 hum of conversation is kept up all the time. 
 
 " We've finished," they presently announce. 
 
 "Well, then, come here to me," I say, "and 
 bring your rags too." 
 
 17 B 
 
18 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 " Now you'll each want your treasure-bag empty" 
 I say with the air of imparting a State secret. 
 
 " I shall put my things on the top of the cup- 
 board," says Dicky, spreading a duster on a chair. 
 
 " I shall have a tin plate to keep mine from 
 rolling," says Samuel. 
 
 "So shall I." 
 
 The bags are quickly emptied. 
 
 " Now all you others will have to divide into 
 five. See, I'll count you. All the ones run to 
 Nelly, all the twos to Jenny, all the threes to Dicky, 
 all the fours to Samuel, and all the fives to me." 
 I count them as quickly as may be, and they divide 
 into little clumps. 
 
 " Don't forget who is your captain," I warn 
 them, " for you must all run away to the wall and 
 come back to him when I clap." 
 
 The four captains hide a piece of velvet in their 
 bags ; I tie the strings so as to leave a convenient 
 opening and so as to prevent their contents from 
 being disclosed. 
 
 I clap my hands and cry, " Ready ! " 
 
 The captains stand firm against the shock of their 
 eager followers, holding the bag openings firmly 
 with both hands. 
 
 " What have we got to do ? " cries some one. 
 
 " Why, we haven't told them our secret yet," I 
 say, laughing. " It's just this. You're to put one 
 hand in our bags and in my box and guess what 
 the piece of stuff is by the feel of it. Whisper what 
 you think to your captain." 
 
 " P'raps we've got a snake in to bite you," 
 suggests Jenny wickedly, with the result that the 
 
TOUCH-PLAYS 19 
 
 more timid ones draw back until some bolder spirits 
 have ventured first. The guesses, most right, 
 but a few wrong, are communicated breathlessly 
 to us in whispers, and we nod or shake our heads 
 as the case requires. 
 
 The velvet is afterward pulled out, named, 
 exhibited, and felt again by all those who made a 
 mistake, in order that they may correct their 
 judgment. The children are then ordered off to 
 the walls and corners again ; a new material is 
 substituted in the bag and, with renewed appetite, 
 the trial is gone through again. 
 
 Then we have a little joke among ourselves and 
 repeat the velvet, with much suppressed giggling. 
 " Whatever are they doing ? " cries some one, but 
 their minds are not sufficiently subtle to suspect 
 a trick. Suggestion is too strong for most of 
 them. They have already had velvet, therefore 
 it must be something else. Only a few of these 
 young ones place sufficient reliance on their judgment 
 to say, " It feels like velvet, it must be velvet, it 
 is velvet." When they do so they have achieved 
 in small things a measure of self-reliance greater 
 than many adults ever attain in their more complex 
 opinions of later life. 
 
 II 
 
 When each of the children remembers to bring a 
 large clean pocket-handkerchief we play a game with 
 a few children blindfold. They are to recognize 
 a few others by the sense of touch alone, all the 
 rest forming an excitable and critical audience. 
 
 The whole class stands in a circle and the blind men 
 
20 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 are counted out with some old counting rime, as, 
 for example, the gipsies' rime about their crock : 
 
 Eatie oatie my black boatie 
 Three feet and a timmer hattie 
 OUT spells Out. 
 
 The man who is " out " is usually selected, 
 although rightly the rime is repeated until only 
 one man is left in. 
 
 Six blindmen are thus picked out and blindfolded. 
 Then we have to choose some others to be guessed. 
 This is done with an awed silence, for by no sound 
 must the blindman be assisted. Only my voice 
 is heard saying the counting rime. 
 
 " Can I go first ? " pipes up Georgie, the usually 
 silent. 
 
 " Oh, you stupid," cry out two or three. " They'll 
 know your voice." 
 
 " Ssh ! " says some prudent person. It is im- 
 possible to recognize a " Ssh ! " 
 
 They feel the first child and guess her by a very 
 long pigtail. They guess the second by his wild 
 curls. They guess the third by her belt with 
 pocket attached. The fourth is Samuel with 
 nothing to distinguish him. 
 
 They feel all over his clothes. 
 
 "Strap-shoes!" "Socks!" "Jersey!" 
 
 " Whoever can it be ? " 
 
 " His hair's quite short and ordinary." 
 
 " Here's a scar on his knee." 
 
 " Everybody nearly 's got that ! " 
 
 " Buttons on his shoulders ! " 
 
 " Pooh ! that's no good." 
 
 " He's a bit bulgy in front." 
 
TOUCH-PLAYS 21 
 
 " His knickers are soft." 
 
 " His face is quite, very ordinary ! " 
 
 They become too familiar. Samuel screws up his 
 eyes and blushes. The onlookers are much amused ; 
 they shriek with laughter. 
 
 " Yes, his knickers are velvety and up and down. 
 I know. . . . Corduroy ! That's Samuel." 
 
 " Right," chorus the class. 
 
 "I'm the only one to guess that time," re- 
 marks the winner, not failing to pat himself on the 
 back. . . . 
 
 So the game is played with its excitements and 
 discoveries. The class is the critic a severe one, 
 who keeps the players at their best, straining 
 after acuteness of perception, training and teaching 
 themselves and never guessing that they are being 
 trained and taught. 
 
 It is a game with many possibilities. For a 
 week or so it is the fashion to identify coats and 
 hats in the cloak-room with shut eyes ; to identify 
 the coarseness of sand-paper by a tactile impression 
 I am sawing up two-inch wood into bricks and 
 hazel-sticks into pillars for the children, and they 
 are sand-papering the ends to compare the * feel ' 
 of sand and clay, of the paper they draw on and the 
 paper they write on ; to rhapsodize over dear 
 pussy's soft coat or the rabbit's woollier clothing ; 
 to caress the doves ; to treasure up dear dicky- 
 bird's feathers or a lock of lamb's wool ; to cry out 
 against the nasty rough bricks and bumpy rough- 
 cast of the outer walls ; to polish and handle their 
 little pebbles ; to admire the polished walnut of 
 the piano, and the clear glaze of our Devon-ware 
 
22 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 vases ; to cherish woolly leaves or silky or smooth 
 ones ; to lay the cool delicacy of a pansy petal 
 against the cheek ; to argue about the relative 
 roughness of bath-towels and blankets and door- 
 mats ; to live in an ever-widening world of tactile 
 interests on which the power of accurate and keen 
 visual observation may be built up. 
 
 Ill 
 
 One day I said to the older children : " I wish we 
 had a lot of little cushions made of different materials 
 for the little ones to play with. We've a nice 
 basket we could keep them in. I want little 
 cushions of velvet and satin and silk and flannel 
 and serge- " 
 
 " And flannelette ! " 
 
 " And calico ! " 
 
 " And pretty-coloured casement-cloth ! " 
 
 " We could make some." 
 
 " How big ? " 
 
 " Four inches square." 
 
 " We can bring bits." 
 
 " Get some out of the rag-bag." 
 
 " We've got nothing to stuff them with ! " 
 
 " The little ones will pick out some woolly cloth, 
 unravel it, I mean, and make fluff for you." 
 
 " That 'ud be lovely." 
 
 " When can we begin ? " " Can't we begin 
 now ? " 
 
 " When we've remembered to bring the pieces," 
 said Henry soberly. " And some of you will 
 jiever remember." 
 
TOUCH-PLAYS 23 
 
 '* I'm going to write it on a piece of paper now, 
 so there ! " said Meg fiercely, " and put it in my 
 pocket." Flushed and hasty she writes : 
 
 " Rags for cushions." 
 
 The pieces were soon brought in spite of Henry's 
 gloomy forecast. We selected the suitable ones ; 
 they must not be too thin. One or two children 
 heated the toy irons at the fire and smoothed out 
 the creases. 
 
 The children first cut out paper squares for 
 patterns out of waste paper. Then they cut out 
 the cloth in one or two pieces. If they had a 
 large enough scrap and decided to have both sides 
 of the cushion of the same material, they cut out 
 one piece, folded it double, and stitched it firmly on 
 two sides. If they had small scraps and wished 
 to have the top and bottom different, they cut out 
 two squares and sewed them firmly on three sides. 
 These simple devices required a great deal of dis- 
 cussion, argument, and forethought. 
 
 " It's funny to be sewing them inside out." 
 
 " They must be jolly strong," remarked Christo- 
 pher, in his deep, throaty little voice he imitates 
 assiduously an elder brother " or the stuffing'll 
 come out." 
 
 The sewing was finished and the right side was 
 brought to view. 
 
 " Oh ! how beautiful they look now." 
 
 " Green and blue ; yours is very pretty." 
 
 " Why, yours is the same stuff as your 
 blouse ! " 
 
 The little ones have provided us with soft wads 
 of wool. The woodwork class has sent us some 
 
24 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 sawdust. These materials were in large, flattish 
 cardboard boxes, leaving room for spilling inside. 
 
 " Somebody put the boxes on the floor." 
 
 The first child to come did it while the others 
 resumed their seats. 
 
 " Now then ! I s'pose we can have which we 
 like ? " 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " Wool ! " " Wool ! " " Wool ! " chanted the 
 majority. 
 
 " There won't be enough wool for all those," I 
 said. 
 
 " Sawdust ! " " Sawdust ! " " Sawdust ! " chanted 
 nearly half the class. Some obliging people had 
 changed their minds. 
 
 I held up my hand for silence. 
 
 " I'm going to mi*- them," said the ingenious 
 Christopher in the lull. 
 
 " Sawdust is as good as wool. It will make a 
 hard cushion. / know. My doll's stuffed with 
 sawdust," said Patty. " Sometimes she leaks." 
 
 " We've got a hassock stuffed with sawdust," 
 said Jimmy the clumsy-handed. 
 
 " I should suggest that Jimmy uses wool," I said. 
 " The sawdust will immediately leak out of the 
 holes he has left." 
 
 " There ! " said Henry. " I'm for sawdust because 
 mine is certain not to leak." 
 
 They had to take it in turns to fill their cushions. 
 Some had not yet finished the first stage of the 
 sewing. Those who finished first came out first, and 
 perhaps contrived to make two cushions while the 
 others were doing one. 
 
TOUCH-PLAYS 25 
 
 They crowded round the boxes, and knelt upon 
 the floor. 
 
 " I'm going to put as much as ever I can in mine," 
 said Meg. 
 
 " You'll bust it," said Christopher. 
 
 " Feel mine." 
 
 " It's as hard as a tennis-ball. The little ones'll 
 hurt themselves with it, if they throw it about." 
 
 " Yours is splitting." 
 
 " Not much." 
 
 " I should throw mine in the fire if it split open 
 like that." 
 
 " I can sew it over outside." 
 
 " Well, you might, but it'll not look nice." 
 
 " Yours is thin and flabby." 
 
 " Shut up ! I haven't half finished yet." 
 
 '' Well, you were getting up." 
 
 " I wanted to stretch my knees," feigned Patty. 
 
 " I'm getting up, but I'm going to the other box," 
 said Christopher, " to get wool now." 
 
 " Sawdust in one half and wool in the other ? " 
 
 " No, mixed. I shall shake them up." 
 
 " You'll spill them," said Jacky. 
 
 " I shall hold the opening. You're spilling 
 some ! " 
 
 " I'll get the brush and sweep it up." 
 
 " Shall I help ? " 
 
 " No ! " 
 
 " Haven't you people finished yet ? " I said. 
 [< There are others wanting to come ; you must go 
 back now." 
 
 " I'm ready. Let me come." 
 
 " Let me." 
 
26 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 The first ones went back to their places greatly 
 preoccupied with holding their precious cushions 
 so that the stuffing should not spill. With great 
 difficulty they turned in the obstinate edges. 
 
 " I'm going to pin it. I say, bring me a pin- 
 cushion, Mary. If I walk about I shall spill my 
 sawdust. . . . Please." 
 
 " You nearly forgot," said Christopher. 
 
 " Thank you, Mary ; you're a dear thing ! " 
 
 :< Will you help me, please, this cushion is very 
 obstinate ? " said Patty. Every one else was very 
 occupied in the struggle with the refractory material, 
 and I went to help Patty. 
 
 For the sewing we had darning or crewel needles, 
 and a variety of coloured threads. We matched 
 our cloth and thread ; if we couldn't find a match 
 we used a lighter or darker shade of the same tint, 
 or found a good contrast. 
 
 " How beautifully Mary does sew ! " 
 
 " What lovely little stitches, Mary," cried Meg. 
 " They're all exactly the same size." 
 
 " Well, yours aren't," said Jack. " Mine are 
 better than yours." 
 
 " I know. I can't think how Mary does it." 
 
 " I know why you can't do it ; you're sticking 
 in your needle and watching her," he remarked. 
 
 " I should say you're just as bad," said Henry, 
 without looking up, and sticking in his needle with 
 great precision. 
 
 " Christopher's stitches look like a row of crooked 
 teeth," said Patty. 
 
 " Shut up ! " replied Chris. 
 
 " I don't think bright green and orange look very 
 
TOUCH-PLAYS 27 
 
 nice together," pursued Patty, encouraged by his 
 irritation, leaning over him and dropping her 
 cushion on the floor. 
 
 "You can't talk," he answered in a huffy voice. 
 " He, he ! Yours will look lovely when you've 
 finished with it." 
 
 " I think Mary and Henry are going to beat you 
 all this time," said I, and every one quickly settled 
 down to work again. How the robuster children 
 hate to be beaten ! 
 
 By and by, after Mary and Henry had stuffed 
 their second cushions all the others were finished. 
 They were then handed round, caressed, patted, 
 admired, and despised. An attempt was made to 
 play ball with one bad one ; but Jimmy, who dis- 
 closed himself as the maker, promptly put a stop to 
 that diversion. 
 
 Mary and Henry got the basket and collected 
 them all. 
 
 " Oh ! Don't throw them in," cried Meg to a 
 careless child. " If they drop on the floor and get 
 stepped on ! " 
 
 " I lay mine in carefully in that little hole where 
 there's just room," said Willy sweetly. 
 
 " And I balance mine on the very top of them all," 
 cried Christopher boldly. 
 
 " And I bury mine so that they'll have to search 
 for it," said Patty, enjoying the contrast of ideas. 
 
 Then Mary and Henry took them to the little 
 ones and came back and told us how pleased they 
 were, and how they ran out and got hold of the 
 cushions and patted them, and how they all had to 
 feel which had the wool inside. 
 
28 SENSE-PLAYS & NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 " Julie said she was going to make a little hole 
 and find out, but the others wouldn't let her spoil 
 one." 
 
 " They'll find it rather hard to make out mine, 
 I expect," chuckled Christopher. 
 
A TASTING-GAME 
 
 ON Shrove Tuesday we were going to make pancakes, 
 and children had brought eggs, milk, flour, sugar, 
 and currants and sultanas. 
 
 " How lovely and smooth the eggs are." 
 
 " Let me feel ! " " Let me ! " " Me ! " So the 
 egg went round from hand to hand. 
 
 " Here ! Hold it carefully. 'Twould be awful if 
 you dropped it." 
 
 "Oh, that would be an end of everything," said 
 Patty, who likes to exaggerate. 
 
 The egg made its tour in safety. I was glad to 
 think the shell would be removed, for it was quite 
 grubby. 
 
 " I believe I could tell the feel of sugar and flour," 
 said Mary unexpectedly. I gave her an encouraging 
 glance and she came out and judged correctly. 
 
 " I would like to taste the sugar," said Willy. 
 
 " And eat it all and then there 'd be none left 
 for the pancakes," said Jack. Willy looked rather 
 abashed. 
 
 " He didn't mean to eat it, only to taste it," I 
 said. " Perhaps you'd like to play a tasting -game 
 before we use the things, Willy ? " 
 
 " Oh yes, let's ! " they chorused. 
 
 " What about the pancakes ? " said Eric, with 
 practical gustatory views. 
 
 29 
 
30 SENSE-PLAYS & NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 " We'll do both ! There'll be time if we begin 
 at once," said Meg. 
 
 " Will there ? " inquired Eric of me. 
 ' Yes," I replied. 
 
 " Well, then ! " cried Meg in scornful accents, 
 silencing the objection. 
 
 They brought out their spare handkerchiefs 
 from their boxes. They had all made them from 
 cheap muslin at school. 
 
 In order not to delay the proceedings I quickly 
 chose six children whom I wanted to reward for 
 effort. 
 
 Meg, much to the fore, jumped up and blindfolded 
 them. 
 
 I gave Henry a piece of paper to cut into four 
 with a paper-knife he is handy and careful while 
 I got salt and soda from the kitchen. Henry 
 arranged the papers in a row on the table and put 
 out a dessertspoonful of salt, soda, sugar, and flour 
 on each of the four paper squares. 
 
 " This is more fun than just feeling," said Eric, 
 who happened to be blindfold. 
 
 " Depends on what you have to taste ! " said 
 Jack with a touch of wickedness in his voice. 
 
 " Is anything nasty ? " inquired Patty in a superior 
 tone, " Because, if so, I'm glad I'm not a blindman." 
 
 " You shut up," said Jack, jogging her with his 
 elbow. 
 
 " P'raps one is poison" she pursued determinedly, 
 in a much louder voice. 
 
 The blindmen turned pale. Isolated from the 
 world by the loss of their chief sense they were 
 filled with doubt and dread. 
 
A TASTING-GAME 31 
 
 " What a goose you are, Patty," said I, and the 
 blindmen's mouths resumed their expression of 
 cheerful anxiety. " There's nothing that can hurt 
 you the least bit, but one of the things is just a 
 little unpleasant, and one is nasty if you have too 
 much ; so you had better take just a wee pinch of 
 each." 
 
 The tasting began, but Patty had been aroused, 
 and intended to revenge herself on Jack. 
 
 " If Jack had the doing of it he would put horrible 
 things for the poor children to taste," said she. 
 
 " Shouldn't, then." 
 
 " That would be a nasty, mean thing to do," said 
 Meg. 
 
 " Shouldn't, 'then," repeated Jack, much ruffled. 
 
 " I didn't say you would ; I only said it would be 
 mean," remarked Meg judicially. 
 
 " / said he would, and I say it again," continued 
 Patty. 
 
 " I'm sure he wouldn't," I remarked, putting an 
 end to the discussion, " and anyone who wants to 
 spoil the game by quarrelling can go out of the 
 room." 
 
 There was silence till the first tasting was complete. 
 
 "Sugar!" "Salt!" "Flour!" "Flour!" 
 
 " Flour's right," chorused the children. " Fancy 
 calling it sugar." 
 
 " I couldn't taste at all," said one. 
 
 " You didn't take enough of it," I said. 
 
 " They were afraid," laughed Jack, recovering 
 himself. 
 
 " Neither could I ; so I just guessed and it wasn't 
 right." 
 
32 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 They tried the second test. 
 
 " Sugar ! " said they all at once. 
 
 The next produced a simultaneous cry of " Salt ! " 
 
 " Why, I believe it's too easy for them," said 
 some of the onlookers. 
 
 They tried the last test. One made a wry face, 
 another spluttered. 
 
 " It's nasty," said most of them. 
 
 " / rather like it," remarked Jimmy, who wished 
 to be peculiar. 
 
 " Well, what is it ? " 
 
 "Soap," said one. "Don't know," said the 
 rest. 
 
 " Why, that's too difficult for them," remarked 
 the onlookers. 
 
 " Soap isn't far out," I said. " It's soda, washing 
 soda ; and they put a kind of soda into soap." 
 
 ' Then it wouldn't poison you to eat soap ? " 
 
 " No ; it wouldn't poison you," said I. 
 
 " But it might make you very ill," remarked 
 Jack, with interest. 
 
 " Well, no one would want to eat soap," said Meg. 
 " It's much too nasty." 
 
 " I like the taste of soap. I always lick my soapy 
 fingers," persisted Jimmy, in spite of disbelief 
 pictured strongly on the faces of the others. 
 
 " Now let me be a blindman and try," they all 
 began to ask ; and we repeated the game once or 
 twice with different children before setting to work 
 in earnest on our pancakes. 
 
 The Christmas pudding afforded still more 
 exciting material for a tasting-game. We had 
 
A TASTING-GAME 33 
 
 raisins and currants and sultanas and candied peel, 
 flour and sugar, bread-crumbs and chopped suet. 
 
 We put out small quantities of these materials, 
 storing the bulk till the next day in the school 
 pantry, and played with them for three-quarters of 
 an hour. 
 
SCENTS 
 
 ONE day Jimmy waited for me at the door with a 
 big posy of summer flowers. His father is an 
 enthusiastic gardener ; it is a pity his mother does 
 not take the same interest in her children. 
 
 We went in together, and we put the flowers in a 
 big jar upon the low table. 
 
 4 ' They do smell nice, Jimmy. . . . Why, you've 
 brought sweet peas, mignonette, and some lemon- 
 plant (scented verbena), and some sweet briar ! " 
 
 " And roses and French marigolds and little 
 sunflowers." 
 
 The children, as they came in, crowded round the 
 table. 
 
 " How scrumptious," cried Meg. 
 
 " How pretty," said Willy, in quiet admiration. 
 
 " Every sort of colour," said Patty. " Every 
 possible sort of colour. Yellow and red and pink 
 and blue and purple and white." 
 
 " And green for the leaves," remarked Christopher. 
 
 " That only makes seven colours," said Henry. 
 
 " And cream-coloured makes eight," cried Patty. 
 
 " That's only very pale yellow," Henry replied. 
 
 " Well ? " she remarked aggressively. 
 
 " Well ! I don't call that a colour ! " he argued. 
 
 " Some of the sweet peas are pink and blue mixed," 
 whispered Kitty. 
 
 34 
 
SCENTS 35 
 
 " Yes," I said to her. " It's difficult to decide 
 what colour they are." 
 
 " Pale violet." 
 
 " I know mauve," said Patty. 
 
 " Mauve, what an idiotic word," said Jack. 
 
 " It's a real word ; haven't you heard it ? " I 
 remarked. 
 
 : ' What's this one called ? " said Mary quietly 
 to me. 
 
 " Ask the boy who brought them." 
 
 " Who was that ? " they ask, looking round. 
 Jimmy is discovered, modestly blushing. 
 
 " Jimmy ! " say they, slightly disappointed. He 
 has not a high reputation amongst them. 
 
 " It was very kind of him," said Jack, determined 
 to be just. 
 
 Jimmy beamed in reply. 
 
 " Well, what's the name, Jimmy ? " repeated 
 Mary gently. 
 
 " French marigold," he replied, swaying his body 
 to and fro with pleasure. 
 
 " / should like to do nothing but look at those 
 flowers all the afternoon," cried Meg. 
 
 :< Well, you can go and do it. But you'd wriggle 
 after five minutes," said Eric. 
 
 " Let's do something new with them," she con- 
 tinued, disregarding him. 
 
 "Draw them." 
 
 " Draw them . . . she calls that new ! " said 
 Jack to Patty. 
 
 " Sh ! Let me think. Oh dear, do be quiet 
 I nearly had an idea," said Meg. 
 
 They all laughed. 
 
36 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 " Couldn't we feel them and guess what they are 
 like we used to do ? " she suggested dreamily. 
 
 " Too easy," said Henry decidedly. 
 
 " We haven't used our blindfold handkerchiefs 
 for ages," said Mary. 
 
 We tried it, but Henry was quite right ; they had 
 outgrown it. 
 
 " We can all guess right, and that's very dull," 
 declared Patty. 
 
 " I think I like guessing right," said Kitty, 
 shaking her curls. 
 
 " You were wrong once and the only one," said 
 Henry critically. 
 
 " But I was right four times," she contested with 
 a little spirit. 
 
 " What's this leaf that smells so ? " 
 
 " Lemon-plant," answered Jimmy. 
 
 " I know ; we'll have a smelling -game," yelled 
 Meg. " Why didn't I think of it before ? " 
 
 " Don't take those leaves ; they're not yours," 
 said Jimmy fiercely to Jack, who was stripping the 
 lemon-plant. 
 
 " You're spoiling that branch," I said severely. 
 " Put down the leaves." 
 
 We chose blindmen. And seven boys and girls 
 went to fill seven jam-pots with water, and arranged 
 them on the table. 
 
 The handkerchiefs were adjusted, and Jimmy 
 proudly arranged a selection of flowers in the jars. 
 Two sweet peas in the first and fourth, the lemon- 
 plant in the second, the sweet briar in the third, the 
 roses in the fifth, the marigolds in the sixth, the sun- 
 flowers in the seventh. 
 
SCENTS 37 
 
 He whispered to me, " They won't guess there 
 are two lots of sweet peas. That'll puzzle them." 
 
 " Why, Jimmy, you've put . . . don't you see 
 what you've done ? " called out Meg. 
 
 " Ssh ! " said Jimmy angrily. 
 
 " Put your hands behind, so that you can't 
 possibly touch," called Henry to the blindmen. 
 
 Jimmy said " Number one," and led them to it. 
 They took their turns at sniffing. 
 
 " Rose." " Sweet pea." " Sweet pea," " Sweet 
 pea." "Sunflower." . . . 
 
 " Oh ! " " Oh ! " in chorus from the onlookers. 
 
 " Three right. Sweet pea's right," said Jimmy. 
 
 " Who's keeping the score ? " I inquire. 
 
 " I will," cried Meg, and flew to the cupboard for 
 pencil and scrap of paper. 
 
 " Number two," announced Jimmy. 
 
 The first blindman sniffed and contemplated his 
 sensations for a whole minute. 
 
 " Well ? " inquired Jimmy. 
 
 " Sweet briar." " Sweet briar." " Lemon-plant." 
 
 " I dunno. Lemon-plant." " Sweet briar." 
 
 " Lemon-plant's right." 
 
 " Only two right this time. Put it down, Meg. 
 I was one," said Jack. 
 
 " Number three," said Jimmy, hauling them up 
 to it. 
 
 " Don't pull me over," said a ruffled blindman. 
 
 They all guessed sweet briar. 
 
 " They knew it couldn't be lemon-plant," said 
 Patty. 
 
 " Number four," announced Jimmy. 
 
 " Hose." " Rose." 
 
38 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 
 " It's awfully like sweet pea," said Jack, after 
 long thought. Then he said undecidedly, " Rose." 
 
 The others all laughed. 
 
 " Rose," " Rose," said the last two, with some 
 hesitation. 
 
 " All wrong," said Jimmy. 
 
 The blindmen let their jaws drop. 
 
 " It's another sweet pea, clever," said Jimmy 
 very sweetly. 
 
 " I did say that," said Jack, but no notice was 
 taken of him. 
 
 " 'Tisn't fair," said the others. 
 
 " Why not ? " said Jimmy. " 'Tis fair, isn't it ? " 
 he inquired of me. 
 
 " Of course," I said, laughing. " They're only 
 upset because they were taken in." 
 
 The marigolds were a puzzle. 
 
 " They smell very strong." 
 
 " Nasty, / think." 
 
 " I Uke it better than any." 
 
 " You're pretending you do. You wouldn't if 
 you sniffed it as hard as I did." 
 
 " Sunflower." " Sunflower." " Marigold." " Mari- 
 gold." " Rose." 
 
 " Goodness, she calls it a rose ! " said Jimmy. 
 
 The last child is evidently defective in this sense 
 and must have more opportunities than the others, 
 for she is not afflicted with a cold. People with 
 colds must not be allowed to smell flowers for fear 
 of infecting others. 
 
 Jack gave a big sneeze. 
 
 " That old marigold smell tickles my nose," he 
 said. 
 
SCENTS 39 
 
 They all guessed the sunflower right. 
 
 " Now be unblinded," I said, and several children 
 offered to untie the knots. 
 
 " Pouf. It was hot inside that thing," said 
 Jack. 
 
 " Smell the flowers again now 'you can see them," 
 I said, "and then you'll know them better next 
 time." 
 
 " Now may I have a turn ? " " May I ? " " May 
 I ? " clamour the others, but I solve the difficulty 
 by letting each blindman choose another to take 
 his place. 
 
 One wintry day we had spices to smell cloves 
 and cinnamon, tea and coffee, and a very little 
 pepper. On another occasion we had onions and 
 apples and oranges, sliced potatoes and cabbage ; 
 on yet another methylated spirit, turpentine, 
 paraffin, linseed oil, and eau-de-Cologne. 
 
SOUND-PLAYS 
 
 THE sense of hearing apart from the musical sense 
 may be developed by several informal plays. 
 
 One day after a rather noisy lesson I said, " Now 
 then, let's be as quiet as the sleeping castle in 
 ' Briar Rose/ so that you can all hear yourselves 
 breathe, like the Prince did. . . . 
 
 " Are you ready ? One . . . two . . . three." 
 
 Some one squeaked a chair. 
 
 " Dicky, you spoilt it," grumbled Pet. 
 
 " Now you're spoiling it worse," said Nelly, 
 championing Dicky. 
 
 " What about you ? " replied Pet, and I felt 
 that the endless circle had begun. 
 
 " Sh ! Sh ! " I said, and then whispered, " You're 
 to be really most mousy quiet, as long as I hold up 
 my hand." 
 
 I waited a moment and then raised it. A restful 
 silence prevailed, while eyes brightened and ears 
 strained at attention. 
 
 Presently I lowered my hand. The noise broke 
 forth like water from a sluice-gate. 
 
 " I did." " I could." " I couldn't." " I couldn't 
 hear a thing." " I could hear the fire go crack." 
 
 " Let's try again," I said, and presently raised 
 my hand again for a minute or rather more. . . . 
 
 40 
 
SOUND-PLAYS 41 
 
 " I did then." " I did ever so loud." 
 
 " Now rest your head against the next child's 
 chest. You can take turns," I said. 
 
 " You and me," " I haven't got anyone," 
 " Come here, then," and similar cries echoed about 
 the room. 
 
 Then I signalled for the refreshing silence. 
 
 " Oh, there's such funny noises ! " 
 
 " What did you hear ? " 
 
 " I heard a rushy noise like water." 
 
 " I heard a thumpy noise." 
 
 " I heard both." 
 
 " I heard a funny old roar." 
 
 " She's got a thing inside her that goes Bump ! 
 Bump ! Bump ! " 
 
 " Anyone know what that is ? " I inquired. 
 
 " Stomick." 
 
 " I heard it one day inside Pussy, too ever so 
 fast," said some one eagerly ; " but she scratched 
 me." 
 
 :< When I was running I stood still, and it went 
 Bang-a-bang-a-bang ! And Dad said 'twas my heart 
 beating," cried Dicky, tumbling out his words in 
 haste. " I thought it was just myself." 
 
 The others began thumping on their knees with 
 their fists, saying " Bang-a-bang-a-bang ! " 
 
 I waited a little until the noise subsided. 
 
 1 Tom's got an awful rushy noise inside him. 
 It's in his throat, and it makes him cough," an- 
 nounced some one. 
 
 " He has a cold," " It's his cold," said several. 
 
 " Joyce laughed and it made a awful funny 
 
42 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 " That's her wind going in and out ; her bref 
 I mean," said Jenny. 
 
 " I don't breave when I laugh," asserted Joyce. 
 " Yes, you do." 
 
 Another time in search of quiet I held up a loud- 
 ticking watch and waited till every one could hear 
 it, and on one occasion we all contrived to hear a 
 pin drop from a good height to the tiles round the 
 fireplace. 
 
 II 
 
 Another day I sent Pet out of the room ; Pet had 
 been unduly sat upon by the others, and was in 
 danger of losing her self-respect. So I showed her 
 how to hide away the big watch where it couldn't 
 be seen. 
 
 She then called in the children, and I whispered 
 to her, " Tell them the watch is hidden away." 
 
 " The watch is hidden away." 
 
 " They're to find it by hearing the ticks, and 
 when they've found it they're to sit down on the 
 floor." 
 
 " You're to listen for the ticks, and when you've 
 found the watch you're to sit on the floor. . . . 
 Sh ! You'll never do it if you talk," she added, with 
 a gush of self-confidence. 
 
 " Must we see it ? " 
 
 " No ; you mustn't try to see it." 
 
 It was very entertaining to see them bottling up 
 their effervescent chatter, some of them with their 
 fingers on their lips, tip-toeing about the room with 
 great self-restraint. One after another silently 
 
SOUND-PLAYS 43 
 
 dropped upon the floor until only a few were 
 left. 
 
 " Shall I tell them ? " whispered Pet. 
 
 "Yes," I replied. 
 
 So she fished out the watch and handed it to the 
 first finder, Samuel, and said, " Your turn to hide 
 it next." 
 
 " You'd better show him, Pet," and I left her 
 chief tease to receive instruction from her mouth. 
 He submitted with a very good grace. 
 
 Ill 
 
 When we were having a quiet rest in the garden one 
 day late in spring, we lay and listened to the birds. 
 
 A lark was trilling in the blue. The children 
 first heard it, and afterwards peering and blinking 
 at the light they discovered the tiny speck only 
 to lose it again. 
 
 " Oh, how it does twitter and sing ! " 
 
 " So high up. Higher than the highest tower, is 
 it?" 
 
 " And its wings beating all the time." 
 
 " It went up in jumps." 
 
 " There it is again, coming down ! Oh, ever so 
 quick ! " 
 
 " Where'd it go ? " 
 
 " And it's stopped singing," said a disappointed 
 voice. 
 
 They heard a blackbird fly squawking out of a 
 bush in the garden and saw it rise over the hedge 
 to the field on the other side. They heard a starling 
 trilling and chuckling on a chimney-pot. 
 
44 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 " But we heard him once inside, and it sounded 
 much louder." 
 
 " I believe he thinks he's laughing." 
 
 They heard a swallow twittering softly as it flew 
 to and fro to its nest under the eaves. How it 
 dared build there I could not imagine ! 
 
 " The swallow just sings to itself, like I do," 
 said Nelly, in a little dreamy voice. 
 
 They heard the church clock strike a long way off 
 and counted the strikes. They heard a breeze 
 make a stir among the leaves. 
 
 * The leaves are all whispering to each other." 
 
 " Secrets, I 'spect." 
 
 " You can't tell what they say." 
 
 " Neither c'nyou ! " 
 
 They heard a couple of noisy sparrows chirping. 
 
 " We've got two bad sparrows near our bedroom 
 window, and they quarrel like anything," said 
 Jenny, sitting up suddenly. " They are rude to 
 each other." 
 
 Presently two crows flew over us with a quiet 
 " Croak-croak." 
 
 " That means bad luck to somebody here," said 
 Joyce. 
 
 " They're only grunting to each other," said 
 Dicky. 
 
 " Nem' mind ; it's bad luck," said Joyce, with 
 satisfaction. " I 'spect somebody here'll be killed 
 with a bow and arrow like the cock-sparrow." 
 
 " The robin you mean'' said Julie scornfully. 
 
 Next a thrush tuned up very prettily in an oak 
 near by, singing charming little sequences. 
 
 " How lovely ! " whispered one or two ; and then 
 
SOUND-PLAYS 45 
 
 they must all sit up and find its sunlit body among 
 the boughs. 
 
 A hen announced her egg to the world from a 
 distant fowl-run, and her ringing voice was drowned 
 by the rumble of a cart along the road. 
 
 The children all began to converse in a soft 
 dreamy fashion. 
 
 " I heard a bee fly quite close to me. He was 
 humming loud." 
 
 " I saw him ; he went to the black pansies." 
 
 " The air's all full of little winds and noises." 
 
 " There's another lark." 
 
 " Dear little dicky." 
 
 " I heard something rustle under the bushes." 
 
 " P'raps 'twas a mouse." 
 
 " Or a fairy." 
 
 The great yellow school cat emerged by degrees, 
 stretching his forelegs and yawning. He shut 
 his mouth with a snap and sat down suddenly 
 as if to say, " Movement is hardly thinkable on such 
 a warm afternoon." 
 
 " Lazy old thing." 
 
 " He must be hot in his fur coat." 
 
 " A funny sort of fairy." 
 
 " What pretty talks the swallows have." 
 
 " Who taught the birds to sing ? " 
 
 " Nobody teaches them ; they find out." 
 
 " God does, of course." 
 
 " D'you hear the sheep baaing a very long way 
 off?" 
 
 " Quite soft and pretty for a sheep's noise. All 
 the noises are half asleep this afternoon." 
 
46 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 IV 
 
 One wet day we had a Beast's Charade. Each 
 child pretended to be an animal and the others had 
 to guess which he represented. The noise was 
 generally of assistance. 
 
 Samuel walked on all fours and roared and 
 pretended to devour Nelly, who began to be quite 
 frightened. 
 
 " That's enough, Samuel," I said. 
 
 " Tiger," shouted one. 
 
 He shook his head. It was a rule that he must 
 only nod or shake his head ; he must not speak 
 man-fashion. 
 
 " Lion," shouted another. He nodded. 
 
 " Right, right," said the guesser, clasping his 
 hands with pleasure. It was Georgie. 
 
 He proceeded to rush about on all fours, to toss 
 his head, and make a noise that had some resem- 
 blance to a whinnying horse. 
 
 " Sheep." He shook his head. 
 
 " Next," I said, for we were taking turns to 
 guess. 
 
 " Oh ! / know ! " cried an impatient child. 
 
 " Horse," said Joyce, whose turn it was. 
 
 Then she began hopping round the room, and 
 cawing, and was guessed at once. 
 
 On a similar occasion we had " Beasts Truckle 
 the Trencher." Each child chose to be some animal 
 with a characteristic noise. The child who began 
 ran out and turned the trencher, and imitated the 
 dog's bark. The dog rushed out and caught it. 
 
SOUND-PLAYS 47 
 
 He in turn said " Cock-a-doodle-doo," with much 
 realism, and out rushed the cock. 
 
 He said, " Cuck-cuck-cuck-cuck-Coo ! " and out 
 ran his hen. 
 
 We had a horse, pig, cow, sheep, hen, cock, dog, 
 cat, mouse, crow, donkey, turkey, and goose. 
 
 The game could be played (in case of large 
 classes) with different groups in turn, the other 
 children being occupied with quiet handwork, 
 drawing or sewing, or building with bricks at the 
 other end of the room. 
 
 Anothei game which everybody can play at once 
 is, " Who speaks ? " 
 
 The children stand in a ring with one blindfold 
 in the middle with a stick. The blindman points 
 the stick and the child indicated speaks, disguising 
 his voice if possible, and the blindman guesses who 
 it is. If he cannot guess the child who first stood 
 next to him takes his place ; if he does guess he 
 has another try. This is the most satisfactory 
 way of arranging matters, for it makes the blindman 
 anxious to guess correctly and the speakers anxious 
 to disguise their voices. 
 
 In " Jacob and Esau " the blindman points to 
 another who slips inside the ring, and who answers 
 " Esau " every time that the blindman calls 
 " Jacob," thus giving the blindman a clue to his 
 position. When Esau is caught the blindman has 
 to guess who he is by the voice and the feel of 
 his head and dress. 
 
48 SENSE-PLAYS & NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 In the ordinary ' Blindman's Buff,' of course, 
 the child's ear is sharpened by listening for the 
 movement of the others. This game is only suitable 
 for the little ones ; with older ones it is generally 
 spoilt by one or two cunning persons who insist 
 on being caught every time. 
 
 As the drawing lesson is the rational place for the 
 chief training of the colour sense, so the singing 
 lesson offers the most important training of the 
 musical sense. Both these sides of our sensitivity 
 are served and delighted by a highly developed art, 
 and it is in acquiring the power of simple expression 
 in these arts and in learning to appreciate beauty 
 in these forms that the child's perceptions are 
 trained. 
 
 The actual learning of songs by ear from the 
 teacher's voice, beginning with simple nursery 
 songs and going on to the higher examples of folk 
 music is the right way of progress. 
 
 But in the singing lesson a few (but only a few) 
 pleasant exercises are not out of place. 
 
 We sing down the scale to the sounds " Ding- 
 dong," pretending to pull bell-ropes as we do it. 
 
 We discover there are always eight bells, and a 
 different child stands for each bell, and pulls it, 
 sounding the note when his turn comes. Then we 
 have a muffled peal singing loudly and softly by 
 turns. Or we have an echo answering the loud peal 
 from the other end of the room. We have a good 
 peal of bells in a church near by, and some of the 
 
SOUND-PLAYS 49 
 
 children learn to imitate the changes and teach them 
 to the others. 
 
 No child is without some musical sense, and the 
 younger ones who sing a great deal in their nursery 
 days soon develop a good ear. 
 
THE SNAKE-GAME 
 
 " LET'S all catch hold tails and pretend we're a 
 snake." 
 
 " What does the snake say ? " 
 
 " Sss . . ." 
 
 " Are you ready ? We'll aU hiss." 
 
 " Don't pull, but keep close together." 
 
 We begin to hiss lustily, and I, who am the snake's 
 head, finding my body rather unwieldy, contrive to 
 lead round until we have made the snaky letter * S.' 
 
 " We're making the snaky letter ! D'you see ? 
 We're making a big ' SS ' ? " 
 
 After a good many contortions the snake's head 
 gets a little out of breath. 
 
 " Shall the snake go to sleep now ? " 
 
 Still hissing, the head runs round and round, 
 always inside its own tail, until the whole snake is 
 twisted up in a spiral. Then all the joints of its long 
 body subside upon the floor and the hissing ceases. 
 
 The snake is asleep. 
 
 Sometimes in the playground the unwieldy 
 snake, always hissing, tries to catch a little rabbit, 
 who easily eludes it, although he or she has only 
 got two legs. 
 
 If the snake's head manages to catch the rabbit 
 the whole snake coils up round him to give him a 
 good squeeze. 
 
 50 
 
SOUND ANALYSIS OF WORDS 
 
 THE sound analysis of words without any attempt 
 to write them down is a very important exercise 
 for the little ones and should be frequently taken 
 before reading and writing are begun. Clear 
 enunciation is essential to an understanding of the 
 written word, especially those simple phonetic 
 words with which one would try as far as 
 possible to begin the reading and writing exer- 
 cises. 
 
 The children stand in a line. Those who miss 
 are sent dramatically to the ' very ' bottom of the 
 class. Those who enunciate clearly start near the 
 bottom of the line, and have to work themselves 
 up. 
 
 (If the teacher likes she may provide herself 
 with a dunce's cap and a newspaper stick, 
 together with a mock-severe tone of voice and 
 frown. 1 The danger is that the chastisement 
 and dunce's cap may be a much-craved distinc- 
 tion.) 
 
 "Tell me a word beginning with 'D'" (the 
 sound). 
 
 " Dog," " Dunce," " Dirty," " Dinner," " Tongs," 
 come in rapid succession. 
 
 1 " Full well the busy whisper circling round 
 
 Conveyed the dismal tidings when he frown'd." 
 51 
 
52 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 11 Tongs ! . . . Bad boy, go to the bottom. 
 Now tell me what tongs does begin with ! " 
 
 " ' T ' " (sound). 
 
 And so forth. Frequently a child is teacher and 
 takes the class. 
 
 After a few lessons the children are asked to give 
 all the sounds in simple words. The same cere- 
 monial will stimulate effort and interest. 
 
 " Give me the sounds in the word ' dog.' ' 
 
 " D, o, g." 
 
 " Give me the sounds in the word ' cat.' ' 
 
 " K, a, t " (I use the phonetic symbols). 
 
 " Give me the sounds in the word * man.' ' 
 
 " M, a, n." 
 
 And so forth, increasing the difficulty in sub- 
 sequent lessons. 
 
 A pleasant variant is : 
 
 " Give me a word to rhyme with * man.' ' 
 
 " Can." " Pan." " Fan." " Swam." 
 
 " * Swam ' doesn't rhyme with man, does it ? " 
 
 " No, of course not," say all the others. 
 
 " Go to the bottom of the class ! It's dis- 
 graceful ! " 
 
 " Ham." 
 
 " The very same kind of mistake ! We want 
 words ending in * n.' Go to the bottom of all ! " 
 
 "Tan." "Bran." "Han." 
 
 " That's no word at all. Did you mean 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Very shocking mistake. Go to the bottom." 
 &c. &c. 
 
SOUND ANALYSIS OF WORDS 53 
 
 On another day perhaps we make nonsense 
 rhymes, each child contributing a line. 
 
 I saw a man, 
 He had a can, 
 Oh ! how he ran, 
 And caught a fan, 
 Filled up with bran, 
 &c. 
 
COLOUR-MATCHING 
 
 SOME of the little children have brought red apples 
 to school for drawing, some have brought green 
 apples, and some have brought oranges. Those 
 who couldn't bring any have fetched the little 
 cushions from the play-basket or some bright 
 woolly balls that they once made. 
 
 They are drawing on cheap grey-brown paper 
 with coloured chalks, and they are only allowed the 
 three primary colours to begin with. They share 
 their coloured objects one between two or three or 
 four sitting all round their little tables. 
 
 " Here's your paper on the table," I say, putting 
 out the sheets in three piles for them to help them- 
 selves from. 
 
 They each get a piece of paper and find their 
 chalk-boxes in the drawer, where they are kept in 
 compartments (A's to F's in one compartment, &c., 
 for they are all labelled with the children's initials). 
 
 " I'm going to do my own orange first." 
 
 " Isn't it a fine colour." 
 
 " It's yellow." 
 
 " No, 'tisn't then." 
 
 " Well, what then ? " 
 
 " Orange." 
 
 " That's its name. Ha, ha ! " 
 
 " It's the colour too. Yours is too yellow." 
 54 
 
COLOUR-MATCHING 55 
 
 " Well, what can I do ? I haven't any other." 
 
 " I'm doing something." 
 
 " Well what ? " in a challenging voice. 
 
 " Look," with a touch of scorn. 
 
 " You're putting on red. It's not red," with a 
 greater touch of scorn. 
 
 " Didn't say 'twas red." 
 
 " Now I'm smovvering the red in yellow. See ? " 
 
 The other child looks on wonderingly. 
 
 " Isn't that lovely ! " 
 
 " It's streaky," she replies critically. 
 
 " Nem' mind. Sometimes they're streaky inside. 
 ... 'S better 'n yours anyway," and he turns 
 his back on her. 
 
 The child on his other hand has an apple, and is 
 energetically rubbing on red chalk in silence. 
 
 " 'Tisn't that colour," says the critic, smarting 
 under criticism. 
 
 " It's red ! " he replies in protestation. 
 
 " But not like that ! " 
 
 But no notice is taken of his remark, and he 
 turns to the next table for a more respectful 
 audience. 
 
 " What a lovely green cushion," he remarks to 
 Nelly. 
 
 " I thought it was blue," she replies. 
 
 " / don't call it blue. Let me show you how to 
 put some yellow on your drawing." 
 
 " All right," says the compliant Nelly, always 
 rather mistrustful of herself. He does so. "I 
 don't think that's very nice," she mildly protests. 
 
 " Oh well, I'll do it better 'n that in a minute.' 
 
 " But you mustn't spoil it. ... No ! Let 
 
56 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 me do it," she pleads, elbowing him out of the 
 way. 
 
 He reluctantly gives up the yellow chalk and 
 leaves her ; then going back to his own orange 
 he sees the colour wants improvement and makes it 
 a great deal more life-like. 
 
 As soon as every one at a table has finished they 
 all get up and walk round and compare and criticize 
 the work. 
 
 " That's not a bit the colour ! " 
 
 " That's lovely. ... I 'spect you'll be able to 
 keep that and put it in your cover." 
 
 (Each child has made a brown paper cover in 
 which to keep the good drawings carefully.) 
 
 " Orange is much difficulter to make than 
 red." 
 
 " What do you call Nelly's cushion ? / call it 
 green." 
 
 " / caU it blue." 
 
 " It's very pretty." 
 
 " But her picture's not nice." 
 
 " He wouldn't let me do it by myself," sighed 
 Nelly. 
 
 " Do the next one by yourself," I suggest, and 
 then they exchange apple for orange and cushion 
 for apple. 
 
 " My apple's green and pink, too. . . . How 
 can I make it pink ? " 
 
 " Pink's like this. You put on red thin," remarks 
 the officious one, seizing her chalk. 
 
 " Nao ! " she squeals, and he puts it down 
 hurriedly and runs off to his place, where he begins 
 at once to plaster on his paper a very fair similitude 
 
COLOUR-MATCHING 57 
 
 of the red apple, using a little blue to tone down 
 the red. 
 
 Only the three colours, a pure blue (ultramarine), 
 a yellow, and a scarlet, are given them, in order 
 that they may be compelled to make their own 
 secondary tints. A greyish-brown packing-paper 
 is to be preferred to ordinary brown paper, 
 which has too decided a tint of its own. A cheap 
 plain buff wall-paper does very well. 
 
 Brightly coloured balls, fruits, bright flowers, 
 not too delicate or small, balls of coloured wool, 
 Teddy bears, rattles, school-made necklaces of 
 large bright beads or seeds, cheap and brightly 
 stained wooden toys, a wooden doll with a green, 
 blue, or scarlet frock and striped ' pinny,' a nigger 
 doll in striped dress, a red-coated wooden soldier, 
 an air-balloon, a group of tiddly-winks, are subjects 
 interesting to and suitable for the crude but lively 
 colour-sense of the younger children. 
 
A TALK ON COLOUR AND 
 OTHER THINGS 
 
 " LET'S get out our treasure-bags and look at our 
 things," says Georgie in a husky important voice 
 at my ear. 
 
 ' Very well," I reply, wondering what he is 
 thinking of, but not asking any questions. " You 
 can get out yours if you like." 
 
 " May we get ours out, too ? " says Julie. 
 
 " If you wish." 
 
 Georgie's person seems to be swelled out with 
 emotion. His inflated chest, his bulging cheeks, 
 his pursed lips, his rigid shoulders indicate a high 
 degree of tension. His eyes, generally half hidden 
 in his sere wed-up lids, shine with unwonted clearness. 
 He grasps his bag firmly by the neck ; he parades 
 to his seat with it, his right hand privily seeking 
 its appropriate pocket. The fingers stray about 
 the opening and at last dive in, bringing out some- 
 thing hidden in a tight fist. 
 
 His figure now bears great resemblance to the 
 Justices' ; he is as full of self-importance. The 
 other bag -grasping hand meets its fellow in front 
 of his rounded form. The tight fingers undo them- 
 selves one by one, and he reveals a piece of red 
 jasper and a fragment of transparent yellow flint. 
 
 He handles them with both hands, and admires 
 68 
 
COLOUR AND OTHER THINGS 59 
 
 the colouring, and then becomes conscious of a 
 want, conscious of an unsympathetic world around. 
 Of what value is a possession unless it excite envy 
 or at least admiration in your neighbour's breast ? 
 
 If at this point I had said, " Throw away those 
 horrid stones, Georgie," he would have done so 
 in shame and haste to be rid of all their disappoint- 
 ment. As it is he stands irresolute, blinking his 
 eyes. (It is his bad habit.) 
 
 Then Julie looks up from a surveyal of her 
 treasures. 
 
 "Oh, Georgie ! What a lovely red stone, and a 
 gold one. Do you think it's really gold ? " 
 
 Georgie's face lights up with a sudden smile ; 
 he spreads out his hand and gloats over his beautiful 
 possessions, but says nothing. 
 
 " Oh, Georgie ! Now you've got all colour 
 stones, haven't you ? " 
 
 " Not got blue," he replies modestly, " 'cept blue 
 slate. 'S really grey." 
 
 He opens his bag with pride, and arranges all his 
 stones upon his table. 
 
 " Not going to put out seeds and things ; only 
 stones," he remarks. 
 
 " Only stones," echoes Julie, now a thrilled 
 spectator. 
 
 He places in order his red jasper, the yellow flint, 
 a little pebble of white marble, of green-veined 
 marble, of red- veined marble, a fragment of micaceous 
 stone which glitters, a dark piece of slate, a fragment 
 of bright red tile, a fragment of white quartz, a 
 round bit of bottle-glass, green and translucent. 
 " I like the little white one best ; it's so smooth 
 
60 SENSE-PLAYS & NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 and pretty, like a little egg," says Julie. " I've 
 got six white ones. I call them lucky stones. . . . 
 Or else I like the white and green," she adds 
 uncertainly. 
 
 " I like the new red one," says Georgie, at length 
 drawn out of his silence. " It's hard and it won't 
 write. . . . So's the new yellow one ; both hard as 
 hard." 
 
 " They'll have to be your special private ones," 
 says Julie. They both handle, stroke, and weigh 
 them. 
 
 " Look ! " says Georgie, popping the jasper into 
 his mouth. It comes out all wet and as it were 
 polished. 
 
 "Oh, how lovely ! " squeaks Julie, doing the 
 same with the flint. 
 
 " Ah ! Don't swallow my stone," says Georgie, 
 grabbing it when it reappears, and wiping it on his 
 knickers. 
 
 " Get a little basin of water," I suggest, " then 
 you can both dip in your stones." 
 
 Georgie and Julie both want to fetch it, both want 
 to carry it back. 
 
 " We'll have to take turns or it'll all be spilt." 
 
 " Me first then," says Georgie. 
 
 " All right," says Julie. 
 
 " I know one that'll look lovely in the water." 
 
 " Which is that ? " 
 
 " My round green one. You can see the light 
 through it ; lovely green light, if you hold it up 
 and look at the window." 
 
 " Let me." 
 
 " Here then." 
 
COLOUR AND OTHER THINGS 61 
 
 " Oh, Georgie ! It's a lovely green, bright and 
 shiny. Wait a minute, I must look again." 
 
 " Now I must." 
 
 " Where did you get your new stones ? " 
 
 " My dad found them in his pocket yes'day. 
 He was at Yorkshire, by the sea." 
 
 " Did he bring it all the way back." 
 
 " Yes. For a s'prise present." 
 
 " My dad only brings me picture post-cards." 
 
 " I got that green one myself, at the sea, at 
 Torquay ; and the white, and nearly all." 
 
 " I wonder what's making that funny waggly 
 light on the ceiling," questions Samuel in a very 
 loud voice ; he is doing some weaving. 
 
 " That's a Jack-a-Noddy," shrieks Dicky. "Some- 
 body's got a looking-glass." 
 
 But on inquiry nobody has. 
 
 " It's a fairy light ; a Jack-o' -Lantern," says 
 Jenny. 
 
 Georgie dips his hand into the bowl. 
 
 " Why, it's all broken up into little shivers," says 
 Samuel, in astonishment. 
 
 Julie bends over the bowl. 
 
 " Why, it's all gone," say several children at once. 
 
 " What's gone ? " says Julie, awaking to her 
 surroundings and looking round. 
 
 " Why, it's come again ! " cries Dicky, dancing 
 with excitement, and glancing rapidly about the 
 room. " I b'lieve I know where it comes from," 
 he says in a low excited voice. " Shall I whisper ? " 
 
 He runs out and does so. 
 
 " Yes," say I ; "so it is." 
 
 Every one else is much puzzled. 
 
62 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 " I 'spect it is the window-glass somehow," says 
 Samuel. 
 
 Georgie looks up and sees it. He looks down and 
 fishes up another stone ; he sees the ripples on the 
 water, and then glancing up at the squeaks of the 
 others he sees the dancing light upon the ceiling. 
 
 " It's the sun on my little pond," he says de- 
 lightedly, but only Julie hears him. 
 
 " It's the sun on our bowl of water," says Julie. 
 
 She takes it up and carries it out of the sunlight. 
 The Jack-a-Noddy shivers, gathers himself together, 
 and gives great walloping leaps as she moves along. 
 Then suddenly and silently he is gone. 
 
 The children greet the ridiculous movement 
 with shouts of laughter ; the disappearance is 
 followed by silence. 
 
 " He's dead," says Joyce, with evident relish. 
 He was much too gay and frivolous for Joyce. 
 
 " No," says Dicky, " I won't have him die ; 
 he's only gone out. I'll fetch him in again." So 
 in he jumps and wallops. 
 
 Then ever so many of the children have to get out 
 their tin plates and make other Jacks, and they have 
 a big battle on the walls and ceiling to the shrieks 
 of the delighted spectators. . . . The bowl is 
 forgotten. 
 
 " My Noddy-man's stopped nodding ; he's gone 
 to sleep," says Georgie. And there sure enough he 
 is, a pale stationary disc of light. 
 
 " Wake him up, wake him up ! " they cry, and 
 Julie's fingers break him into a thousand flickering 
 fragments. 
 
TWO CHILDREN TALK IN A 
 FREE-DRAWING LESSON 
 
 THEY ILLUSTRATE THE STORY OF 
 BRIAR ROSE 
 
 " I AM making the green grass and the blue sky 
 first, and a yellow sun." 
 
 " Doesn't say anything about that in the story." 
 
 " Nem' mind, you always have them." 
 
 " I'm going to draw the beautiful Prince coming 
 to Briar Rose." 
 
 " I'm going to draw the horses and dogs asleep 
 in the yard. . . . The horses are brown and white 
 and the dogs are black and white. I must get a 
 pencil." He runs to the pencil-box and gets one. 
 
 " Briar Rose is sleeping on a sofa. I shall make 
 it red a bright, bright red like a poppy." 
 
 " There's a horse leaning against the wall ; his 
 head's hanging down, but he's not eating." 
 
 " The sofa has gold legs. . . . I shall get a pencil, 
 too, to draw the curvy legs." 
 
 " The dogs are going to be curled up on the 
 ground, like our Nipper . . . but he barks in his 
 sleep. . . . 'Twould be nice to draw a bark." 
 
 " You are silly. You can't draw a bark." 
 
 " I know, but I'd like to. ... But everything's 
 quiet now, so it doesn't matter." 
 
 63 
 
64 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 "I'm going to give Briar Rose a green dress." 
 
 " I shouldn't." 
 
 " Well ! what would you give her ? " 
 
 " A gold one." 
 
 " But she's going to have a gold crown and gold 
 shoes." 
 
 " And I'm going to put a gold saddle on the 
 King's horse, and a gold collar on the King's dog." 
 
 " Don't forget the yard's all over grass." 
 
 " I'm drawing it now ; it's the colour of your 
 Briar Rose's dress." 
 
 They draw in silence for a bit. 
 
 " What are you drawing now ? " without look- 
 ing up. 
 
 " I'm drawing her face." 
 
 " Let's see. Be careful ; you must make her 
 eyes shut." 
 
 " That dog's eye is open," pointing to the paper. 
 
 " It's only a black spot on it." 
 
 " I b'lieve you really made a mistake." 
 
 " Our Nipper's got a spot on his eye. . . . He 
 has reelly. . . . Have you finished her face ? " 
 
 " Nearly." 
 
 " Oh ! What awful red cheeks. You should 
 have made 'em pink." 
 
 " They aren't awful ! " with much chagrin. 
 " I'll rub off some." She proceeds to do it with her 
 fore-finger. 
 
 " Now I'll draw the wall and the gate." 
 " Are you making the wall red ? " 
 " Yes, it's brick." 
 
 " And outside of that hundreds and hundreds 
 of trees all thick like a jungle. They're green of 
 
A FREE-DRAWING LESSON 65 
 
 course, with dark brown branches." He scrubs on 
 quantities of green chalk. 
 
 " That's rather nice." 
 
 " Yes. Now I've finished. ... I like mine 
 better 'n yours." 
 
 " Mine isn't finished. I've got to draw a window 
 and curtains. They'll have to be blue ; it's the 
 only colour I haven't used." 
 
 " But your sky '11 have to be blue ; you'll see it 
 through the window, of course. ... I should put 
 on some red and make purple curtains." 
 
 " Well, I might. . . I might make a cloudy 
 sky." 
 
 " That 'ud be horrid." 
 
 '' Well, the purple curtains 'ud look very grand." 
 
 " Now will you print * Briar Rose ' very beautifully 
 at the bottom of your pictures ? " I ask. 
 
 "Yes! Yes!" 
 
 " Don't write it on your pictures," I warn them. 
 
 I put the word on the blackboard in capitals and 
 small print characters. They run out to have a 
 look before they begin to write. 
 
 " I'm going to do every letter a different colour." 
 
 " I'm going to do mine red and yellow in stripes, 
 to match my picture." 
 
 " I'm going to do mine in pencil ; it's easier." 
 
 The conversation during the drawing lesson is 
 of the greatest assistance to the younger children, 
 who always talk about what they are doing. With 
 older ones, who often talk of other, generally trivial, 
 things, the opposite is true. 
 
A PAPER-CUTTING "MAGIC' 
 
 I BROUGHT some newspapers to school (penny ones, 
 without distracting large print or pictures), and cut 
 them up quickly into squares with a penknife, while 
 the children watched and speculated. I had also 
 some brown packing-paper fairly smooth in which 
 some school materials had been sent. I cut that 
 also into convenient pieces, a little larger than the 
 newspaper squares. 
 
 The children each fetched one or two of the 
 latter and their scissors from the scissor -box. 
 
 I said, " Watch me, and I'll show you a cutting- 
 out magic. . . . See, I am folding my square into 
 two, corner on corner." 
 
 " That makes a three-corner, like our baby's 
 shawl," said a little girl. 
 
 " And then I fold it over again so." I waited 
 until the children had got as far with their own 
 squares. 
 
 " Let me help you, Nelly," said Jenny. " You've 
 got it wrong. Look, that's the way." 
 
 " Then," I said, " you cut it straight across the 
 little folded corner. ... so. And then comes the 
 magic." I opened out my square, and lo and 
 behold there was a little square in the middle. 
 
 The children shrieked with delight. 
 
 " Now I'm going to do it," they all cried. 
 66 
 
A PAPER-CUTTING " MAGIC " 
 
 67 
 
 " Oh ! Oh ! Look, a little square in the middle ! " 
 Joyce picked up the bit she had cut out and 
 flattened it with a heavy hand upon the table. 
 
 of Folding- 
 
 Tine 
 
 MTi3. 
 
 a 
 
 o 
 
 " I've found another square," she remarked with 
 solemn pleasure. 
 
 All the others found theirs too. 
 
 " Would you like to stick them both on a piece 
 of brown paper," I inquired. 
 
 " Why, how nice ! " 
 
68 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 " Shall we come and get some ? " 
 
 " Shall I get out the paste ; here's some old bits of 
 newspaper to stand the pots on," said Jenny. 
 
 " We'll use these two tables for pasting," said 
 Dicky, helping to arrange things. " We must put 
 some newspaper on first." 
 
 They cut out the two other patterns sketched, 
 and compared the ' insets ' with the spaces they 
 had once filled. 
 
 Then inventive minds suggested other forms, and 
 we had a variety such as anyone may discover 
 who has a few squares of paper, some scissors, and 
 a little ingenuity. Some were merely curious, 
 notched, or spotty, some were quite beautiful with 
 curved outlines, the four-leaved clover and the 
 Maltese cross being two of the prettiest and simplest ; 
 these were obtained by folding the paper yet again 
 before cutting. Any that I approved and of course 
 I took into consideration the age and ability of the 
 children when approving or condemning were 
 stuck on the pieces of brown paper, and either kept 
 at school or taken home. Most of them found time 
 to colour the patterns with their chalks, adding 
 thereby to their beauty and interest. 
 
NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 I 
 
 EVEEY one of the younger children has a little 
 treasure-bag (school-made, of course) with his own 
 marbles and shells and nuts and beads in it. We 
 collect such things ; also pebbles and fir-cones and 
 sticks and conkers and walnut-shells, and we store 
 them in boxes in our little low cupboards, where 
 the little people can easily find them. 
 
 With the assistance of two children, one to put 
 up the trestles and the other to help me in laying 
 the boards on them, I arrange three trestle tables 
 in the middle of the room, but with a few feet of 
 space between them. I then clap my hands the 
 signal for attention. 
 
 " Guess what you're going to do," say I. 
 
 "Drawing." 
 
 " We should want all the tables," says some one. 
 
 " Bring me the treasure-boxes," I say. 
 
 " Are we going to count ? " " Do let us write 
 down the numbers." 
 
 " When I say * Be off ! ' you must all run away 
 to the wall and not peep." 
 
 " Oh ! Oh ! " " I wonder what for." " It's a 
 guessing -game. ' ' 
 
 69 
 
70 SENSE-PLAYS 6 NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 " Be off ! " They all scamper away like puppies. 
 
 " Now when I say ' Ready ! ' you're to run back 
 and count something." 
 
 I put out six sticks in a row on each table. Then 
 I call, "Ready!" 
 
 (A bundle of ordinary firewood will provide good 
 material, or if the numbers of children be small a 
 box of safety matches.) 
 
 They all run to look, and begin to count the 
 sticks at once. Then they rush at me. I am 
 embraced and dragged down by one and tiptoed 
 to by another until they have all informed my hot 
 and tingling ear. 
 
 "Six!" "Five!" "Nine!" "Six!" "Six!" 
 " Six ! " and so forth. 
 
 " Now let's count again slowly to make sure," I 
 say. 
 
 So they all count. " Six is right." 
 
 " I'm right ! " " I'm right ! " chant the lucky ones, 
 dancing with delight. 
 
 " Of course you're nearly all right. It was easy, 
 wasn't it ? " 
 
 " Yes, dreadfully easy ! " 
 
 " You'll have to be more careful next time, I 
 expect. Now I'm going to have Samuel and 
 Georgie to help me." 
 
 " You go to the other tables and put out what 
 I do, then let the children whisper to you as soon 
 as they know." 
 
 " Now the rest of you Be off ! " I call. 
 
 " And no peeping," squeaks Georgie. 
 
 We put out eight sticks in two squares. 
 
 " Oh ! it's easy as easy," cries Dicky, counting 
 
NUMBER-PLAYS 71 
 
 with his first finger, and framing the words with his 
 mouth. 
 
 " I can't do it," says Pet plaintively. " They'se 
 making too much noise." 
 
 " Your hand's in my way," I hear Julie squealing. 
 
 " You'll do it presently," I say encouragingly. 
 
 Joyce waddles up to me and says firmly, " Seven." 
 
 " Sh ! " I say. " Count again." 
 
 She stumps back with an unmoved countenance. 
 
 " Eight," whispers Dick, with his hands round his 
 mouth. 
 
 I nod to him and he capers round the room. 
 
 " Eight," whispers Nelly, pulling me down to her 
 level. 
 
 I nod again and she capers after Dick, squealing 
 " I'm right too." 
 
 When they have all done we count the sticks 
 slowly aloud to make sure. 
 
 " How many counted right at your table, 
 Samuel ? " 
 
 " Oh, lots." 
 
 " Who was first ? " 
 
 " I was ! " calls out somebody, " I was, I was \ " 
 
 " Yes, you was," says Samuel. 
 
 " Were," I suggest softly. 
 
 " How many of your people counted right, 
 Georgie ? " 
 
 " I dunno. . . . Two or thurree." 
 
 " I did, I did ! " eagerly protest about two-thirds 
 of his group. 
 
 " Who was first ? " 
 
 " I think him," says Georgie, aiming a stumpy, 
 wavering finger. 
 
72 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 " No, / was. Really I was." 
 
 " Georgie's a sleepy boy," I say, holding up 
 his face to me, while a sheepish smile over- 
 spreads it. 
 
 Next time, having packed off the guessers to the 
 walls again, we arrange seven sticks to make two 
 adjoining squares. Many people, in a great hurry, 
 give the number as eight. 
 
 After that I put seven sticks as two rows of five 
 and two. That is counted immediately because 
 we always formally arrange numbers in that way 
 in order to agree with the Roman notation. 
 
 Then I put out two groups of five and two more, 
 and that is fairly quickly counted. 
 
 Last of all I throw down a higgledy-piggledy 
 group of twelve, and that takes quite a long time to 
 count. 
 
 " Oh, dear ! I don't know where I began," 
 says Nelly. 
 
 " Your hand's in my way." 
 
 " You're talking too loud. One, two, three. . . . 
 No ! One, two, three ..." shouts Samuel. 
 
 " Julie won't let me count," wails Georgie. 
 " She's putting her hand in my way." 
 
 " Oh, dear ! I've got to begin all over again," 
 says Dicky. 
 
 " One, two . . . I'm going to wait a minute," 
 and he shuts his eyes and turns his back. But he 
 cannot hold himself in ; the next moment he has 
 returned to the group at the table, and is counting 
 with all his might and main. 
 
 Next morning after one or two preliminary 
 
NUMBER-PLAYS 73 
 
 trials we divide up into several groups, so that there 
 are only a few children in each. 
 
 Our little movable trestle tables are soon stacked 
 against the walls, and some arranged at intervals 
 round the room ; we can thus manage without 
 undue noise or any confusion. 
 
 I pass from one group to another (they are all 
 playing the game), watching and, when there is 
 any difficulty the children seem unable to settle 
 for themselves, making suggestions. And I find 
 it very delightful to watch the busy excited little 
 companies, the active counting fingers, the moving 
 lips, the serious faces of the children in charge, and 
 the delighted caperings of those who have counted 
 right. 
 
 After each count comes the minute of relaxation 
 at the far end of the room while a new arrangement 
 is being made. The waiting, the secrecy, and the 
 running to and fro are enjoyable in themselves. 
 
 Many other arrangements of increasing difficulty 
 can easily be devised. The grouping of the Roman 
 numerals (and of the Arabic also) will suggest 
 many formal ones, and so will the geometrical 
 figures. 
 
 Repetition of a group of sticks or stones, arrange- 
 ment in twos, threes, fours, &c., will form a basis 
 for the shortened addition known as multiplication ; 
 and for this purpose stones, shells, nut-shells, or 
 conkers will do as well as or better than sticks. 
 
 Higgledy-piggledy arrangements and arrange- 
 ments in a circle give the difficulty of remembering 
 where the counting began and must leave off. 
 
74 SENSE-PLAYS & NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 n 
 
 Sometimes we just count the things in the room. 
 The number of children, the number of hands (in 
 twos), the number of tables, the number of trestles 
 (two to a table), the number of window-panes, 
 beams in the ceiling, panels in the cupboards, 
 fingers spread out at one table (four children with 
 ten fingers each, or two thumbs and eight fingers), 
 number of yellow leaves on the six crocuses in the 
 bowl, on the eight primroses on one plant, and so 
 forth. 
 
NUMBER-PLAYS 75 
 
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76 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
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NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 77 
 
 II 
 
 and Crosses 
 
 O 
 
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78 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 Hickory Dckory Tiock 
 
 P 
 
NUMBER-PLAYS 79 
 
 HI 
 
 THE LITTLE ONES PLAY NUMBER-GAMES 
 WITH THEMSELVES 
 
 ONE fine day I said, " Let's have some counting in 
 the playground. " 
 
 " Yes, let's ! " 
 
 " Run along out then." 
 
 The first child to get to the glass door opened it, 
 and they all ran out on the grass. It was lovely 
 overhead but somewhat moist underfoot, so we 
 could not sit down. 
 
 "Now I'm going to tell you to make one long 
 line, and I shall be very cross if you're not quick." 
 
 My severity was received with much laughter. 
 
 " Now listen, little ones," I said, with great 
 emphasis. " I want the biggest child at this end 
 and littlest child at that end [pointing] and all the 
 others in between like steps. . . . Now begin ! " 
 
 Such a scramble as it is difficult to imagine, such 
 a chatter as frightened all the sparrows away 
 and caused the school cat to jump from his warm 
 window-sill and flee for his life. It was like the 
 clattering of homing rooks. 
 
 " Pm tallest ! " " I'm tallest \ " 
 
 "No, no; it's me/" 
 
 " Me ! " " Me ! " 
 
 " I 'spect I'm littlest," said Nelly, skipping up 
 and down. She was not much elated ; it was an 
 inferior distinction. "I'll run right to the other 
 
80 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 end." She stood there squeezing and clapping 
 her hands, bright-eyed, watching the struggle of 
 the others. 
 
 The middle ones squeezed themselves into a 
 bunch and fought out of it again, and argued and 
 struggled to convince one another of their superiority 
 in height. 
 
 " Move down, move down ! " cried Dicky, holding 
 his head bravely up in the very middle of the press. 
 " Move down, Nelly." 
 
 " Move, move up, Julie ! We shall never have 
 room," cried Samuel, near the top. 
 
 Joyce stood outside and watched the contest. 
 When the line straightened itself she planted herself 
 in front of Samuel. 
 
 ' You can't stand there, Joyce," he protested. 
 
 " Make room then ; I b'long here," she replied 
 stolidly. 
 
 So Samuel edged away and squeezed a place for 
 the obstinate little damsel. 
 
 " Oh ! You're hitting me," snarled Pet. 
 
 " No, I never," some one answered. 
 
 " I think you're a very rude boy," she said 
 more quietly. 
 
 Georgie in the thickest of the scrum threw his 
 head back and stood firm with tightened lips. As 
 the crush lessened he sighed, "Ah, that was fine ! " 
 
 The line was fairly straight at last, after nearly 
 ten minutes serious labour and competition. 
 
 " Now we're ready." 
 
 " Not quite. He's wrong ! " 
 
 " He's too far up." 
 
 " Sam's wrong." 
 
NUMBER-PLAYS 81 
 
 I wanted to see what Joyce would do. So I 
 said, " Joyce, you shall be judge." 
 
 " Both begin with ' J,' " said some one irrele- 
 vantly. 
 
 Joyce walked solemnly down the tiptoeing and 
 swaying line. She pulled out Samuel by the arm. 
 The boy reluctantly came. She silently towed him 
 three or four places down and stuck him in a more 
 suitable position. 
 
 " Make room," she said shortly, and Samuel 
 shook himself a little as she let him go. 
 
 "Thank you, Joyce," I said. "Now Nelly 
 shall be judge she is the smallest." 
 
 Nelly skipped out, her eyes shining. 
 
 " I think those two are wrong," she said. 
 
 " Tell them to come out," I whispered, " and 
 stand back to back." 
 
 " You're to come out and stand back to back," 
 she commanded. 
 
 They did so. 
 
 " Oh yes, they were wrong," said everybody. 
 
 She made several corrections in the same way, 
 and the gradations were by that time fairly regular, 
 but the straight line was trying to turn itself into a 
 broken circle. 
 
 " Tell them to make their line straight," I 
 whispered. 
 
 ' You're to make your line straight," she pro- 
 claimed, and they did so. 
 
 " Now run back to your place," I said. 
 
 " What a beautiful line ! You'd better march 
 past. I'll be the King and look at all my fine soldiers 
 to see if they know how to march. Dicky shall be 
 
82 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 
 my officer, and count them all for me. All the 
 soldiers must remember to salute me or I shall put 
 them in prison." 
 
 The long file strutted round the garden. I saw 
 by the look in Joyce's eye that she was going to be 
 put in prison. She turned her head away and did 
 not salute. Two soldiers marched her off to a 
 corner of the garden, where she remained covered 
 with glory, and Dicky said : 
 
 " Now, you've got not so many soldiers by 
 
 IV 
 
 The next morning was wet, so we divided into 
 groups in the schoolroom, and marked the heights 
 of all the children with their initials on the prepared 
 wall surface. For this occasion I borrowed sticks 
 cut by another class. They were round hazel- 
 sticks a foot in length and divided by grooves 
 round them into quarters of a foot. 
 
 I put Samuel and Dicky in charge of two other 
 groups, each armed with a light drawing-board, 
 which they held horizontally on the head of the 
 measured child so that its edge touched the wall 
 and gave the height by its under surface. 
 
 The height marked by a piece of chalk the 
 child himself measured from the floor upward 
 with a foot stick under the criticism of the onlookers. 
 The heights we're thus obtained to the nearest 
 quarter foot ; nearer would have been nonsensical 
 because of the inaccuracy of the measurers. 
 
 The children stood in their bare feet, for it was 
 
NUMBER-PLAYS 83 
 
 early summer and sandals were the rule sandals 
 and brown bare legs. Every one had to contrive 
 to fasten and unfasten his own buckles. 
 
 Another fine day we had the line-play again in 
 the garden, and it did not take so long the second 
 time. 
 
 After that the children arranged themselves in 
 double files, then three abreast and four abreast, 
 marching round afterwards in great style in each 
 formation. 
 

 84 SENSE-PLAYS & NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 VI 
 
 DOMINOES 
 
 I buy some penny boxes of dominoes, and we 
 arrange our little tables all about the room and play 
 in groups of three. 
 
 Dicky, Julie, and Joyce are at one table. Dicky 
 runs to fetch the box and deals round the dominoes. 
 
 " Put them upside down," says Julie. 
 
 " I am," says Dicky. " Only sometimes they 
 topple wrong way up." 
 
 " One for you, one for you, one for you ! . . . 
 
 " Two for you, two for you, two for you ! . . . 
 
 " Three for you ..." He chants as he deals. 
 
 " Now then, ready ! " he cries, and shuffles back 
 into his little chair, spreading his hands over his 
 own pile. 
 
 " Who begins ? " 
 
 " I'll begin," says Julie. 
 
 " Werry well," says the good-tempered Dicky. 
 
 Julie lays down her first domino a blank and a 
 six. 
 
 It is Joyce's turn. 
 
 " Put down a six or a white to join on, Joyce," 
 cries Dicky excitedly. 
 
 Joyce stolidly turns over her things. 
 
 " There's one ; there's one. I thought I saw one ! " 
 says Dick. 
 
 " Must there be two sixes or two whites ? " says 
 Joyce, with aggravating calm. 
 
NUMBER-PLAYS 85 
 
 " No ; but you can if you like," cries Dick. 
 
 Joyce planks down a double-six. Julie begins 
 to match it against the other six, but Joyce slaps 
 her hand and insists on doing it deliberately 
 herself. 
 
 " Have you got a white one too ? " says Dicky, a 
 little sadly. He wishes Joyce would be a little 
 jollier. 
 
 Joyce nods and deliberately puts it out a white 
 and a five, while Julie is dancing with impatience. 
 
 " Oh, dear ! I'm sure you'll win and I shall be 
 last," cries Dicky. 
 
 Julie begins to play again, but Dicky reaches out 
 both hands to restrain her. " Oh, Julie, it's my 
 turn," he pleads, and Julie collects her scattered 
 dominoes to cover her mistake. She is always 
 conscious of an imaginary audience. 
 
 " Oh, oh ! I can match one," cries Dicky. " I've 
 only got one to match. No, no ; I've got another." 
 He puts them down with eager fingers, jumps up, 
 clasps the back of his chair, and does a little caper 
 before he sits down again. 
 
 Julie is ready and matches one domino against 
 Dicky's. Then it is Joyce's turn. 
 
 " I wish you were not so slow, Joyce," said Julie 
 severely. 
 
 Joyce is aggravatingly silent and proceeds to 
 take longer than ever. I come up. 
 
 " Are you tired, Joyce ? " I inquire jovially. 
 " Would you like to lie down ? " 
 
 She shakes her head and hurriedly plays her 
 turn, the other two watching with relief. She is 
 really enjoying the game, but seems to fancy that 
 
86 SENSE-PLAYS & NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 her role is to appear preoccupied and indifferent 
 to what excites enthusiasm in the others. 
 
 " I can match two, I can match two ! " cries 
 Dicky. " P'raps I'm going to win." 
 
 " I can only match one," says Julie. 
 
 Presently a shout announces the end of the game, 
 and the other children turn their heads to see. 
 
 " I've won, I've won, I've won ! " says Julie, 
 running up to me. 
 
 " How lucky. Put it down on your score." 
 
 She runs back to her place. 
 
 We play the game for half an hour or so, and then 
 add up the totals. Several children stand at the 
 head of the scores as winners, and we give them all 
 a clap. 
 
 VII 
 
 Simple numerical games with ordinary playing- 
 cards or the penny packets of Tom Thumb playing- 
 cards can be played by the older children when a 
 recreative change is needed, as, for example, on a 
 Friday morning. They are an aid to the visualiza- 
 tion of number groups. Such a one as " Sevens " 
 is quite suitable, where one child leads off with a 
 seven. The numbers six and eight of the same 
 kind must follow, and a child may play either or 
 both when his turn comes, and if he had them, 
 five and nine of the same kind as well ; or he may 
 always play another seven to start another suite. 
 The winner is the child who first gets rid of all 
 his cards. 
 
NUMBER-PLAYS 87 
 
 VIII 
 
 I will describe a few other number-games, some of 
 ancient origin, which are always played with great 
 zest. They can all be played by groups of children 
 sitting round separate desks or tables, or better still 
 in groups on the floor. The little ones will soon 
 learn to rely on themselves to keep the rules. 
 
 Nine Meris Morris is an ancient Greek game 
 played with the square arrangement shown in the 
 illustration, and twenty-four black and twenty- 
 four white stones. The square may be drawn on 
 a large sheet of paper or on cardboard. An older 
 class should get them ready for the little ones as 
 an exercise in geometrical construction. The outside 
 square should be about one foot across. 
 
 The game is played by two children (two others 
 can watch and take turns). The stones are placed 
 on the points where the lines cross, and the object 
 is to complete a line of three of one's own colour. 
 Each time this is done the successful child writes 
 down ' 1 ' on his score. The game might seem 
 altogether too simple to an adult, but young 
 children find it quite difficult to circumvent their 
 opponents. 
 
 Any contrasting objects may take the place of 
 black and white stones, e.g., stones and conkers, 
 sea-shells and walnut-shells, discs of brown and 
 white paper, or squares and discs cut out of 
 paper. 
 
88 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 Noughts and Crosses is a similar game played 
 by two. It is simpler and does not provide so much 
 scope. It may be a corruption of the Nine Men's 
 Morris. It is very familiar. The object is to get 
 three O's or three X's in a row. 
 
 Hickory Dickory Dock is played in different ways. 
 We have played it thus : 
 
 With a small plate and a blue or red crayon the 
 children draw a round on a piece of paper, cut it 
 out, and then carefully arrange the clock-figures 
 round it. 
 
 When the face is thus finished two or more children 
 take it in turns to close their eyes and dotting with 
 a pencil say : 
 
 Hickory Dickory Dock, 
 The mouse ran up the clock, 
 Clock struck one, Down he came, 
 Hickory Dickory Dock. 
 
 On " Dock " the pencil is kept still, and the child 
 opens his eyes to see what number he has hit. 
 If a number he writes it on his score, if not he writes 
 down nothing. Four children can easily play at 
 this, and they must prevent each other from 
 peeping and mistakes in the scores, for eagerness 
 may overcome honesty. At the end of a certain 
 time the scores are added up. 
 
 Tit-Tat-Toe is similar to the last, but the figures 
 are arranged irregularly and in compartments, 
 so that a hit anywhere in the round counts for 
 something. Here again the children make their 
 
NUMBER-PLAYS 89 
 
 own drawings for the game ; score is kept in the 
 same way, and with the same precautions. The 
 ring should be about six inches across. A larger 
 number may be used with older children, say 
 twenty in the middle and nineteen compartments 
 outside. 
 
 While the eyes are closed the following rhyme is 
 said : 
 
 Tit-tat-toe, 
 
 My first go, 
 
 Three jolly butcher-boys all in a row, 
 
 Stick one up, stick one down, 
 
 Stick one on the old man's crown. 1 
 
 Skittles. Home-made skittles may be contrived 
 out of thick hazel-sticks or small fir logs by the wood- 
 work class. The bottoms are sawed off flat and 
 smoothed down with sand-paper, the tops are shaved 
 off into a dome by means of a good knife, and then 
 with Indian ink and water-colour paint quaint faces 
 and costumes are drawn upon them. They are 
 then presented to the younger children, the more 
 sets the better. 
 
 The game is of course to fix up the skittles at 
 equal distances apart in any orderly arrangement 
 the children may fancy, and then, standing behind 
 a line drawn on the floor, to aim a ball at them, 
 knocking down as many as possible. 
 
 Score is kept by one child on a small board or large 
 sheet of paper. A large class would of course be 
 divided into groups. Each child has to add up his 
 own score correctly, and number is thus a very 
 important part of the game. 
 
 1 i.e. the centre of the ring, where the highest number is. 
 
90 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 Nine O's. Nine O's involves number only in the 
 scoring, but it makes children very observant of 
 space and distance. 
 
 Two children play at a time ; one has a blue and 
 the other a red crayon. 
 
 One draws nine O's in a square ; the O's are at 
 least three inches apart. Then the game begins. 
 Julie's object is to try and prevent Dicky from 
 joining all his O's. 
 
 She joins the two corner ones with her blue 
 line. (Dotted line 1.) 
 
 Dicky joins the first and the one below it with 
 his red line. (Black line 1.) Every is joined 
 up by two lines and then it is done with. The lines 
 may not cross or touch each other. 1 
 
 Julie joins that one with the corner one. 
 (H ) 
 
 " Oh, dear ! " cries Dicky, " you've done for me 
 now. You've made two of the poor O's prisoners. 
 How can I get at them ? " He sits and puzzles over 
 it. " Oh ! I see. It's aU right after all. I can 
 join them together by themselves." He draws 
 aline. (II .) 
 
 Julie changes her sphere of action and joins up 
 
 two outside ones. (Ill ) " Why I nearly 
 
 joined that bottom one in the corner three times. 
 I was just going to," she says. 
 
 Dicky's concentration increases. He draws his 
 third line in silence. ( III . ) 
 
 With a sudden inspiration Julie draws her fourth 
 line. (IV ) 
 
 Dicky looks very puzzled, thinks that he is sold, 
 
 1 There are only two dimensions. The O's are diiaknt ! 
 
NUMBER-PLAYS 91 
 
 but quietly draws his fourth line (IV ) in a 
 
 gentle despair. 
 
 It is then Julie's turn. She searches about the 
 paper. Behold there is one unjoined 0, and it is 
 her turn to draw. She has beaten herself. She 
 bites her lip in disgust. 
 
 The situation slowly dawns upon Dicky. 
 
 " I've won, I've won, I've won ! " he shouts at 
 last, scarcely able to contain himself. 
 
WEIGHING AND MEASURING 
 
 THE kitchen scales and the larger weights gave us 
 material for much work and play. The younger 
 children did not of course use these appliances, 
 but had a see-saw and balanced their weight-stones 
 on it. The see-saw was made by the woodwork 
 class and consisted of a long (but thick and firm) 
 plank, with a wooden edge set in a block on which 
 it swung. The game always began by balancing 
 the beam accurately, and when that was done 
 objects and weight-stones were counterbalanced at 
 either end. The weight-stones were rounded flints 
 approximately doubling in size. A pound stone, 
 a two-pound stone, and a four-pound stone they 
 were called. The pound standard was first selected, 
 and others found to counterbalance it accurately, 
 the two-pound stone to counterbalance two of the 
 pound stones, and the four-pound stone to counter- 
 balance two of the two-pound stones. Then the 
 weights of fresh stones were guessed and proved by 
 balancing, and a similar guessing game was played 
 with any objects in the schoolroom. 
 
 The older children were ready to use kitchen 
 balances and guessed the weights of all kinds of 
 objects : bags of stones, conkers, fir-cones, books, 
 blocks of wood, coal, coke, fire-irons, potatoes, 
 turnips. &c., and materials used for the pancakes 
 
WEIGHING AND MEASURING 93 
 
 and Christmas pudding, the weights being after- 
 ward tested by the scales. The games were orga- 
 nized in exactly the same way as the tasting -games, 
 the children dividing into groups with weigher and 
 scorer. 
 
 With cheap and abundant water and a varied 
 collection of jam-pots used for paint- water, and 
 with a pint and half-pint measure the children 
 played guessing -games as to the capacity of the 
 various vessels. 
 
 Both these plays occasionally gave place to a 
 game of shops where the commodities were priced 
 and sold by weight or by measure. 
 
 For a few days they insisted that they were 
 in Africa, and had to buy their paint-water by 
 the gill from a water-carrier. Shells or beads or 
 conkers make very good primitive money, or 
 cardboard coins may be used. 
 
ANOTHER WEIGHING 
 
 OUT of the stick-box and out of the stone-box we 
 got sticks and stones of very nearly the same sizes 
 and some one brought some bits of thick lead pipe 
 and some one an old iron weight with no name on it, 
 and another a small iron round from a cooking-stove 
 (probably surreptitiously). 
 
 When the things were collected we found we had 
 some pieces of deal, a piece of oak, a flint, and a bit 
 of marble, the lead and the iron. The lead pipe 
 must be hammered flat, the children said, " because 
 it looks bigger than it really is." They handled 
 the things and then, at another table, handled the 
 weights, and at length declared they were ready to 
 begin. 
 
 The guessers we chose first were some who had 
 won in a previous game. Those we chose second 
 were the worst ones in order to make sure that 
 they had some practice. They lifted the various 
 objects in turn and guessed their weights while 
 the remaining children looked on. Their guesses 
 were afterward tested by the scales. 
 
 Then we divided into groups and borrowed 
 three pairs of scales, and there was room for every 
 one to play. 
 
 Each group chose a scorer and an umpire, the one 
 to keep count and the other to control the pro- 
 
 94 
 
ANOTHER WEIGHING 95 
 
 ceedings, but they took turns at guessing ; they did 
 not want to miss anything. There is danger in 
 letting each child keep his own score unchecked. 
 With the best intentions a child may allow his 
 ambitions to overcome his sense of honesty and 
 fairness, and a bad habit of dissembling may be 
 formed. 
 
 A discussion followed the weight-guessing. 
 
 Henry said, " Deal is the lightest thing we've 
 got here." 
 
 " And lead is the heaviest," said Meg. 
 
 " Well, it's just a bit heavier than iron, but not 
 much," remarked Christopher, wagging his head. 
 
 " Well, I said it was heavier," argued Meg. 
 
 " And oak's heavier than deal." 
 
 " We've got an oak box at home that's awfully 
 heavy," said Patty. " / can't move it." 
 
 " I nearly did," said Jack. 
 
 " You didn't," said Patty. 
 
 " Here's something I've forgot," said Willy, 
 dragging from his pocket a fisherman's cork float. 
 
 " Oh, bother ! We ought to have three of them," 
 said Christopher. 
 
 " I believe they've got some in the other room ; 
 the babies were using them for rafts," I said. 
 " Run and ask very quietly, Christopher. Knock 
 at the door, and don't interrupt if they're in the 
 middle of a story, just wait," I added, holding him 
 by the sleeve till he heard me. 
 
 He returned triumphant and handed them out 
 to the three umpires, and in a moment we were at 
 the game again. 
 
 " Our lot's done," announced Meg first. 
 
96 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 " Cork's the lightest of all. Quite the lightest." 
 
 " Ours isn't finished. Do be quiet," said Jack. 
 
 " We'll wait for every one," I said. " Have you 
 added up your scores yet ? " 
 
 " Well, do it then, and I'll write them in my 
 book." 
 
 " Cork's the lightest," whisper the irrepressible 
 first set. 
 
 " Ssh ! They do worry us," complained the 
 others. 
 
 " Some folks'll have to go outside in a minute," I 
 suggested. 
 
 " We've done now," announced the slowest set. 
 
 " Let me see ; how did you keep your scores 
 to-day ? " said I. 
 
 " We all had strips of paper, and Christopher had 
 two," said Meg. " He was scorer. Everybody 
 weighed with their hand, and wrote down their 
 guess." 
 
 " Did they read it out ? " This is a precaution 
 against altering. 
 
 " Yes ; when everybody 'd guessed, we all read it 
 out. And then I weighed on the scales." 
 
 " Were you umpire ? " 
 
 " Yes, and then the one who was nearest had a 
 tick on Christopher's paper. That's how we did 
 every time." 
 
 WTiile the scores were being added some of the 
 unoccupied children helped, some looked out of the 
 window, some continued to handle and heave the 
 weights and the materials they had been using. 
 
 " Oh ! do let's have the bath from the little ones' 
 room and let the corks float," cried Christopher. 
 
ANOTHER WEIGHING 97 
 
 " Well, you might," I said. It is a shallow sponge- 
 bath, in which they sometimes have sand and water 
 and sail their little boats. " I shall have to fetch 
 it, I suppose," I said with an affectation of fatigue. 
 
 " Oh no ! Two of us could," Christopher 
 volunteered with great eagerness. 
 
 " And scrape all the walls and doors ? " 
 
 " No, no ! " 
 
 " Are you quite sure ? " 
 
 " Yes, yes ! " Christopher elbowed through the 
 children and made for the door. 
 
 " Choose two strong and careful people to help 
 
 you." 
 
 " Henry and Eric," he said without hesitation, 
 though he is not very friendly with them. 
 
 Henry and Eric were departing with a preoccupied 
 air. 
 
 " One of you must undertake to open the doors," 
 I called after them. 
 
 Soon we heard a mysterious scuffling noise in the 
 passage. 
 
 " It's like what Alice heard when the lizard came 
 down the chimney," said Mary, who was standing 
 near me. 
 
 Next there was a sound of voices arguing. 
 
 " That's just like it, too," laughed Meg. 
 
 The door was flung open with a flourish by 
 Christopher, while the other two supported the 
 shallow bath and trundled it gently along. 
 
 '* Perhaps Mary will get some water," I suggested, 
 in order to encourage her. 
 
 " Where's the can ? " she asked. She really knew, 
 but was diffident. 
 
98 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 " In the shed," cried Meg. " I know, I know ! 
 Let me show you, Mary. Come along ! " 
 
 "You're to get the water, Mary," I said. 
 
 They brought back the can between them, hang- 
 ing their free arms well away from their bodies to 
 balance the weight on the others. Mary poured out 
 the water in a silence which permitted its splash 
 to be heard distinctly. 
 
 Certain foreseeing people had quietly possessed 
 themselves of the things, and were holding them 
 ready. The others bethought themselves of them 
 at this moment and were disappointed. 
 
 " How beautifully the cork floats." 
 
 " It's hardly in the water at all." 
 
 " It's right on the water, not in the water." 
 
 " That's why they use it for life-belts." 
 
 " Those at the baths are made of canvas," said 
 Patty. 
 
 Everybody laughed. 
 
 " But cork underneath clever ! " said Chris- 
 topher. 
 
 " Then why do they use it for bottles ? " 
 
 " Because it's so light to hold, I 'spect." 
 
 " Oh, I know ! It's not that ; it's because it 
 won't let the water out." 
 
 " And because it'll squeeze in." 
 
 " This cork's all hard," remarked Jack thought- 
 fully. 
 
 " It's been in the sea, on a fisherman's net," I 
 said. 
 
 " Oh ! " 
 
 " What for ? " 
 
 " Oh ! I seen them when I was by the sea, all 
 
ANOTHER WEIGHING 99 
 
 along the sides of the net. And they bob up and 
 down on the water," cried Meg. " The net's under 
 the sea," she added more softly, a questioning look 
 on her face. 
 
 " Do the fish try to bite them ? " asked Mary. 
 
 " No, of course not," laughed Christopher. 
 
 " Well, what then ? " ejaculated Meg, and 
 Christopher turned away with a sheepish expression. 
 
 " I should say they were to keep the net up, so 
 that it wouldn't get lost," said Meg slowly and 
 thoughtfully. 
 
 " Oh ah ! " sighed the rest with satisfaction. 
 
 " Now let's try the woods," said Patty. 
 
 "I thought she meant places full of trees," 
 laughed Willy. 
 
 The others ignored this fatuity. 
 
 " Don't splash. Put them in gently so that the 
 water doesn't wet them," said Meg, spreading out 
 her empty hands in a warning gesture. 
 
 The bits of oak and deal were quickly laid on the 
 water. 
 
 " Why, the oak's going to sink." 
 
 " No, it isn't ! " 
 
 " Well ! I shouldn't like to sit on an oak raft. 
 I should get wet every time a wave came along." 
 
 " It's nearly under the water." 
 
 " The deal's all right." 
 
 " Hooray for the deal ! " 
 
 " Which wood do they make boats of ? " 
 
 " They make the keel of a hard heavy wood " 
 
 " Like oak ! " 
 
 " And the sides of a lighter wood that will bend," 
 I said. 
 
100 SENSE-PLAYS 6- NUMBER-PLAYS 
 
 " Like deal ! I shall look very particularly at 
 the next boat I see," said Henry. 
 
 " That won't be till the holidays," said Eric. 
 
 " P'raps not." 
 
 " A boat of all oak would sink," said Jack. 
 
 " Battleships are made of iron," contradicted 
 Henry. 
 
 " What rot ! " cried Christopher. " Let's try the 
 
 iron." 
 
 " It's drowned at once," sighed Willy. He rather 
 fancied an iron ship. 
 
 " Well then, who says ships are made of iron ? " 
 jeered Christopher. 
 
 " Let's try the lead." 
 
 " What a splash ! " 
 
 " That was stupid," I said. " We're not dressed 
 for a shower-bath." 
 
 "And the stones." 
 
 " They all sink, of course. How dull," said 
 Christopher. 
 
 "I want a tin lid from the cupboard," said I, 
 " and one of the tin plates." 
 
 Mary fetched the one and Christopher the 
 other. 
 
 " This lid and this plate is really made of thin 
 iron ; look, it's rusting along the edge," I said. 
 " Do you see, children ! " I handed it round. " It's 
 just turned over." 
 
 " Oh ! " they murmured with attentive eyes fixed 
 on the objects. 
 
 " Look, it sinks in the water," I said, dropping it 
 in sideways, and waiting to be contradicted. 
 
 " Let me have it," said Meg, reaching for it. 
 
ANOTHER WEIGHING 101 
 
 But Jack got it first, and she gave it up to him, 
 according to our rule. 
 
 " Look ! " said Jack, but he clumsily dropped it 
 in again. 
 
 Meg got it this time and held it with careful, 
 graceful finger-tips. " Look ! " she said, and floated 
 it triumphantly on the water. " I 'spect it's because 
 it's thin, and it's hollow like a boat." 
 
 I let them fetch a cup and saucer and a small 
 bottle and they found that they all floated empty 
 and sank when full because the glass and china were 
 heavy. This very interesting play was leading 
 them on by sure degrees to the conceptions of 
 relative weight and flotation. 
 
 Our lesson ended in a play with a fleet of oddly 
 consorted boats. Corks, flat bits of wood, tin lids, 
 paper boats, and walnut-shells. 
 
 " It makes me think of the bits you get round 
 your feet when you paddle in the sea after a storm," 
 said Meg. 
 
 " Let's drop the iron and lead on them so that they 
 sink ! " cried Jimmy, always more interested in 
 pranks than reasoning. 
 
 " Yes, but no wet clothes," I said cheerfully, 
 but very firmly. " Anyone who makes a big splash 
 will certainly have to clear out of this ! " 
 
 " And we shall never play it again," added 
 Patty. 
 
. 
 
 
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 54 
 
 UNI 3 
 
 t$S 
 
 RECTO CD 
 
 21-100m-l,'54(1887sl6)476 
 
Tb U4700 
 
 **** ..JL u 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY