Primary Handwork :: CHAPTER V THE HOUSE PROBLEM

CHAPTER V THE HOUSE PROBLEM

The making of a playhouse has long been an accepted feature of primary work, but we have not always made it yield all of which it is capable, either in the self-directed activity of the children or in correlated subject matter. It has, in many cases, been only a bit of recreation from the more serious work of the school. In a house prepared by the janitor or older pupils the children have been allowed to arrange and rearrange ready-made furniture contributed from their playthings at home, but little creative work has been attempted. In other cases an elaborate house, carefully planned by the teacher, has been built and furnished by the children, but, because of the detailed planning, the children's part in it became merely a mechanical following of directions. In some cases relative proportions in rooms and furnishings have received scant attention; in others, color harmonies have been all but ignored. These varying methods of carrying out the house-building idea are not without value and may often be justified by local conditions, but their results are meager compared with the possible richness of the problem.

Playing at house building and housekeeping appeals to an interest so universal that children of all times and nations yield to its power. It is therefore necessary to take account of its influence in their development and to dignify it with the approval of the school. We must refine and enrich it by our direction and suggestion without robbing it of its simplicity and charm.

Fig. 9.—Box house, arranged on a shelf.

Fig. 10.—Medieval castle. Built by third grade. Franklin, Indiana.
An example of elaborate work which aroused the interest of pupils and patrons and paved the way for freer work later.

In the suggestions which follow, an attempt is made to utilize this natural activity of children in an occupation which appeals to them as worth while. At the same time it may furnish ample opportunity for the general development and effective teaching of various phases of subject matter which are incident to the occupation, i.e. number in connection with measurements, art in the proportions and color combinations, language through discussions and descriptions.

The work is kept on the level of the children's experience by throwing them constantly on their own responsibility in every possible detail, the teacher never dictating the method of procedure and guiding the work with as few suggestions as possible. The work, being on the level of their experience, appeals to the children as very real and worth while. It is, therefore, intensely interesting, and they work without urging.

General Plan.—A house may be constructed from several empty goods boxes, each box forming one room of the house. The boxes or rooms are arranged in convenient order, but are not fastened together. Adjoining rooms are connected by doors carefully cut in both boxes so that the holes match. Windows are also sawed out where needed. The walls are papered, careful attention being given to color schemes, border designs, and relative proportions in spacing. Floors are provided with suitable coverings—woven rugs, mattings, linoleums, tiles, according to the purpose of the room.

Each step is discussed and more or less definitely outlined before the actual making is begun, furnishing opportunity for oral language of a vital sort. Completed parts are examined and criticized, furnishing further opportunity for exercise in oral language while directing attention to strong and weak points in the work.

The materials needed are easily obtainable and inexpensive, consisting chiefly of empty boxes and odds and ends of paper, cloth, and yarn, together with carpenters' scraps.

The tools needed are few, and in some cases may be brought from home by the children for a few days, as needed. The necessary time is found by making the incidental problems serve as subject matter for regular lessons. Making designs for tiling, linoleum, and borders for wall paper, planning relative proportions for doors, windows, and furnishings will supply material for very practical lessons in art. The problems incident to the measurement of doors and windows, tables and chairs, are number work of a vital sort and may be legitimately used as a regular number lesson. Discussions, descriptions, and definite statements of plans all form vital language exercises if rightly used.

HOUSE PLANS IN DETAIL

Materials.—Empty Store Boxes of Soft Wood.—Sizes may vary, but where several are grouped for a house, they should be near enough the same height to make a fairly level ceiling. About 10 × 12 × 18 in. is a convenient size.

Paper for Walls.—Scraps of ingrain wall papers may be had from dealers for little or nothing. Cover paper in good colors may be purchased by the sheet. Tailor's paper and brown wrapping paper serve well, and are sold by the roll at a low price.

Pasteboard (strawboard or juteboard) may be used for the roof.

Weaving Materials.—Rugs may be made from carpet rags, rug yarns, rovings, chenille, or jute; towels from crochet cotton; and hammocks from macramÉ cord or carpet warp.

Fig. 11.—House arranged on a table. Front view. Built by first grade. Columbia, Missouri.

Wood for Furniture.—Bass, white pine, poplar, or other soft wood. Box tops, if of soft wood, may be made to serve nearly all needs. If possible, provide thin wood (about ¼ in. thick) in various widths, from one inch to six inches, so that only one dimension need be measured. Provide also thick pieces 1½ in. or 2 in. square for beds and chairs; ½ in. square for table legs.

Nails of various sizes, chiefly inch brads, are needed.

Fig. 12.—House arranged on a table. Side view. Built by second grade. Columbia, Missouri.

Tools.—The tools actually necessary are few. A class can get along with one saw and still do good work, though there will be times when several saws will facilitate progress. Some tools are needed only for a short time and sometimes may be borrowed from the homes. It is more satisfactory to have the school provided with the essential tools whenever possible. The essential tools include:

Brace and auger bit, for boring holes in doors and windows. Needed for a short time only.

Compass saw, for sawing out doors and windows.Crosscut saw, for sawing off lumber. School should own at least one.

Miter box, for holding lumber and guiding saw. An old one, good enough for children's use, will frequently be contributed by a carpenter. The miter box should be fastened firmly to a low table or box.

Fig. 13.—House arranged on a table. Back view. Built by second grade. Columbia, Missouri.

Hammers, several of medium size.

Try-square, a very valuable tool for setting right angles, provided the teacher and pupils know how to use it.

Fig. 14.—House plan.

Arrangement of Rooms.—The sort of house a man can build is governed by his resources and his site. Considering the number of boxes as resources and the table or shelf on which they are to stand as the site, the same big factors which enter into any house-building problem control the size and style of the schoolroom playhouse. What sort of house is desired? What sort of house can be built from the materials at hand? What sort of house can be built in the space at our disposal?

The boxes may be arranged on a shelf with all the open sides toward the class, as in Fig. 9. This economizes space, and all of the rooms are visible at once. A two-story house is easily built on this plan. If economy of space is not necessary, the boxes may be placed on a table with the open sides of the boxes toward the edges of the table, as in Figs. 11, 12, and 13. This permits a more artistic grouping of the rooms. (See Fig. 14.)

The responsibility in grouping the boxes should be thrown as fully as possible upon the children, the teacher merely suggesting where necessary. It should be their house, not the teacher's. The planning should not be hurried but time allowed to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different plans and reach an agreement. In trying to express individual opinions convincingly their ideas will become clearer—a factor in the development of the children which is much more important than any of the actual details of the house itself. Whether the class decides to have one or two bedrooms in the house is a matter of small consequence. Whether or not they are growing in power to appreciate conditions and make an intelligent decision is a matter of great consequence. Their decisions when made may not always reach the high standard at which the teacher is aiming, but if they have really made a decision, not merely followed the teacher's suggestion, and if their independent selections from time to time show a higher standard of appreciation and greater refinement of taste in ever so small a degree, it is evidence of genuine growth upon a sure foundation.

Fig. 15.—Arrangement of windows.

Doors and Windows.—The size and arrangement of doors and windows should be freely discussed. Various possible arrangements may be sketched upon the blackboard by the children. For example, see Fig. 15, a and b. When a plan is adopted, the doors and windows should be carefully drawn on the outside of each box, using the try-square to get right angles.

Bore holes in the corners of the doors and windows and saw out with keyhole or compass saw. In order to avoid mistakes it is well, after sawing out the opening for a door in one box, to place the two boxes together and test the measurements before sawing out the second opening. A mistake of this sort, however, is not fatal, but may prove the most effective way of impressing the workers with the necessity of careful measurement.

Walls.—The decoration of the walls will furnish material for several art lessons. The discussion should turn first to the suitability of different styles for different purposes, such as tiling for kitchen and bathroom walls, light papers for dark rooms, etc. The division of wall space will be the next point to be settled, i.e. the height of the tiling or wainscot, the width of a border, or the effect of horizontal and vertical lines in breaking up wall space. These questions may be discussed as far as the immediate circumstances and the development of the class suggest.

The question of color combinations demands special attention. Unless the children come from refined homes their ideas of color will be very crude, and if contributions of material have been asked for, some gaudy impossibilities in flowered paper are apt to be presented. If so, it may require considerable tact on the part of the teacher to secure a satisfactory selection without casting any reflections on the taste of somebody's mother. This difficulty may be avoided to a degree by providing all the materials necessary. It is not enough, however, to cause the children to select good combinations at the teacher's suggestion while in their hearts they are longing for the gaudy thing she has frowned upon. It is better to get an honest expression from them, even though it is very crude, and endeavor to educate their taste to a love for better things, so that each time they choose the choice may be on a higher level of appreciation. Immediate results may not be as beautiful by this plan, and apparent progress may be slow, but only by some such method can a real appreciation be developed which will prevent the return to the crude expression as soon as the teacher's influence is withdrawn.

Fig. 16.—Detail of hollow square.

Plain papers generally give the most pleasing effects. Attractive borders may be made by cutting simple units and repeating them at intervals. Almost any motif may be used for the unit. Animals, birds, trees, flowers, ships, etc., serve well. The process of making the border should be a serious lesson in design. A good border is not merely the repetition of a pretty figure. The units must not be too far apart nor too close together. The shape of the figure used must be such that each unit seems to need the next one. Little children will usually take greatest pleasure in working from some nature motif, as flower or animal, but interesting work can be done with simple geometric figures. Take, for example, the hollow square. Fold a square of paper on both diagonals. (See Fig. 16.) Cut on dotted line. Let each child cut several and lay them in order for a border or mount them on a paper of different color. Let the work of the class be put up for general criticism. (See notes on Criticism.) Several points which very small children are able to appreciate will be found to enter into the success or failure of their efforts. The hollow square itself may be cut too wide and look clumsy, or cut too narrow and look frail. In the arrangement they may be too close together and look crowded, or too far apart and look scattered. A sensitiveness to good proportions comes naturally to only a few people, but nearly all are capable of a higher degree of appreciation if their attention is directed to the essential elements which make things good or bad. The beginnings of this appreciation lie in simple things which are easily understood by first-grade children.

Fig. 17.—Borders using hollow square.

Floors.—Many of the considerations which enter into the selection of wall decorations are of equal importance in choosing floor coverings. What will be suitable to the purpose of each room? Why do we use linoleum in the kitchen and warm rugs in the bedroom? Shall we use small rugs or a carpet? What colors must we have on the floor to harmonize with the colors on the wall? What designs are possible and desirable for the materials we have to use?

Rug Weaving Materials.—The market offers a wide variety of materials prepared especially for school use. Among them the most satisfactory for use with small workers are cotton rovings, loose twisted jute, and cotton chenille. These, especially the first two, are coarse and work up rapidly, and may be had in very desirable colors. Even the cheapest of them, however, will prove an expensive item for the school with limited funds, and ordinary carpet rags may be made to serve every purpose. Often these will be contributed by members of the class. By a careful selection and combination of colors very artistic results can be produced which are in some respects more satisfactory than any obtained from the so-called weaving materials, and have the added advantage of costing practically nothing.

Fig. 18.—Looms and samples of weaving.

Looms.—The market also offers a great variety of looms for school use, many of them quite simple in construction and moderate in price. In schools where bench work is taught, the making of a loom is an excellent problem either for the weavers themselves or for an older class working for them. If the looms are made by the little weavers themselves, only the simplest possible construction should be used, that the work may be completed and the loom put to use before the worker loses sight of the fact that the purpose is to provide carpet for the house. Children lose interest in long-drawn-out processes, and for that reason it is better to provide them with the necessary tools as far as possible while interest in the house building is keen. Later, if considerable enthusiasm has been aroused for weaving, individual looms may be made for home use. For the school with scant funds a very satisfactory loom may be improvised by driving nails one fourth inch apart in the ends of a shallow box of convenient size and stretching the warp threads across the open top.

For very small rugs a cardboard loom will serve. This may be made by cutting notches or punching holes along opposite edges of a piece of cardboard into which the warp may be strung. If a knitting needle is inserted at each side, the cardboard will be stiffened and the edges of the rug kept straight. Weaving needles may be purchased from supply houses. Wooden needles cost 50 cents per dozen. Sack needles serve well for small rugs and may be had at any hardware store for 10 cents per dozen.

Weaves.—For first weaving the plain "over one, under one" on cotton warp with rags or other coarse woof is generally best. Variety may be introduced by weaving a stripe or border of a different tone near each end of the rug. Vertical stripes serve well as another easy method of variation and are produced by using two woof threads of different tones and weaving first with one and then with the other. This weave is very attractive as the body of the rug with a plain border at either end.

As soon as the children have mastered the plain weave and have a fairly clear idea of the possibilities in design through varying the colors in the woof only, they may be initiated into the mysteries of the "gingham weave" and allowed to experiment with the variations in warp as well as in woof. Cotton rovings is an excellent material for weaves of this sort. This weave may also be used with raffia to make matting for the dining-room floor.

Fig. 19.—Box house by second grade. Columbia, Missouri.

Paper mats may also be used as carpets with good effect. Weaving paper strips is often an easier process to little children than weaving with textiles, except where very coarse textile materials are used. For paper mats select paper of suitable color and cut to the size desired for the mat. Fold on the short diameter. Cut slashes from the folded edge, not less than one half inch apart, to within one inch of edge of the paper (See Fig. 20), leaving a margin on all four sides of the mat. For weavers, cut from paper of harmonious tone, strips equal in width to the slashes in the mat.

Fig. 20.—Detail of paper weaving.

Variations of the simple over one, under one weave add interest to the work and also give practice in number combinations such as over one, under two, etc. Work of this sort is used in many schools as a method of teaching number, the teacher dictating the combinations while the interest of the children centers in the new pattern which develops under their fingers. While such work has much to be said in its favor, it is open to criticism, especially in the matter of dictation. All the children in any one group will not work with equal speed. Some will undoubtedly "get behind" and others will lose time while waiting for the slow ones. Accidents are liable to happen in individual cases.

Many of these undesirable features may be eliminated while still retaining the valuable part of the work by writing the directions on the board instead of dictating them to the children. It then becomes a lesson in reading as well as in number. Each child is thrown more completely upon his own responsibility and can proceed as rapidly and as steadily as his capacity permits. His rate of progress will often be a fair measure of his ability for independent thought and action, which is the real measure for successful teaching.

As the hardest feature in this method is in keeping the right line and not repeating or omitting any direction, a social spirit may be encouraged by allowing the children to work in groups and take turns in keeping the place while the others work. In one first grade where this plan was in vogue the children discovered a book on the teacher's desk which contained numerous designs, many of them much more intricate than she would have attempted to use as classwork. Their instinct for exploration led them to struggle with the directions until they had worked out some designs which would have proved dismal failures had they been attempted as class lessons. In this instance those who belonged to the persevering group were happy in a new-found sense of strength and independence, while the others had accomplished as much as any would have done under the dictation method.

Furniture.—The problem of furniture for the school playhouse has been discussed in numerous publications, and nearly every writer on the subject of primary handwork offers suggestions on this topic. The suggestions include a range in materials and processes from very simple foldings in paper to quite complex processes in reeds and raffia and methodical construction in wood.

Among the various materials and styles in common use, folded paper furniture has the advantage of being quickly made. The process is of sufficient interest to little children to hold their attention, and in order to secure the desired result they must hear the directions intelligently and obey them promptly. These are desirable habits to form. It is quite possible, however, for the work to be done in a very formal, mechanical way, in which the children merely follow directions, often blindly, without any clear purpose and very little thought. Success or failure is due largely to chance; for, if by accident even a good worker "loses out" on a direction, his work is at a standstill until special help is given. He is unable to proceed because he does not know what to do next. There is very little opportunity in such a process for independent thought or action. It is not self-directed activity.

A second objection to paper furniture is its lack of stability. Paper which is pliable enough to fold readily will not hold its own weight long when made into furniture, and very soon becomes wobbly. To overcome this tendency to wobble, heavier papers are often used and new complications arise. Heavy papers do not fold readily without scoring. Scoring demands considerable accuracy of measurement—often to a degree beyond the power of a six-year-old. The stiff papers, being hard pressed, are harder to paste, and neat work is often an impossibility, unless considerable assistance is given.

It is possible to make satisfactory furniture in a great variety of styles from stiff paper, and the processes involve some excellent practice in measurement and design. The processes necessary to obtain these satisfactory results are, however, beyond the ability of children in the lower grades. Even fairly satisfactory results are impossible unless an undue amount of assistance is given by the teacher. In actual practice, where stiff paper is used a few of the best workers in the class are helped to make the few pieces needed in the playhouse and the unhappy failures of the rest of the class are promptly consigned to the wastebasket.

Very pretty furniture may be made from reeds and raffia, but the processes are too difficult to be successfully performed by small children. The reeds do not lend themselves readily to constructions small enough to suit the average playhouse, and the larger pieces are out of proportion to the other features of the house.

The use of wood overcomes the most serious of the objections to be made to other materials, besides being the material most commonly used in "real" furniture. Wooden furniture is stable, and a great variety of processes in construction are possible without introducing complications which prevent independent work on the part of the little people.

The processes necessary to the construction of very simple yet satisfactory wooden furniture may be reduced to measuring one dimension, sawing off, and nailing on. Measuring one dimension is quite within the powers of six-year-olds. Sawing off is not difficult if soft lumber is used, and it becomes very simple by the help of the miter box. Nailing on is difficult if the nails must be driven into the edges of thin boards, but if thin boards are nailed to thick boards, nails may "go crooked" without serious consequences, and the process becomes quite easy. These processes have the advantage of being particularly fascinating to small boys, in contrast to the girlish character of many forms of primary handwork. (See Figs. 21 and 22.)

Fig. 21.—Furniture from wood blocks.

Fig. 22.—Furniture from wood blocks.

Processes.—For the sake of convenience and clearness in these directions it will be assumed that the class is provided with pieces of wood two inches square which will be referred to as 2 × 2. Also with thin wood in a variety of widths from 1 in. to 6 in. Material of other dimensions would serve the purpose equally well, and for many of the parts odd pieces from the scrap box will answer every purpose. The directions are intended only to suggest how to proceed, and it is left to the teacher to adapt them to the material and conditions with which she works.

(1) To make a chair.

Use 2 × 2 for seat and thin wood 2 in. wide for back. Children should measure and decide how much to saw off from strip of 2 × 2 in order to make a square block or cube for the seat. They should estimate the length of the back of the chair, then measure and saw off the thin wood needed. Nail the back piece to the cube and finish with a coat of water-color paint or color with crayon. An armchair may be made by the addition of shorter pieces of thin wood to the sides of the chair.

(2) To make table with pedestal.

Use 2 × 2 for pedestal. Use thin wood 6 in. wide for top. Use thin wood 4 in. wide for base. Measure and saw off 3 in. of 2 × 2 for pedestal. Measure enough of the 6 in. wood to make a square top and enough of the 4 in. wood to make a square base. Do not tell the children what they can discover for themselves. They should decide how high the table ought to be and how large to suit the size of the room. Nail the square pieces to the two ends of the pedestal. Finish by same method used for chairs.

(3) For ordinary table..

Use thin wood for top. Use ½ × ½ for legs. Measure and saw off pieces needed. Measure places for legs about one inch from corner of top in order to allow an overhang. Children frequently put the legs flush with the edge of the table, which gives a clumsy appearance. Nail through the top with a comparatively long nail.

(4) To make a double bed.

Use wood ½ to 1 in. thick for body. Use thin wood of corresponding width for head and foot boards. Class or individual workers should decide on dimensions for different parts and height of body of bed from the floor.

(5) For single bed.

Proceed as for double bed, using narrow pieces of wood, or use six or seven inches of 2 × 2 for body of bed and make head and foot boards after the style of chair back.

(6) Dressing table.

Decide upon dimensions needed. Use 2 × 2 for body. Use thin wood of equal width for back. Use tinfoil for mirror. Indicate drawers with pencil lines.

(7) Couch.

Use piece of 2 × 2 of desired length and make couch cover of appropriate material, or add back and arms of thin wood to piece of 2 × 2 and finish to match other furniture.

(8) Piano.

Use wood ¾ or 1 in. thick for body. Nail on piece ½ × ½ for keyboard. Draw keys on paper and paste on keyboard.

(9) Kitchen stove.

Use 2 × 4 or any scrap or empty box of appropriate size and shape. Color black with crayon. Add chalk marks or bits of tinfoil to indicate doors and lids. Make hot-water tank of paper. Pieces of reed, wire, or twigs covered with tinfoil make good water pipes. Macaroni sticks and lemonade straws have served this purpose.

Fig. 23.—Home of White Cloud, the Pueblo girl. Second grade. Columbia, Missouri.

Clay Furnishings.—For such articles as the kitchen sink, the bathtub, and other bathroom fittings clay is a satisfactory material. These articles may be modeled by the children, in as good an imitation of the real fittings as they are able to make. Various methods may be used for holding the kitchen sink and the bathroom basin in place, and it is much better for the children to evolve one of their own than to follow the teacher's dictation from the start. If they meet serious difficulties, a suggestion from her may help clear the way. Two long nails driven into the wall will give a satisfactory bracket on which the sink may rest. Two short nails may be driven through the back while the clay is moist and may serve also as a foundation for faucets. The basin, bathtub, and stool may each be built solid to the floor.

The teakettle and other stove furniture may be modeled in clay. Electric light bulbs of clay suspended by cords from the ceiling have a realistic air. Paper shades of appropriate color add to the general effect.

Miscellaneous furnishings.

Bedding.—Paper or cloth may be used for bedding, as circumstances suggest. If interest in real things is strong, the making of the sheets and pillow cases offers an opportunity for some practice with the needle. If time is limited, paper may be used.

Curtains.—Curtains also may be made from either paper or regular curtain material. If paper is used, it should be very soft, such as plain Japanese napkins. Scraps of plain net or scrim are most desirable. Some child is apt to contribute a piece of large-patterned lace curtain, but the tactful teacher will avoid using it if possible, and direct the children's thoughts toward a better taste in draperies.

PortiÈres may be made of cloth, of knotted cords, or chenille.

Couch pillows may be made from cloth or may be woven on a small card.Towels for the bathroom may be woven from crochet cotton.

The fireplace may be made of cardboard marked off and colored to represent brick. A shallow box may be made to serve the purpose. Cut out the opening for the grate and lay real sticks on andirons made from soft wire; or draw a picture of blazing fire and put inside. The fireplace may also be made of clay. Pebbles may be pressed into the clay if a stone fireplace is desired. If clay is used, several small nails should be driven into the wall before the fireplace is built up, to hold the clay in place after it dries.

Bookcases may be made of cardboard, using a box construction, and glued to the wall. Or a block of wood about one inch thick may be used. In either case mark off the shelves and books with pencil lines, and color the backs of the books with crayon.

Fig. 24.—Detail of stairway.

The Stairway.—In a two-story house the hardest problem will usually be the stairs. Some good work in number may be done while finding out how many steps will be needed and where the stairway must begin in order to reach the second floor in comfort. Even quite small children can deal with this problem if presented in a simple way. For example, if the box or room is ten inches high, how many steps 1 in. wide and 1 in. high will be needed, and how far out into the room will they come? The children can work out the plan on the blackboard. Measurements may be modified to suit the ability of the class and the needs of the room.

The variety of possible constructions in building the staircase corresponds to the varying ability of classes. A strip of paper may be folded back and forth and made to serve with least mature classes. This paper stair will sag unless it rests on a board or piece of stiff pasteboard. A substantial stairway may be made by sawing two thin boards for supports, as in Fig. 24, and nailing on steps of thin wood or cardboard. There is usually one boy in every first grade who is capable of as difficult a piece of handwork as this. He is apt, also, to be the boy who takes least interest in the general work of the class, and often it is possible to arouse him to special effort through some such problem. The stairway may be made of heavy cardboard with a construction similar to that just described, but this requires pasting instead of nailing and is much more difficult for little children.

The Roof.—The making of the roof is another part of the house building which may often be given into the special care of the two or three over-age pupils who need special problems. The plan which they evolve from their study of the needs of the case will usually be of greater value to them, even though it may not be the best that could be suggested.

The roof may be made of wood as a base, with either wood or cardboard shingles tacked on in proper fashion; or it may be made of cardboard with the shingles merely indicated by lines made with crayon. If the wood base is used, wood gables may be made for sides or ends of the house. To these, long boards may be nailed to form a solid roof. Shingles two inches long by about one inch wide may be cut from cardboard or very thin wood and tacked to the boards. The children should be spurred to study the roofs of houses and find out how the shingles are arranged, and discover for themselves, if possible, the secret of successful shingling.

Fig. 25.—Box house, showing roof. Built by summer class, Teachers College, New York.

Fig. 26.—Detail of gable.

A cardboard roof is in many ways easier to build. In a house similar to the one shown in Fig. 25 two gables are used, and the roof slopes to front and back. The framework can be very simply made. At the two gable ends place uprights made of two pieces of wood joined in the form of an inverted T. (See Fig. 26.) These should be nailed to the box. A ridgepole may then be nailed to the upper ends of the uprights. If the house is not large, no other framework will be necessary. If the slope of the roof is long enough to allow the cardboard to sag, light strips of wood extending from the ridgepole to the outer edge of the box may be added. If a single piece of cardboard of sufficient size is available, it may be scored[1] and bent at the proper place and laid over the ridgepole, with the edges extending beyond the box to form the eaves. Or, two pieces may be used, one for each slope of the roof, each piece being tacked to the ridgepole. Chimneys may be made from paper and colored to represent bricks or stone.

Fig. 27.—Colonial kitchen. Columbia, Missouri.

The outside of the house may be treated in several ways. It may be sided after the manner of frame houses by tacking on strips of paper or cardboard lapped in the proper fashion. It may be covered with paper marked in horizontal lines to represent siding, in irregular spaces to represent stone, or in regular spaces to represent brick, and finished in the appropriate color. Or, a coat of paint or stain may be applied directly to the box.

VARIATIONS IN HOUSE PROBLEM

A playhouse for its own sake is a justifiable project for primary children and one which may be repeated several times without exhausting its possibilities. Each time it is repeated the emphasis will fall on some new feature, and the children will wish to do more accurate work.

In the lowest grades very simple houses of one or two rooms may be built for story-book friends, such as the "Three Bears" or "Little Red Riding Hood," with only such furniture as the story suggests. In intermediate grades the house may have an historical motive and illustrate home life in primitive times or in foreign countries, such as a colonial kitchen in New England, a pioneer cabin on the Western prairies, a Dutch home, a Japanese home, etc. In upper grades it may become a serious study in house decoration.

As the motive for making the house changes, the character and quality of its furnishings will change. The block furniture described above will give way to more accurate models in either wood or paper. Some excellent suggestions for paper furniture for advanced work may be found in the Manual Training Magazine.

As skill in construction increases, a wish for something more realistic than the box construction will arise, and the elements of house framing will be studied with great eagerness.

The House of the Three Bears. (See Fig. 28.)—This house was made early in the year by a class of first-grade children. The walls were papered in plain brown paper. The carpets were woven mats of paper. The chairs, table, and beds were made according to the methods already described in the playhouse outline. The stove and the doll were contributed. The bears were modeled in clay. The children played with the house and its contents throughout the year. The bears were broken and made over many times—a process which not only afforded great pleasure, but also developed considerable skill in modeling.

Another Bears' House.—This house, shown in Frontispiece, was made in the spring, near the end of the school year, by a class of first-grade children all of whom were under seven and many of whom were very immature.

The story of the Three Bears was taken up after Christmas, told and retold, read, and dramatized by the children. Teddy bears were brought to school. Many bears were modeled in clay, each child making the set of three many times.

Fig. 28.—House for the Three Bears. First grade. Columbia, Missouri.

The children laid off spaces on the table for individual Bears' houses and made furniture for these as their fancy prompted. The furniture was made of wood after the general style described above. Later, carpets were woven for these individual playhouses. Each carpet was woven to a given dimension, making it necessary to use the rule. This was their introduction to the rule as a tool for measuring. Every child in a class of forty made one or more pieces of furniture and wove one or more small carpets from rags. Nearly all made some bedding.

Fig. 29.—Cornstalk house. Built by second-grade class. Franklin, Indiana.

Later, four boxes were secured and arranged as a house. The openings for doors were marked off during school time, but were sawed out by a few children who remained during the noon intermission. This is the only part of the work which was not done during regular class time. The papering was done by two or three of the most capable children, while the rest were deeply absorbed in weaving. All made borders. Certain borders were selected for the house, and several children worked together to make enough of the same pattern for one room. Selections were then made from the carpets and furniture already made by the children.

The roof was made chiefly by one boy who "knew a good way to make it." The porches were also individual projects by pupils who had ideas on the subject and were allowed to work them out.

The children became very familiar with every phase of the story and attacked any expression of it with the feeling, "That's easy." They wrote stories, i.e. sentences about bears. Each child at the close of the year could write on the blackboard a story of two or more sentences. They made pictures of bears in all sorts of postures with colored crayon and from free-hand cuttings. They modeled the bears in clay over and over again, keeping up a large family in spite of many accidents.

CoÖperative Building.—Figures 11, 12, and 13 show three rooms of a four-room house built by the first and second grades working together. The living room and bedroom were furnished by first-grade children. The dining room, kitchen, and bath were furnished by the second grade. Four boxes were used. (See diagram, page 35, Fig. 14.) Each room, except the bath, was a separate box. After a general plan had been agreed upon by the teachers, the boxes were carried to the several rooms and each class worked quite independently. When the rooms were finished, they were assembled on a table in the hall and the roof put on.

Fig. 30.—A flour mill. Built by fourth grade. Columbia, Missouri.

The Flour Mill.—The flour mill, shown in Fig. 30, was built in connection with a study of the general subject of milling by a fourth-grade class. The class visited a flour mill. They were shown the various machines, and the function of each was explained to them. They made hasty sketches of the machines and a rough diagram of their arrangement on the floors. They got the dimensions of the floors and height of the ceiling. An empty box was remodeled to approximate the dimensions of the building. Small representations of the machines were made and placed in the proper relation to each other. No attempt was made to show more than the external proportions in the small representation. The work served its best purpose in keeping the children thinking definitely about what they had seen. The attempt to express their thoughts in tangible form deepened the mental impression, even though the tangible results were crude and lacked many details.

The conveyer being of special interest, two boys worked out a larger model which illustrated the band-bucket process. This is shown in Fig. 30, at the right of the mill. Small cups were made of soft tin and fastened to a leather strap. The strap was fastened around two rods, placed one above the other. The lower rod was turned by a crank fastened on the outside of the box. Two or three brads driven into the lower rod caught into holes in the strap and prevented slipping. The machine successfully hoisted grain from the lower box to one fastened higher up, but not shown in the picture. The model was very crude in its workmanship, but it showed the ability of fourth-grade boys to successfully apply an important principle in mechanics, and it gave opportunity for their ingenuity to express itself. The work was done with such tools and materials as the boys could provide for themselves, and without assistance other than encouraging suggestions from the teacher. This bit of construction accompanied a broad study of the subject of milling, including the source and character of the raw materials, the processes involved, the finished products and their value.

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