Page:The Elementary Worker and his Work.djvu/71

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wraps and quietly pass out, receiving papers and cards as they go.

(e) General suggestions. The high lights of the program should be on prayer and on the teaching of the lesson.

If the room is too small and the session too short to admit of handwork, or other exercises suggested in the above, a program may be arranged to suit the existing conditions. Resting the ChildrenIn very crowded quarters the only opportunity for marching may be to take the children out into the hall and back again. Yet this may be made interesting, perhaps by connecting it with the giving service. Where any marching at all is impossible, the children can at least stand and mark time. They may also stand for songs and other exercises.

Finger games and motion songs offer physical relief and interest to the children, and can be used helpfully oftentimes. For instance, if the lesson has to do with the springtime and the awakening of nature, this finger song may be used:

"In my little garden bed, raked so nicely over,
First the tiny seeds I sow, then with soft earth cover;
Shining down, the great round sun smiles upon it often;
Little raindrops pattering down help the seeds to soften."

The child's lap will be the garden, where he plants the imaginary seeds; his own smile is the sunshine, and with his fingers he represents the pattering rain.

Some of these finger games or songs may be introduced just before the lesson, closing with this, which will secure quiet for the lesson:

"Where do all the fingers go?
I know. I know.
Into each child's lap they creep,
And they lie there fast asleep.
That is where they go!"

As far as possible make the rest exercises expressive of some thought, rather than mere mechanical movement.