Notes of Lessons: Biology, Class Ia

[We have thought that it might be of use to our readers (in their own families) to publish from month to month during the current year, Notes of Lessons prepared by students of the House of Education for the pupils of the Practising School. We should like to say, however, that such a Lesson is never given as a tour de force, but is always an illustration or an expansion of some part of the children’s regular studies (in the Parents’ Review School), some passage in one or other of their school books.—Ed.]

Subject: Natural History • Group: Science • Class Ia • Time: 15 minutes

By H. Smeeton
The Parents’ Review, 1906, pp. 61-62

Objects

I. To arouse interest in one of our less conspicuous trees.

II. To stimulate future observation.

III. To show that everything in nature has its use and lives to fulfil it.

Lesson

Step I.—Name three forest trees and say how an ivy tree differs from them all.

In what kind of places do we find ivy?

Step II.—The ivy does not bear fruit and flowers until it has spent some years climbing.

The flower does not come until late autumn when nearly every other flower has gone, and thus coming late the honey in the flower prolongs the life of myriads of insects. The ivy berries in early spring supply food for blackbirds, thrushes, and wood pigeons.

Step III.—Some of the insects that visit the ivy flowers:—

Hive and humble bees gather honey to carry to their homes.

Wasps collect honey and take it home for their grubs which they feed six to eight times a day.

Butterflies come to feed themselves, and eat sometimes until they are quite dizzy.

Step IV.—Draw on black-board the tongue of a bee and that of a butterfly, and draw from the boys why they are so different.

Step V.—Spiders come to the ivy flowers to catch the insects that have eaten so much they cannot get away.

Hornets come to devour the butterflies and wasps.

Moths come after dusk to feed on the honey, and can easily be seen if we pay a visit to the ivy bloom with a lantern.

Step VI.—Ask children to watch and find out for themselves the difference between a moth and a butterfly.