Notes of Lessons: Geography, Class III

[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: Geography • Group: Science • Class III • Time: 30 minutes

By Dorothy Brownell
The Parents’ Review, 1904, pp. 869-870

Brazil

Objects

I. To interest the children in Brazil.

II. To make them realise some of the chief characteristics, and the beauty of a country lying almost wholly in the tropics.

III. To give the children some interesting knowledge of the physical features, climate, productions and history of Brazil.

Lesson

Step I.—Have the following map questions on the blackboard, and while the children are learning the answers to them from their maps, draw a sketch-map of Brazil on another board.

Map Questions

(1) Name the boundaries of Brazil.

(2) What can you tell about the surface of Brazil from the map?

(3) Name the largest rivers of Brazil. What can you tell about the Amazon from the map?

(4) What other countries in the world lie in the same latitude as Brazil?

(5) What is the general direction of the mountains in Brazil?

Step II.—Let the children give the answers to the questions, and as they answer, say a few words in enlargement of each point, drawing as much as possible from the children. Describe the approach to Brazil from the sea, how the whole aspect of the country is rugged and mountainous, with ranges of hills coming one behind another, while the actual coast is much the same as our English coast, with rocks and sand, and a good deal of mud, but the rocks have a curious appearance, owing to their being almost invariably covered with coral. Draw from the children that the Amazon is a vast collection of rivers, some of which are themselves very considerable, which together form the network of rivers more correctly called the Amazons. Read a short description of the Amazon from Far Off. Tell the story of the adventurous voyage of Francisco de Orellana and his followers, and why he gave the name of “El Rio de las Amazonas” to that river.

Step III.—Let the girls name the principal towns in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and Pernambuco and describe these, showing pictures and photographs. Describe the Sugar-Loaf Cone, and the beautiful little bay of Botafogo near Rio. Try to make the children realise each place, and picture it through their imaginations.

Step IV.—Question as to the productions, and mention some of the animals of the country.

Step V.—Ask the children to tell all that they can about the government and history of Brazil, supplementing with what they do not know, and reading the story of the discovery of Brazil in 1500, by Pedro Alvarez Cabral, from Portugal, in the “Story of the Nations” series.

Step VI.—Let the children read the first lesson on Brazil in their Geographical Readers (Book V.).

Step VII.—Recapitulation.