UC-NRLF
DTD
GIFT OF
Class of 1887
PURPOSEFUL HANDWORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS
ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO
MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
LONDON BOMBAY - CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA. LTD.
TORONTO
PURPOSEFUL HANDWORK
BY
JANE W. McKEE
INSTRUCTOR IN KINDERGARTEN AND FIRST GRADE
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
ILLUSTRATED BY
CHARLES W. COOPER
gotfe
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1922
All rights reserved
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
COPYRIGHT, 1922,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published August, 1922.
J. S. Cushing Co. Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
Co
MY HUSBAND
AND
MY LITTLE DAUGHTER
482336
PREFACE
IT is my hope that this little manual will be re-
garded by the lay teacher as a compilation of sug-
gestions, and not as an extensive study, or final
treatise on handwork. As society evolves, education
must change to keep apace with it, so may this text
serve as a waypost, not a goal.
It was not my intention, originally, to write a
book ; the need developed and I met it as I could.
The content of these few pages is the result of
eight years of work, including experimental kinder-
garten and first grade teaching, physical education
supervision in the elementary school, and Normal
Training School instructing.
I do not claim it to be original. It is a compila-
tion of suggestions and ideas which have come to
me from my own little daughter, from the children
whom it has been my good fortune to teach in
public schools, from Normal School students, from
observation of daily life, and from individual study.
The projects described have been worked out in
an average one-teacher, one-room public school
kindergarten or first grade of mixed population.
viii PREFACE
I am deeply indebted to the many instructors
and co-workers who, with their inspiration and guid-
ance, have blazed the educational trail for me.
Special acknowledgments are due to Caroline Craw-
ford McLean of Teachers College, Columbia Uni-
versity, who awakened in me an appreciation of
childhood, with all its fullness and joy ; to Gudron
Thorne-Thomsen of the Francis Parker School in
Chicago, who taught me to appreciate the art of
simplicity, the means of gaining the genuine con-
fidence of the child ; to Patty Smith Hill of Teach-
ers College, Columbia University, who has stood
out as the leader in freeing kindergarten education
from its traditional swaddling clothes ; to my
beloved supervisor in training school, Mary King
Drew, who gave me an appreciation of organization
and method ; and to Clark W. Hetherington, former
State Supervisor of Physical Education in Califor-
nia, who gave me an understanding of the psy-
chology of play, and since play is inseparable from
childhood, a functioning psychology of childhood.
JANE W. McKEE.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HANDWORK i
II. PURPOSEFUL HANDWORK 6
III. HANDWORK OF PLAY VALUE . . . .13
IV. HANDWORK OF UTILITY VALUE . . . .79
V. HANDWORK OF ART VALUE .... 99
VI. SUPPLIES AND ACCOMMODATIONS . . .102
INDEX PROBLEMS AND PROJECTS LISTED AL-
PHABETICALLY 107
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Plate i. Folded Airplane 14
Plate 2. Wooden Airplane 15
Aviation Helmet and Goggles 16
Plate 3. Aviation Helmet 17
Plate 4. Blow-out 19
Blow-out . 20
Baseball Mitt 20
Coat-hanger Bow and Arrow 21
Plate 5. Boomerang 23
Plate 6. Boy's Cap . .25
Group Illustration 26
1. Shoe-box Circus Wagon, II
2. Circus Clown
3. Shoe-box Circus Wagon, I
Cradle 27
'Shoe-box Doll Buggy 27
Box Doll Buggy 28
Wrapping-paper Doll 28
Plate 7. Doll Hat . . . . . . . .29
Rag Doll 30
Plate 8. Paper Doll 31
Drum 32
Doll House 33
Paper Dress 34
Engine 35
Plate 9. Fireman's Hat, I 36
Group Illustration 37
1. Fireman's Hat, II.
2. Fireman's Hat, I.
xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Plate 10. Fireman's Hat, II 38
Low Bench with Vises 39
Box Furniture 39
Ring-toss Game . 40
Giant Game 41
Popgun (Open) . . 41
Popgun (Closed) . . 41
Plate ii. Aviation Goggles 42
Plate 12. Popgun 43
Pattern for Hat . . . 44
Hat (Trimmed) 44
Children Wearing Paper Hats 45
Plate 13. Hat 46
Jumping Jack . .48
Plate 14. Jumping Jack 49
Kite 50
Shopping Bag . 50
Plate 15. Knitting Bag 52
Plate 16. Parrot Toy 55
Plate 17. Railroad Signal 56
Rug and Loom 58
Signal Flag ' 59
Sewing Basket 59
Plate 18. Spool Doll 60
Soldiers 61
Plate 19. Spectrum Twirler 62
Plate 20. Japanese Slippers 63
Soldier's Overseas Hat 65
Plate 21. Sunbonnet 66
Plate 22. Sailor Tarn o' Shanter 67
Plate 23. Sailor Hat 68
Plate 24. Soldier Hat . . .69
Plate 25. Soldier's Overseas Hat . 70
Soldier's Leggings ... 71
Plate 26. Soldier's Leggings . 72
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii
PAGE
Plate 27. Train . 73
Plate 28. Tree 75
Plate 29. Indian Tom-tom 76
Wheelbarrow 77
Plate 30. Wheelbarrow 78
Cloth Apron 79
Plate 31. Constructed Apron 80
Child Wearing Cloth Apron 81
Group Illustration 84
1. Cot without cover
2. Cot with cover
Plate 32. Cot 85
Candlestick and Shade 86
Plate 33. Candle 87
Plate 34. Cup 88
Plate 35. Crumb Tray and Scraper 90
Churn 91
Flower Pot and Plant 92
Fly Swatter 92
Plate 36. Hearth Broom 93
Pan Holder 94
Paper Plates 96
Child Drawing at Easel with Crayon 100
Supply Box on Casters 104
PURPOSEFUL HANDWORK
CHAPTER I
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HANDWORK
IN order that I may set forth my findings in the
field of purposeful handwork, it will be necessary for
the reader to traverse rapidly with me the first
psychological stage in the process of manual activ-
ity ; namely, manipulation.
My conclusions in the matter of manipulation are
the results of experimental studies with numerous
children in the elementary school, and particularly
with those between the ages of four and seven years.
In reviewing the records of my own daughter's
early experiences I was confronted with the fact
that with every new experience, physical and in-
tellectual, she first went through a testing period of
spontaneous, motiveless movements which finally
brought the acts consciously before her, clarifying
her mental images and coordinating her muscular
activities. With each new situation the length of
the manipulation period varied in proportion to
its relation to past experiences.
2 PURPOSEFUL HANDWORK
I took this conception of the importance of manip-
ulation into the kindergarten with me and there I
set the children free in self -organized activities. I
found manipulation to be a never absent antecedent
of every new experience they, went through. Accord-
ing to Norsworthy and Whitley, in The Psychology
of Childhood, the fact "that the field of energy fur-
nished by this instinct as well as the possibilities
offered should have been practically ignored in our
schools for so many years seems almost incredible. "
I observed manipulation to be an individual un-
foldment on the child's part, for no teacher is wise
enough to tell how long it will take these crude,
unconscious twistings, turnings, pullings, pushings,
scribblings, snippings, pokings, cuttings, and daub-
ings, to develop into conscious usable activity.
There is but one person who appreciates when the
transition from the manipulation to the problem
stage takes place ; and this is not the teacher, but
the child himself who, although he does not con-
sciously know, yet registers his progress through
his choices and actions, provided we give him half
a chance freely to make choices and to carry
them out.
Granting that manipulation is as legitimate a phase
of development as the problem or project phase,
shall we permit the child, in developing his powers
of manipulation, to ruin expensive materials by
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HANDWORK 3
wasteful hacking into them? If the teacher is to
be eliminated, the result will be disorder and reckless
waste, and abuse of equipment and materials. We
can never eliminate the teacher from an educational
situation. She is the selective agent. She directs the
manipulating child to materials that best fit his
need ; as, remnants of goods, misfit lumber, odd
papers, etc. Do not misunderstand me ; I do not ad-
vocate supplying the manipulating child with old
waste materials. His materials should be just as
good and as clean and attractive as the problem or
project supplies of a later period ; but they may often
be the incorrect cuts and trimmings from such supplies.
This psychology of manipulation opened up the
natural sequence of the kindergarten-primary cur-
riculum to me. In the past we have omitted initial
manipulation. It has been ignored because it
seemed, to the untaught, wasteful and its results
ugly. We have preferred to recognize the second
or problem stage as the first because its results
" showed off " to better advantage, because it made
good school advertising.
As selective agent, the teacher watches and re-
cords the natural selections, introduces materials
best fitting the child's needs as they arise, builds up
situations that will satisfy these crude yearnings,
supervises the exercises, removes the situations
when they climax thus avoiding disorder pre-
4 PURPOSEFUL HANDWORK
vents overstimulation in environment by simplifying
the surroundings, listens to the child's suggestions,
and follows his lead.
As the children grow through manipulation, as
their images clarify and their muscles coordinate,
those with similar tastes and skills form into sep-
arate groups. In these simple, self -organized groups
the first little lessons are born ; the first small prob-
lems, whose ends are immediate, are suggested ; as,
to cut on the line, sew a seam, or tie a knot ; and
the first simple patterns are displayed. This is the
second, or problem stage. Must the children follow
the patterns suggested? No, not if they have a
plan of their own. Never, if they themselves have
another legitimate interest, socially valuable, in
relation to which they can work.
In the problem stage the child's mind has been
freed from the all-absorbing manipulation, through
the development of habits of thought and action.
He is free to think something beyond consciousness
of skill and process, so he thinks ends, and means
of attaining the ends set up. Thus is the conscious
problem established.
As the child gains skill in working with problems
which are simple plots, he combines plots, inter-
weaves them, and works them into what we term
projects ; for example, a child models a clay flower-
pot, paints and shellacs it, and brushes the inside
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HANDWORK 5
with paraffin ; then he fills it with earth, plants a
seed in it, waters and cares for it, and takes the
plant home to his parents.
In observing these self-directed activities I found
the children in the problem and project stage to be
engaged in three types of handwork :
1. Making " play-toys."
2. Making articles of utility.
3. Decorating articles of utility and "play-
toys. "
The pictures in this book are taken from the
children's own work or from teachers' models of
articles which children have made and carried home.
CHAPTER II
PURPOSEFUL HANDWORK
CHILDREN are interested in real things, not in pat-
terns or symbols of things. They are interested in
investigating and originating ; in being a cause, and
in causing an effect. " Sheer imitation, dictation
of steps to be taken, mechanical drill, may give re-
sults most quickly and yet strengthen traits likely
to be fatal to reflective power." (Dewey.) Then
let us teach children real things, things that function
now, not at some future date. \Let us help the child
to live fully and efficiently in the " to-day. "
Among the traditional customs of the formal
kindergarten is its use of such expensive made-to-
order materials as coated paper, folding paper, cut-
ting paper, chain paper, weaving mats, sewing cards,
weaving needles, etc. Cases on record show the
failure of such materials to carry the kindergarten-
primary lessons into demonstration in the home.
Twenty hours out of the twenty-four the kinder-
garten-primary child is in and about the home. Let
us, in that four hours allotted the school, pre-
pare him to enjoy and invest properly the twenty |
6
PURPOSEFUL HANDWORK 7
hours spent at home. How can we do this? By
introducing into the school the materials used in the
equipment of the home, and by dignifying and hon-
oring them. And what are these home materials?
Roughly speaking dolls, clothes, furniture, wash-
tubs, ironing board, flatiron, broom, wood, tools,
paint, wrapping paper, paper bags, string, spools,
milk-bottle tops, tin cans, cardboard boxes, cloth,
berry boxes, pins, buttonmolds, coat hangers, etc.
Let us teach thrift by showing the child how mate-
rials commonly wasted about the home may be con-
verted into attractive, useful articles, and let us give
him at school the inspiration, the idea, and the op-
portunity of doing this ; then we shall note with joy
the functioning of our lessons in his life out of school
as well as in.
As the situation is to-day, the warehouses are not
prepared to fill our requisitions for supplies for
purposeful handwork. The keepers of school sup-
plies are at a loss when we ask for buttonmolds,
paper bags, milk-bottle tops, collar buttons, dyes,
cloth, and wood. How then are we to obtain these
supplies that at the present do not come through the
established channels of requisition ? Until the need
for the cruder home materials has been recognized
through the keeping of records and through exhibits
of purposeful handwork, we must turn to the child \
himself for the solution of our common problem of i
8 PURPOSEFUL HANDWORK
limitation. He is at once eager to cooperate when
we give the first hint that such contributions are
needed and will be gratefully accepted. Through
this medium of exchange, bonds are strengthened
between home and school, drawing the two into inter-
dependent relationship, with the child as inter-
mediary. The mother will be quite as happy to see
her child leave home, a veritable Santa Claus, with
his pack on his back filled with empty cereal boxes,
coffee cans, milk-bottle tops, and paper bags, as
the teacher will be to greet her source of project sup-
plies. The inherent possibilities of the crude ma-
terials he is carrying will have ample tune to suggest
and unfold themselves in the child's constructive
imagination with each step he takes in the direction
of the " school-shop," where his treasures will be
valued and transformed, as by fairy art, into attrac-
tive toys and useful articles.
With the crude material at school, our next problem
is, What is the method to be employed in its trans-
formation? \If our ami is to follow with wisdom the
trend of the times in stimulating originality and
resource on the part of the child, this sentence from
The Psychology of Childhood by Norsworthy and
Whitley comes to us with a message: "Originality
of performance follows a variety of experiences and
an increase of technique, and it should not be required
until many concrete examples have been presented."
PURPOSEFUL HANDWORK 9
Before the days of project teaching, when we spoke
of methods we referred to dictation, imitation, and
suggestion. To-day these same methods function in
teaching a child, but only after the project has been
launched. The methods used in launching the proj-
ect may be listed as follows :
1. Arrange a table attractively and suggestively
with units of supply material distributed about in an
orderly fashion. These may be miscellaneous boxes,
milk-bottle tops, paper fasteners, string, paper, and
scissors. The child is privileged to use any or all of
this material in experiment. He may work out for
himself a wagon, an automobile, a piano, an air-
plane, a doll's bed. At first no models are pre-
sented, but as the children work the teacher calls
attention to various good combinations or patterns.
She aims to lift the child's responses and to hold him
to his best work.
2. The second method is that of presenting simple,
well-worked-out models for the children to examine,
test out, and imitate as they choose, at the same time
exposing units of material for their construction.
When the child is in possession of a mental vo-
cabulary of images which he has translated into
concrete articles he is then in a position to work out
original designs and offer individual changes and
elaborations. Once the child's purpose is clear, his
interest in it is the driving force which impels him
io PURPOSEFUL HANDWORK
to deviate from patterns and experiment with the
type models. His purpose developed, he forges ahead
on his own initiative, elaborating and enlarging upon
his idea as it unfolds and takes form. With this in-
dividualizing of a basic unit comes the birth of new
ideas and models. During this process of develop-
ing his model, the child may stumble many times
and need some aid and much encouragement from
the teacher. As a group working over similar proj-
ects reaches a stumbling block or limit of ability,
the teacher steps in and gives a group lesson. This
lesson, therefore, comes at a time when it applies to
an immediate problem, and when it is capable of
being understood and can be immediately acted
upon.
3. Often just the description of possible projects,
or pictures, or articles that can be imitated in min-
iature, is all that is necessary to set the ingenuity of
the child to work on his own invention. When this
is the case the less the teacher offers of suggestion
the better.
Personally I have obtained the best results from
the use of methods 2 and 3, although many teachers
use the first method exclusively.
Ask yourself if you are still clinging to the old the-
ory that the child is a being to be prepared for living
in some future period which he may never reach.
Then remember, in case you have forgotten it, that
PURPOSEFUL HANDWORK n
he is living now. a We must take the child as a
member of society in the broadest sense, and demand
for and from the school whatever is necessary to en-
able the child intelligently to recognize all his social
relations and take his part in sustaining them."
(Dewey.) It is as important to be a child as to be
an adult, and it is the duty of the school to aid the
child, through giving him ample opportunity to make
and abide by wise choices, and to live in the present
to the fullest and best extent. Let us discriminate
between instruction the results of which remain
within the four walls of the schoolroom and that
which functions in aiding the child in complete
living outside of the schoolroom.
When I dropped the "pre-program," planned by
week or month in advance, and adopted the "post-
program," a summary of the children's choices,
project handwork took the place of what in the
past had been teacher-imposed occupation on a
miniature representative and pictorial plan. The
children, feeling the spirit of the laboratory method,
brought their broken dolls, scooters, engines, jumping-
jacks, and books to the kindergarten workshop to
be mended and repaired. This work of rejuvenat-
ing toys from the home helped to bridge the gap be-
tween home and school and to strengthen the bonds of
sympathy, and gave the child a greater sense of pride
in his possessions, and of desire to care for them. So
12 PURPOSEFUL HANDWORK
we made toys at kindergarten, real toys, toys we
could take home and play with.
Clarifying my aims I sought for practical ideas
that would utilize the materials of the home, have
"do with" qualities, and be simple. From the
children themselves I received most of my sugges-
tions.
CHAPTER III
HANDWORK OF PLAY VALUE
THE following comprises my list of " play- toys."
Any kindergarten or primary problem-project pupil
can make them out of materials which he can find
in his home.
1. Folded Airplane. Use a piece of paper 6
inches by 9 inches, or of equal proportion, and fold
it lengthwise, as in Plate i, Figure II, B to C. Fold
edge B to F f along crease BC. Fold edge BF along
crease BC. Fold BA' along BC. Fold BA along
BC. Turn the sheet over on the other side. Fold
BD' along BC. Fold BD along BC. Turn the
sheet over. Fold BE' along BE. Lift up the wings
and place a paper fastener through P to hold the
construction hi place. (See Figure IV.) The air-
plane may then be decorated.
2. Wooden Airplane. - Use a piece of soft
wood (basswood or red wood) approximately 20
inches long, i inch thick, and 2 inches wide. (See
Plate 2, Figure I, A .) The upper front wing is about
i foot long and the under front wing is about 10 inches
long. Wooden pins are nailed in place between the
13
PURPOSEFUL HANDWORK
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PLATE i
HANDWORK OF PLAY VALUE
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PLATE 2
1 6 PURPOSEFUL HANDWORK
wings to hold them apart. (Figure II.) The back
wing is the same size as the under front wing. A tin
can is nailed to board A just behind the front wing.
A long nail with a milk-bottle top at the end is used
for the steering wheel. A wooden seat is nailed to
board A behind the wheel. Typewriter ribbon
rolls, kodak rolls, or buttonmolds may be used for
wheels. (See B and C, Figure I.) The propeller is
a pinwheel made of paper, fastened to the front of
board A. (See Figure III, for making pinwheel.)
Stiff cardboard may be used for the wings in place
of wood.
3. Clothespin Airplane. - - Force a 6-inch stick
(pencil size) into the groove of an old-fashioned
clothespin. Glue stiff pieces of paper 3 inches square
on both ends of the stick for wings. Tie a string to
the head of the clothes-
pin. The child holds
the string and runs.
4. Aviation Helmet.
- Use a paper bag
large enough to fit the
child's head. Open it
up, and cut out the
front face as in Plate 3,
AVIATION HELMET AND GOGGLES p igure L Tum j t over
and cut out the back piece as shown in Figure II.
These two side flaps go over the ears and hang down
HANDWORK OF PLAY VALUE
n
PLATE 3
i8 PURPOSEFUL HANDWORK
to the shoulders. Figure I shows the front of the
helmet. Bind the cut sides with strips of wrapping
paper i inch wide sewed with colored yarn.
5. Paper-bag Ball. Blow up or stuff with rags
or paper snips a paper bag. Tie firmly, and decorate
with brilliant paints (show-card colors). This makes
an attractive ball for the youngest children to play
with.
6. Paper-bag Balloon. Blow up a paper bag and
tie it securely. Decorate. Attach wings of lighter
weight paper to the sides. From the tied end drop
three strings, each 4 inches long, and attach these to a
small sixteen-fold box or sanitary milk-bottle cap.
The balloon is thrown into the air, basket end first.
An interesting problem is the experiment of placing
stones of different weights in the basket. The weight
of the stone determines the speed of the balloon's
descent.
7. Parachute. Use a piece of cloth, handker-
chief size. Work out stencil designs to be colored
with paints or crayons in the center of the cloth.
Tie a 6-inch string to each corner. Bring all the
strings together at the end and tie them to a stick
or stone. Throw it up into the air ; as it comes
down it opens and sails. Experiment by varying
the weight of the stick or stone.
8. Blow-out. Use a piece of light-weight wrap-
ping paper 15 inches long and 6 inches wide. Fold
HANDWORK OF PLAY VALUE
m
n
n m
PLATE 4
20 PURPOSEFUL HANDWORK
in thirds, lengthwise, as in Plate 4, Figure I. Paste
along the one side, forming a flattened 2-inch paper
tube 1 5 inches
long like that in
Figure II. When
the paste is dry,
decorate this tube
with paints or
crayons. Glue
a downy feather BLOW-OUT
(Figure VI) to one end of the tube as in Figure III,
and fasten a i-inch piece of hollow bamboo (Figure V)
to the other end for a mouthpiece. Roll it up as in
Figure IV, and then blow it out.
9. Bean Bag. Cut a paper pattern for the child
to use in getting the proper size and shape of material
for making a bean bag. Use
a heavy material. Sew the
bag on three sides, turn it
inside out and once more sew
the three sides, using colored
yarn this time. Partly fill the
bag with beans and sew up
the open side. The bag may
then be decorated, using colored
yarn, crayons, or paints.
10. Baseball Mitt. Use newspaper or wrapping