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Cutting out Pictures.—This serves well for first effort with scissors. The interest in the picture furnishes a motive, while the outline serves as a guide and allows the attention to be given wholly to the control of the scissors.

Free cutting of single objects—such as animals, fruits, trees, furniture, utensils, etc.—intensifies and clarifies mental pictures and stimulates observation if the child is led to express his own ideas first and then to compare his expression with the original and note his deficiencies. As far as possible choose objects with strong bold outlines for the first attempts. There should be some marked feature, such as Bunny's long ears, which calls for emphasis. To cut a circular piece of paper which might be an apple or a peach, a walnut or a tomato, will not aid much in clarifying a mental picture, while Bunny's long ears, even though crudely cut, will be more deeply impressed on the child's mind.

Illustrations for Stories.—Single Illustration.—After a story has been read aloud and the characters and events freely discussed by the class, each child may be encouraged to represent the part which has appealed to him—i.e. "cut what he wants to cut." After the cuttings are mounted they will probably form a series which will tell the whole story. When several children illustrate the same feature, it offers opportunity for comparison and judgment as to which ones have told the story most effectively. For example, in the story of the Three Bears, the cuttings may show the three bears in three relative sizes, the three chairs, the three beds, the table, and the three bowls of porridge. (See notes on Criticism.)

Fig. 5.—Free cutting. Third grade. Columbia, Missouri.

Series.—Let each child select the two or three most important events in a story and illustrate these in a single poster or series of posters.

Community Poster.—A long story such as the "Old Woman and the Silver Sixpence" may be illustrated by the class as a whole, each child cutting some one feature. This requires attention to relative proportions so that the parts may be in harmony when assembled. Such posters may be used for wall decoration.

Charts.—Poster making may also include the making of charts containing samples of manufactured articles in various stages of development. For example, a chart on cotton might show raw cotton, cord, thread, cloth of various sorts, lace, paper, and other materials made from cotton. Such a chart might also include pictures of cotton fields, spinning and weaving machinery, and other related features.

Materials.—Too much can scarcely be said in favor of much cutting from an unlimited supply of common wrapping paper, newspaper, or other waste paper, in which the children are entirely unhampered by such injunctions as, "Be careful and get it just right the first time, because you can't have another paper if you waste this piece." The possible danger of cultivating wastefulness is less serious and more easily overcome than the very probable danger of dwarfing and cramping the power of expression. Here, if anywhere, the rule holds good that we learn to do by doing, and abundant practice is essential to success.

Black silhouette or poster paper is most effective when mounted, but is too expensive for general use in large classes.

Brown kraft paper and tailor's pattern paper serve well for both cuttings and mounts. Both of these papers may be had by the roll at a low cost. The tailor's paper comes in several dull colors, which make good mounts for cuttings from white scratch paper or the fine print of newspaper.

Bogus paper makes an excellent mount and is very inexpensive.

The Pasting Process.—To a large number of teachers the pasting lesson is a time to be dreaded and its results a cause of discouragement. Especially is this true if the class is large and the teacher attempts to have all the class pasting at one time. In many phases of school work it is so much easier to control forty or fifty children if they all act in unison that we are prone to use the method too often and apply it to forms of work much better managed by groups. The process of teaching little folks to paste is greatly simplified by the use of the group method.