1. Clay and Plasticine modelling. Work with and without the addition of other materials. The models should be becoming more careful and detailed and additional material selected with greater care and skill. Work should include some pottery, including thumb pots and coil pots, pressed ware and the decoration of these.

2. Work with scrap materials. More ambitious projects can be undertaken than previously, and some of the work can combine with work in other subjects. Some work should be undertaken which poses specific problems, e.g. making of vehicles with the fixing of wheels. Work should also be planned which encourages careful selection of materials.

3. Carving. This work should continue as before, the children gaining in skill.

C. Puppetry

The following kinds of puppets are suitable for this age group:

1. Cut-out puppets with movable limbs, operated by wires. These can be dressed by cutting, sticking and draping material, or by making properly sewn costumes.

2. Match-box puppets, using both a simple glove method and the rod-and-glove method of operation.

3. Puppets with stuffed material heads.

Work should also include the painting of scenery and the making of properties.

D. Woodwork

In this craft children should develop greater ability and greater accuracy in the use of tools and more imaginative use of the materials. Much of the work should still be in making things of their own choice, but some of it can be directed so that they meet and solve some of the problems involved, particularly those of joining two pieces of wood. Towards the top of this group more formal work can be introduced if the opportunity offers. This should include the following:

1. Training and practice in the correct and accurate use of the saw and hammer and the use of the try-square.

2. Use of drill and screws.

3. Use of sandpaper.

4. Discussion about kinds and qualities of woods, their appearance and their uses.

E. Needlework

Much of the work will be covered by the formal needlework scheme and is therefore outside the scope of this book. There ought, however, to be some work of a more experimental nature taking place in the craft lessons, available for both boys and girls. This should include some needlework of the children's own choice, the making of applique and embroidery pictures, using part sewing and part sticking, and the making of clothes for dolls and puppets.

F. Weaving

Work started in the Infant group should continue, the children increasing in skill. These children can be introduced to the use of a spaced warp and to tapestry weaving.

G. Bookmaking

Work in this subject will arise from work in other subjects, where class, group and individual books are made. The following work is suitable for this age group:

1. The making and decorating of the inside and outside of books, using sewing and stapling as methods of binding.

2. Work on the arrangement of the inside of the book, including layout of writing and illustration with adequate margins, page decoration and decorated title pages, indexes, simple bibliography, or lists of sources of information.

3. Reinforcement of the spine of the book with cloth.

4. Making of endpapers.

5. Single-section book with manilla or thin card covers, involving merely arranging and sewing.

6. Folders, joined by cloth and edged with cloth.

7. Some work involving measuring, ruling and cutting to a line. Children should also be encouraged to estimate and to ask themselves, "Does this look right?"

9-11 years

Children at this age have reached the height of their skill in the Primary school and should have a good basic knowledge of most media. Nearly all of them will have reached the stage of drawing from observation. Much of the work, particularly in the last year, will be in the nature of a summing up and making conscious of work previously covered incidentally and known subconsciously.

A. Picture and pattern making

1. Some work should be specifically undertaken to develop visual imagination.

2. Children in this group are beginning to draw from observation. Much work should therefore be undertaken to extend their knowledge of the appearance of things.

The following would be suitable:

(a) Sketch-book work, including collections of different kinds of houses, windows, doors, chimneys, fences, etc.

(b) Studies of trees and bushes.

(c) Quick sketches, preferably in paint, of posed figures. All this work should be definitely related to pattern making or picture making and children should get into the habit of going to look or finding references when they are uncertain about the appearance of something.

3. Colour. Children at this stage should have a pretty good idea of how to mix any colour they require. They should be able to use dark and neutral colours to advantage. The colour knowledge given in Chapter Sixteen, which will have been previously introduced more or less incidentally, may now be made a conscious body of knowledge, following various kinds of work which ensure that the children discover the facts for themselves. Some work should also be undertaken which requires a conscious use of known colour facts.

4. Tone. Children should have fair ability to distinguish tone values by this time. Some specific work should be done, to point the fact that if something in a picture is to show up, it must either be lighter or darker than the background. Some work in one colour could also be introduced to help children to discover the relative strength of tone in various textures and to relate these. Suitable one-colour media would be pen and ink, scraper board and lino.

5. Composition. Much work previously understood subconsciously can now be discussed and made conscious knowledge. Work should be undertaken to help children to discover the following:

(a) A picture or design must fit the paper on which it is carried out. Some lines and shapes should echo the edge of the paper. Some work should be carried out on paper which is not the usual rectangular shape. Suitable shapes might be ovals, circles, long narrow rectangles and triangles.