The central idea in this elementary work is to train the children in intelligent weather observation, so that they may come to appreciate what our typical weather changes are; that they may recognize the types as they recur, and may see how each example differs from, or accords with, those that have preceded it. We are all so directly affected by the weather conditions prevailing at any time that even the youngest children are forced, unconsciously to be sure, to take some notice of these changes. The work of the teacher is, therefore, simply to direct attention to what is already seen. When the children come to school on some snowy winter day, with a northeast wind, chilling and damp, attention may be called to the need of overshoes and overcoats, to the piling up of the snow in deep drifts at certain places near the school or in the town, while in other places the ground is left bare; to the ease with which snowballs may be made, and to other facts which will very readily suggest themselves. A day or two after such a storm, when the sun is shining bright in a cloudless sky, when there is no wind and the air is dry, cold, and crisp, the contrasts between these two weather types should be brought out. Instead of snow we now have sunshine: instead of a damp, chilling northeaster we now have a calm and the air is dry; snowballs cannot easily be made in the early morning because the snow is frozen hard and is too dry, but towards noon, if the temperature rise high enough, there may be thawing on the tops or sides of the snowdrifts, and there the snow becomes soft enough for snowballing. Another weather type, often noted during our winter in the central and eastern United States, and strongly contrasted with both of the preceding conditions, is that which brings us a warm, damp, southerly wind, frequently accompanied by heavy rains. As these damp winds blow over snow-covered surfaces they become foggy and the ground is said to “smoke”; the heavy rain rapidly melts the snow; slush and mud make bad walking; rivers and brooks rise rapidly, perhaps overflowing their banks; low-lying places become filled with standing water. These and other features should all be brought out by the teacher, not by telling the class of them directly, but by judicious questioning, and they should be contrasted with the conditions which may immediately follow, when the storm has cleared off, and when the low temperatures brought by a cold wave, with its dry northwest wind, have resulted in freezing lakes, rivers, and brooks, and when skating and sliding may be indulged in. Early summer weather conditions, with their characteristic warm spells, cumulus clouds, thunderstorms, and (near the coast) sea breezes, furnish another long list of typical changes that should be just as carefully noted and described as the more striking winter characteristics. Autumn types add further to the list, which might be extended almost indefinitely.