MANUSCRIPT CLASS RECORD / TEACHING PLAN BOOK

[Leeds: Original manuscript]., [1930-1931].. Printed record book completed in ink manuscript. Quarto. Original card wrappers with printed paper title label completed in manuscript to the upper cover, indicating the owner to be Edna Brown of Wrangthorn School, Leeds. 92pp., of which 58pp. bear manuscript entries. WITH: An original watercolour design for a handkerchief case, signed in pencil by Edna Brown, alongside the finished embroidered case itself, mounted on a black paper sheet and captioned in white beneath, evidently used as an aid in teaching crafts. The condition of the book is very good indeed, the binding square and firm with just a few minor marks to the covers. The contents with some occasional light toning are otherwise in very good order. The embroidered handkerchief case and watercolour design are also in very good condition; the sheet upon which they are mounted is somewhat tatty at the edges. A detailed book of lesson plans kept by Edna Brown of Leeds during the early 1930s. Brown was evidently a teacher of children around the age of 3-4, if not younger, as the book outlines a gentle curriculum of simple reading and arithmetic, music, and arts and crafts. She outlines her methods at the beginning of the book, followed by a section dealing with the themes/aims/activities of each term, and then a detailed week-by-week plan covering September 1930 to July 1931. A typical week in Edna Brown's class certainly looks quite enjoyable for the typical toddler, with English lessons based around listening to fairy stories, science taught around her carefully maintained 'nature table' (or outside, weather permitting), and plenty of singing, drawing, and crafts. Many of the more severe lesson categories in the printed left-hand column are softened by Brown to suit her young class: "physical training", for instance, typically becomes on one October day "shoemaker's dance - running, skipping, galloping etc". Wonderfully, "History" is simply crossed-out, replaced each week with "Plasticine", where we find plans for making everything from "goldfish" and "spiders", to "three bear bowls" and "a Christmas pudding", although sometimes it simply takes the form of "free expression".

A fascinating and uncommon insight into the teaching of pre-school children in Britain during the inter-war period.