Many Victorian schools were given a set list of "Object Lessons" for each year. These included animals and other subjects for the teacher to talk about in the lessons, with different lists for younger and older children.
Many school Log Books include the Object Lessons to be taught. The teacher would have a set of cards with pictures of the "object" and facts and figures about it.
The entry shown below is headed "List of Object Lessons for Lower Standards" and it comes from Log Book of the Nantddu National School for June 1897.

Fish - 1. The Salmon, 2. The Cod, 3. The Herring, 4. The Oyster, 5. The Lobster.
Natural Phenomena - 1. Rain, 2. Hail, 3. Dew, 4. Ice, 5. Snow.
Geographical terms - 1. Rivers, 2. Mountains, 3. Oceans, 4. A Town, 5. A Map".
The term "natural phenomena" comes from "phenomenon". A natural phenomenom is something which is seen to happen fairly often - like rain.
Some of the "objects" would have been well known to the children, but others must have seemed very unusual. There were no television programmes about other lands and wildlife in Victorian times !

Back to Crickhowell schools menu