Tony and George were painting freely. Each of them had a bottle of blue paint (油漆) and a bottle of yellow paint.

Suddenly, George said, “Look, Tony, I made green!”

“How did you do it?” asked Tony.

“I put yellow paint on top of my blue paint— yellow and blue put together make green!” shouted George. Other children came around to watch and wanted to do it themselves.

This is an example of discovery learning or hands-on learning.

People remember things better when they learn them by doing. Here is an example. How will you learn to play football?

Buy a book and read about how to play football or buy a video about football? Or go to the playground and ask a person to teach you?

Which way will help you learn the game best? Learning on the playground is the best way for most people because they try the game and learn the rules as they play. They learn in a hands-on way.

Hands-on learning is good for children. The learner takes an active part in it instead of just sitting and listening. This is the way that we want our children to learn. In order to learn best, children must take an active part in hands-on activities every day. Some good examples of hands-on activities are working out puzzled, painting, playing simple board games together and so on.

There are fifty states in the United States. The largest in population is California， the largest in area is Alaska. Alaska is the smallest in population and Rhode Island is the smallest in size. The oldest states are the ones along the Atlantic coast. The newest states are Alaska and Hawaii. Alaska is also the coldest state. California and Florida are the warmer. Henry and his family live in Seattle， a big city， on the Pacific coast. But Los Angeles and San Francisco， also on the Pacific coast， are larger than Seattle. Henry's cousin， Susan， lives in New York. It is the largest city in the United States. Thousands of people visit New York each year. The most important city in the United States is Washington， D. C. It is the capital， but it is much smaller than New York.

One of my favorite books is The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. The story happens in a town in the US. It tells some exciting stories about a boy who has many adventures （冒险）.

Tom, the hero of the book, lives with his aunt. He does not like people telling him what to do, so he always get into trouble. One day, Tom discovers the secret of a bad man named Injun Joe, so the bad man is looking for him. Tom firstly runs away to an island in the middle of the Mississippi River. Later, he runs into a cave（山洞）with a friend. They find Injun Joe’s treasure box unexpectedly and arrive home safely with it.

My favorite part of the book is when Tom and his friend start their adventures on the island in the Mississippi River. At first, they are happy. But hearing that everyone thinks they are dead, they feel very sorry. So they come back home. When they suddenly appear, the family and neighbors are surprised to see them, but very pleased to find that they are alive.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a great book. First of all, it tells a wonderful adventure story. It also tells how young people grow, how people love each other and how bad people p for their actions. It is written in everyday English, and the dialogues sound especially real. Today, it is still read and loved by people all over the world, and is thought to be one of the greatest American stories.