Birthday Fun!

Celebrating my birthday with the kids today was a great way to mark the day! They made me feel very special! We had a nice day!

It is tradition to take my students on a tour of my house and have frosted sugar cookies that I had baked the night before.  Before we went I read, My Teacher Sleeps in School.  They think that is pretty funny!  As we were about to leave, one boy shouted, "Brown Creepers!"  I went to look out the window and sure enough on the tree trunk by the deck there were two tiny Brown Creepers!  I was so surprised!  He was very observant as I rarely see them in my yard.

Time for Birthday Cookies!

A Brown Creeper is a small bird that creeps up trees foraging for food.  

 http://sdakotabirds.com/species/brown_creeper_info.htm

Jack-O-Lantern Carving

Today I taught a lesson about pumpkins and about their life cycle.  Then they helped to clean out the pumpkin, so I could make it into a jack-o-lantern.  It was a fun time!  You all have pumpkin seeds to plant next spring! 

Our Favorite Birds

Here are the kids' favorite birds.  What is yours?

Homecoming

Footprint Art

I had the students put their white footprints on blue paper to resemble ghosts.  Then they painted a Halloween scene around it.  We hope it isn't too scary for you!

Hallway Owl Lesson

The students and I brainstormed about what the important details would be concerning owls.  I helped them to write up the facts and I hung it in the hallway to help others learn about owls too.  Later we will teach the first graders about owls and see if they remember what they learned last year.

Look who is at our lake!

 

 

This bird has been at our lake for about a week now.  Your kindergartener will know what it is.  Take a moment to drive out there and see if h/she can find it. Yesterday I saw it skillfully catching Blue Gills.

It is a Great Egret.  It is a beautiful, tall, white, long-legged wading bird that hunts along the shoreline for fish, frogs, and other small aquatic animals.  They were hunted to near extinction in the nineteenth century.  They are a treat to see!
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Egret/id

 

Owl Pellet Lesson

You could have heard a pin drop as the kids pulled apart these owl pellets to see what the owl had been eating.  They compared the bones to the bone drawings on the chart to see what each bone was.  It was tricky at first, but soon they got quite good at matching the bone to the picture.  They really loved this lesson!

An owl is unable to digest all of its prey, so the fur, feathers and bones are coughed up.  Looking through the pellet tells you what the owl had eaten.  One girls said, "Hmmm...this is creepy and cool at the same time!"  The young students were surprised at how small mice, moles, shrews and voles were.  We did not see any bird bones this time.  Of course they would not think of throwing the bones away, so I let them glue them to a piece of paper, so they could bring them home to show their family.

These pellets had been heated and sanitized, so no worries.  Also we washed afterwards too.

Owl Drawings

I decided to do a step-by-step drawing lesson of an owl.  It was fun and they surprised me with their beautiful drawings!

Quite the artists!

Fire Safety Day

We have been studying fire safety this week.  Today the local fireman came to school and did a great job of reviewing with the kids.  Then the students got to ride in the fire truck!  Later they were able to try on the fireman gear!  The kids loved it!

Remember the following:

• check your smoke alarm batteries
• have a family meeting place
• check your house for any possible hazards

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Hike at the Lake

It was a beautiful October day, so we decided since we didn't have P.E. today, we could go for a walk at the lake.  Here is what the kids had to say about their hike.

"We looked up and saw a Bald Eagle flying over!  Then we saw a smooshed frog on the road.  Next, we saw some Common Grackles, Yellow-rumped Warblers and we watched a Mama Mallard land on the lake.  Then we walked over to "Grasshopper Land" and there were still lots of grasshoppers, but not as many as before.  We caught some and noticed that some were the same and some were different colors and sizes.  When we got by the lake someone threw in a grasshopper and a Blue Gill swam up and tried to eat it, but the fish's mouth was too small.  We thought that was funny to watch it try!  One boy caught a dragonfly and then it flew away. 

Some of the trees at the lake were starting to change colors and the leaves were falling to the ground.  We saw a turtle on a log. The teacher and some of the kids saw a Belted Kingfisher fly over the lake.  A boy caught a baby grasshopper and carried it back to school to put in the science center."

What was that bird?

Oh no!  A dead robin.

Mama Mallard

The Chickadee Bird Club

Cool fishing pole!

"Wow!  Did you see that dragonfly fly out of my hands?"

"I caught a grasshopper, Teacher!"

Seed Dispersal Lesson

In Science today we discussed the different ways that seeds are spread.  The cattails in the room were ready, so we broke one up and looked at the teeny, tiny seeds.  Then we went outside and let them fly in the wind.  The kids were surprised at how they flew through the air.  It reminded them of snow falling.  They loved this science lesson!  Then they came back in and wrote about it in their journal.