Life Birds

The last few days we have been seeing quite a few birds just north of the school near the creek.  Yesterday we stood in the snow and watched many Dark-eyed Juncos, American Robins and European Starlings.  The Dark-eyed Juncos were life birds for some students.  That means it is the first time they have seen it in their life.  They were pretty happy!  Also some children in our class and older students have reported hearing and seeing the Sandhill Cranes flying over town. 

Today we had quite a treat when we saw Northern Cardinals in that same area.  I saw two males and two females.  It was difficult for the children to see them as they were flitting about in the trees, but it was good practice for them to follow the chipping sound that the cardinals made and try to locate them.  It takes practice.  I will add some photos of mine that I've taken at other times, but not at that moment.

Little Birdies

These little birders have found out about the cute, stuffed birds that are sold at our local seed store.  The bird even plays the real bird song when squeezed.  They love these birds! I've never seen anything quite like it.  I guess that is seven dollars worth of happiness!

The Kindergarten Birders

Leaf Sorting

One of our standards in Science is to sort leaves by shape and color.  This kind of sorting also happens to be a Math standard as well, so we went out on a cold, windy day to gather leaves.  Then we came back and sorted.  They seemed to enjoy it!  It is always good to get kids outdoors to see, hear and feel nature.

Halloween Party

The kindergarteners enjoyed their first school party!  It was a fun time!  They looked so cute in their costumes.

 

The Chickadee Bird Club

The first graders join us every Friday afternoon for 25 minutes to learn more about birds.  They decided to give themselves' a name and they are the "Chickadees".  I start the lesson/meeting with a bird trivia question and then a mystery bird photo.  Then we continue with a slideshow of birds working on bird identification.  We do a lot of comparing and looking for details at this time.  I think this carries over into their other studies as well.  It helps to make them become more observant.  During the lessons we also discuss needs of animals, habitats, migration, geography, weather and many other topics. They are a very inquisitive group of children. I look forward to our meeting all week.  I love it!

The Chickadees

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!