An Original DUCKumentary

Here is an interesting video about ducks that your child and you might enjoy.  It has been on PBS lately, but if you missed it you can watch it at this link:

http://video.pbs.org/video/2289741878/

Photo by me

Hand Turkeys

Did you ever make a hand turkey when you were young?  Here are some that the kindergarten students made this month.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pilgrims Visit the Classroom

Today we had real descendants of the Pilgrims come visit our classroom.  The first and second grade students were also in the attendance.  The couple told us what their voyage was like, what the Pilgrims really wore, and what life was like for them.  It was very interesting and the children did an exceptional job of listening and being a good audience for our guest speakers! 

The Pilgrims left some papers for the students to color and read.  They also left them the ration of five parched corn seeds that the original Pilgrims were given as a part of their daily diet the year after Thanksgiving.  It was a very interesting presentation!  A big thank you to them for taking the time to share with our young students!

Merlin

Last Friday morning on November 22nd, I glanced out the classroom window and noticed a different bird sitting atop a tree on our playground.  After looking through the binoculars, I realized it was a Merlin.  I gathered the students over to the windows and they shared the four pair of new binoculars to see their latest life bird. They were very excited!

The Merlin is a small, fast falcon which catches small birds as they are flying.  They are nicknamed the "pigeon hawk".   Merlins often live in towns and cities because they often eat sparrows and pigeons, which are in abundance there.  I have also seen one at our local lake. 

Now maybe you have learned a new bird!  Here is some more information about the Merlin.  You could also Google it to see if there is any video of this small falcon.

http://sdakotabirds.com/species/merlin_info.htm
Here is a photo that I took of a Merlin at our local lake.

Skype Session with Ohio K-kids

We had our first Skype session with the two kindergarten classes in Ohio.  This was a "meet and greet" day.  We had Elliot, a STEM coordinator, here with us.  He works with both groups.  Their big "Project-based Learning" project deals with weather.  They were asking us about our weather and we will meet again later to compare our weather. 

My students do bird projects and we told them a bit about birds in our area.  They told us that they have deer come to their bird feeders right outside of the school window!  We thought that was cool!  It was interesting talking to them, but we really had to try hard to take turns and be patient while Skype-ing.  They had 50 students compared to our eight, so there was a huge difference!  We could see them on the computer monitor. 

 

 

Turkey Cookbook

Each year I have my students tell me how "they think" the Thanksgiving turkey should be prepared and what "they think" they will eat at that meal.  You may want to have a taste-tester before you serve up these recipes! 

http://www.armour.k12.sd.us/Announcements/Kindergarten%20Turkey%20Cookbook%202013.pdf