Waterfowl Migration

If you are looking to go for a drive in the beautiful weather tomorrow, you might want to check out the south dike of the Lake Andes NW Refuge.  There were thousands of Canada Geese in the fields and on the ice along with some Mallards and a few Bald Eagles sitting in the trees.  If you are not familiar with the area, it is on gravel just east of the intersection of 291st St and 386th Ave.  There is a trail there too as well as a picnic table.  The migrant song birds have not returned yet, so the trail will be fairly quiet, but you may see hawks, Bald Eagles and waterfowl.  I just thought I'd let you know.  This is just the beginning of the migration.  It will increase ten-fold in the next few weeks!

Some of the many Canada Geese

Bald Eagles waiting for lunch

Rough-legged Hawk - a Visitor from the North

Birding Festival Information

Here is the link to the birding festival that the kids will be helping me with.  I had asked that the parents of the kindergartners are free to attend the Saturday evening program and that has been approved.  Consider going to the mist-netting/bird banding activity on Saturday or Sunday morning.  It is usually really fun and the kids will get close up looks at a bird as well as hold one.  It should be fun!

http://southeastsouthdakota.com/what-to-do/attractions/wagner/south-dakota-birding-festival/

The Forms of Water

Today the students learned about the forms of water: liquid, solid and gas.  They thought that the steam was interesting and now they know not to call it smoke.  We talked about how be careful around boiling water and other hot things.  Then we watched a short science video about the forms of water.

Donor's Choose

I have to share my good news!  I recently wrote up a proposal to Donors Choose - an online teacher request site and it was just funded last week!

The students love birds, but I didn't have many resources to share with them.  I asked for 18 bird books for children, a bird DVD, bird flashcards and a state bird pamphlet.  Thanks to 5 donors my project was funded in only 19 days!  That is really great news!  Today was the first day to receive books in the mail.  I will post a photo when all of the materials have arrived.

315! Wow!

 

These kids are amazing!  They now know 315 species of birds!  

They love birds and they want to know more and more.  It is a fun add-on to our usual studies.  It makes me realize how much young minds are capable of.  

Alessondra's Great Horned Owl Cam

This is one of many nest cams that are online to view.  This Great Horned Owl nest is just outside someone's window in Oklahoma City.  You can read more about it on the site.  Your child may enjoy checking in on this site periodically to watch the owlets grow and watch owl behavior.  It is quite interesting!

http://www.ustream.tv/okcowlcam

Only the female incubates the eggs and keeps the chicks warm. The male hunts for her and the chicks until the chicks are old enough to control their body temperature. . Usually he passes the food off to her and then takes off hunting again.  She rips up the prey into small pieces and feeds to the owlets. When the chicks are big enough to keep warm themselves, both parents hunt and the owlets usually can feed themselves.

We have noticed that even though Great Horned Owls are nocturnal, she is awake and tending to the owlets during the day.

Read Across America Day a.k.a. Dr. Seuss Day

Elementary students across the nation were focusing on the joys of reading by reading extra books, being read to, and doing other language arts activities.  The k-kids were so proud of themselves for reading 100 books today!

Today we did the following activities:

• made headbands
• watched a short video of The Cat in the Hat
• read 100 books!
• colored in a stripe on the Cat's hat for each book read
• had a tasty snack
• the 4th graders came in and read to us and we read to them too