Feed the Birds

Just a quick note, since we've only had two days of school since our last post. However, those two days were some of my favorite teaching days ever! The inquiry around our scarecrow bird feeder continues to deepen. 

We still were interested in our mystery scat, and who had visited our bird feeder, so we contacted author and naturalist Mary Holland to see if she could help. Mary has an amazing blog and has written some fantastic children's books and adult field guides (Check out Naturally Curious as one of the best books about natural history in the northeast), and to our surprise she wrote right back to us! We have since wrapped up the bowl of mystery scat and sent it in the mail to Mary, who will hopefully help us solve our mystery. We'll keep you posted.

As we spent more time over at "Birdie" the bird feeder we noticed that the birds were not shy. It seems that our plan of making them comfortable around small humans was working. SO, we put a child on Birdie's lap, had them hold the birdseed tray, and watched as the birds landed all over them! Everyone who wanted to had a turn, and most children had some birds eating seed off their laps, gloves, and even hats! What an amazing way to practice executive functioning skills - holding still for a long period of time is very hard for a 4 year old. And being so close to wild nature is a magical experience. In the words of one four year old after sitting with the birds, "I like it here!"

Next week is Black Lives Matter in Schools week, something that our school and school district is participating in. In pre-k we'll have conversations about difference, skin color, and read some good books with a strong diversity focus. Look for more information in the school newsletter on Friday. 

Enjoy a few pictures from the end of last week:

We're so excited to see what Mary Holland has to say about our mystery scat. 

It's hard to capture the birds landing on the children in a picture, but here are some shots of kids sitting quietly waiting for the birds to land on them. Some of them sat for up to 20 minutes!

The chickadees weren't quite sure how to land on this child's pom pom!

Interestingly, when grown ups tried to feed the birds they were less successful. We think the birds prefer the small children who are just about the same size as our scarecrow. Mr. G was a good sport trying to get the birds to land on him!

We took an expedition to Mt. Everest to attempt a snow ascent. It was a good challenge that helped keep us warm!

Waiting at the top of Mt. Everest

We're still working on removing that hanging branch from above our fire circle. In the meantime we unearthed the fire circle in the field and had a nice snack time out there.