Birds, Birds, Birds
Did your child tell you about all the birds in our class this week? We made lots of different bird art projects, some requiring a lot of scissors work, read many bird-themed books, learned some bird calls, played with many bird toys, and had many bird friends visiting us during Circle Time. Bird Week is always one of my favorites. I often divide my life as Before Children and After Children. Before children, my husband and I were avid bird watchers. Every weekend we were out with binoculars and a scope. We learned much from seasoned bird watchers, read our many bird identifying books, and listened to LP’s (you may be too young to know what those are) of bird songs to memorize their calls. I still have my book in which I made lists of the birds I saw on every outing. Whenever we traveled, finding new birds in those geographical areas was very exciting. After children, most of our bird watching took place in our yard. It was hard to look through binoculars with a bouncing baby in a carrier. And when our older daughter decided “I don’t do nature”, it became very hard. She continued with “I don’t do nature” for much of her growing up. Now married in Brooklyn, she is out every weekend with her husband hiking, on nature walks, and identifying birds. No matter how hard they try to not be like their parents, children often grow up to be like their parents. We fill our bird feeder from Fall to Spring. The last of the seeds went in today and as I type this, there is none left in the feeder. I’m glad that the last bird I saw eating from it was a Red-bellied Woodpecker.
Below are pictures showing some of the toys on the tables.
The photo on the Classroom News homepage shows a nest with many common backyard birds. This is highly unusual. We’ve talked during Circle Time that our nest basket is different from the nests outside in the trees because the outside nests only have one kind of bird in them. Our class is very lucky because we have many different kinds sharing a nest. Everyday our visitors come out of the basket during Circle Time. These are clever birds and they actually sing their birdsongs. I’m not sure if the children realize that I’m squeezing a button under their bellies. The children are learning the names of these birds, and to my surprise, one child already knew the names of almost every one on the first day they joined us. Looking for birds is easily done and learning their names is a fun activity for children and adults. In case you need a reminder of the names of these common birds, they are identified below.
Some of these birds have bird calls that are easy to imitate and we’ve been listening to them. We also use a book that plays the bird calls with a press of the button.
We have heard the Robin sing “Cheerily, Cheer up, Cheerily, Cheer up”, and the Cardinal, who likes to go to parties, sing “Cheer, Cheer, Party Party Party.” The Chickadee sometimes says ‘fee bee, fee bee’ and sometimes wants you to remember his name and says “Chickadee dee dee dee dee.” The Bluejay also loves his name as says “Jay Jay Jay.” On Friday, the children had tea (really water) because the Towhee says “Drink your Tea, Drink, Drink your Tea, Drink.” The Barred Owl is very interested in cooking and says “Who Cooks for You? Who Cooks for You?”
Our tree is very crowded. The children enjoyed the different projects. It’s always good to work on those scissoring skills.
The book bucket is filled with bird books, both fiction and non-fiction. I have more choices than I can read to them in a week.
