Our hometown has beautiful gardens and walkways downtown within walking distance for my class, so it was perfect for releasing monarch butterflies this past fall. There were plenty of delicious flowers for the butterflies to partake in before heading on their long winter vacation to Mexico.
Right at home in the heart of downtown at our temporary school site....awaiting our new facilities1/19/2018
"I was allowed to make seed bombs until the clay was gone and I got to teach them how to make it and it was really fun because it is like I was a little teacher." S.K. "I liked talking to this man named William because he said I was beautiful because I said I like his shoes." K.B. "I got to make seed bombs with the residents" M.S. "I liked seeing the Veterans because it is fun to make seed bombs with them." J.M. "Being with my friends and making seed bombs with Buddy a friendly, old man." R.S. "I liked going to the Veteran's Home to make seed bombs and one of the residents said I was cute." B.H. "It was nice getting dirty with clay and helping Buddy, because he looked very happy!" A.C.J.
Students will begin our project for this year later in the fall, but we are excited about investigating this question: As consumers, how can we create an awareness of the impact pollinators have on our food sources? Pollinator populations, especially bees, are declining...why is that of importance to all of us? That's what my students are going to investigate and share with consumers publicly this year. We want people to be aware of the dangers in the decline of pollinators and what they can do to help. Stay tuned for more information throughout this year as we begin our investigation.
The dark-eyed juncos are on the move, but the house finches have come to our feeders. More birds are arriving each day as the weather is getting warmer. We will be seeing the bees and butterflies returning this spring too! The pollinator garden will be a very lively field of life science for us to experience.
My students have been working hard on their research reports on various species of birds. Each child is creating a painting of their bird as part of their report and to enter into the Firelands Audubon Society's contest. Here are a few samples and comments from the kids... When we left school on Wednesday, I knew our bird friends needed some extra fattening food to survive these negative temperatures...so I trudged through the snow and hung up 2 suet feeders in our school garden. We continue to see many American Goldfinches and Dark-eyed Juncos visiting our black oil sunflower feeder and thistle feeder everyday. We can't wait to get our new bird bath into the garden when the weather breaks and our new ground feeder which the students helped me put together. We are beginning to write our rough draft research papers and practicing our art skills for the Erie County Audubon Society art competition.
We enjoyed learning more information about our backyard birds and I think we surprised our guest with how much we have already learned from our own research! We have been so busy filling our bird feeders, "spying" on our bird friends through our classroom scope and reading about different species of birds. We can't wait to share all that we have learned with other bird enthusiasts! |
AuthorMrs. Pitcher and her third graders will keep you up to date on their adventures! Archives
January 2018
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