Friday, April 17, 2009

Flying Creatures

We have been studying birds for several weeks now, but I have been lax in posting about it. I am thoroughly in love with this study. The reading just cracks everyone up. I will read part of a section, and then stop for discussion. We always come up with some great conversation about what I just read. Then I will start reading again, and I swear almost every time, it will say exactly what we just talked about. The kids have been drawing some amazing pictures of birds. We built birdhouses. We made bird feeders out of juice bottles. I will have to see if I can scan some of the kid's pictures and post them here. I have also been having a blast photographing birds. It all started several weeks ago when we went on a nature scavenger hunt. I did not want the kids actually gathering all the "nature stuff" on the list. I am more of an indoor kinda girl, and don't do well with dirt, bugs, or most other outdoor stuff. So I thought, rather than collecting the things on the list, we would photograph them. Since then, I have been taking my camera everywhere and getting pictures of all sorts of different birds. It probably helps that we also just got a new camera that I absolutely love. It is a Nikon Coolpix P80. I highly recommend it for the non-photographers like me. It is so fun and easy to use, that even I can take good pictures with it. And don't get me started about the stop motion feature it has. I have gotten some great shots of birds using that. So last night, I was looking online at ordering some owl pellets and some caterpillars or butterfly larvae. I think those would be great fun to add to our lessons. Next week we are talking about nesting. Our project is to see if we can build a nest as well as birds. Of course, that involves mud, dirt, and other "yucky" stuff. I may have to look for an alternative craft, that uses some materials that are less gross.

5 comments:

BeckyJoie said...
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BeckyJoie said...

I shouldn't type when I'm too tired to edit myself. Anyway, I wanted to tell you what a great idea it was to photograph. I think I will copy you on that since I have a small space and also hate bringing that stuff in my home. Thanks for the good idea.

Tiffany said...

Your bird study sounds fun. Hannah and I did a bird lapbook years ago and really had fun with it. That might be a neat way to wrap up your bird studies, you could include your pictures and the kid's drawings. I was also going to suggest Model magic and twigs as a "clean" way to make bird's nests. An edible bird's nest craft is chow mein noodles, peanut butter, and maybe coconut (that could be grass)--we did this years ago and I can only remember the peanut butter and chow mein noodles. Just a few ideas!

Julie said...

I like the sound of the bird study too...you should put some of the pictures on here:)!

crispy said...

You are right there with me on the bird study. I posted several posts about it on my blog. We have had fun with it.