Thursday, April 16

Hello friends!

I sure loved seeing some of your faces and hearing your sweet voices on the Marco Polo app!  I miss you all!

Here are some of the great nests that were built yesterday during our nest challenges.

I have exciting news!  Can you guess it?  

The eggs were laid in the nest at Emma's house!  How many eggs did the mama bird lay?  Look back at the predictions you made in your notebook.  Did you predict correctly?

Emma and her family identified the mama and daddy bird as house finches. The picture above is of the mama bird.  What color is she?  Now look at a picture of a daddy house finch.  How are they the same?  How are they different?

I wonder how many days it will take for the eggs to hatch?  I wonder if they will look like the mama bird, the daddy bird or something different?

Yesterday, one of our challenges was to build a life size nest that you and someone else could really fit inside.  These were big nests!  Much bigger than the nest of a house finch or a robin.  I wonder what kind of bird builds the biggest nest?  Well, I did some research and found that the bird that builds the biggest nest is called the sociable weaver.  This is a bird that lives in Africa.  Here is a picture of one of their HUGE nests!

Wow!  While we don't have sociable weavers where we live, we do have bald eagles.  Bald eagles are birds that build the BIGGEST nests in our country.  Bald eagles build their nests high up in tall trees or mountaintops out of large sticks.  Magdalina's mom shared this really awesome webcam with me of a LIVE bald eagle nest on an island by California.  This is so cool!  LIVE means it is a video that is being taken right now!  Check out this bald eagle nest and the sweet baby eagles living there.  

https://explore.org/livecams/bald-eagles/bald-eagle-two-harbors

What is happening while you watch?  How many birds do you see?  Are they eating anything?

While I am watching I see one baby bald eagle sleeping. I can also see the feathers of one of the parent eagles.  I predict the parent eagle is watching the baby making sure it is safe!

Here is a picture of the beautiful Catalina Island where those eagles are living.

Here is a story about a baby eagle learning to fly.  I love this story because it's all about not giving up!  Even when things get hard!  Do you remember what that is called?  It's called Growth Mindset!   We might not be able to do something YET, but we can learn!  Just like the baby eagle in this story.

And just in case you need a reminder about growth mindset, here is the song we learned in the beginning of the school year!

Wednesday, April 15

Hello friends!

Today I have nest building challenges for you!  You are going to be a nest engineer just like a mama or daddy bird.    Are you ready for the challenges? 

Don't forget every good design starts with a plan!  Try drawing a plan before you begin your nest building challenges!  Here we go!

Challenge 1:  Can you build a life size nest for yourself?  Pretend you are a bird and your grown up is another bird.  Your nest must be big enough to fit yourself, your grown up, and 3 eggs.  You can use anything to be your eggs.  (Ex. pillows, stuffed animals, etc.)  What materials will you use to build a life size nest?  When you're done, test it out to make sure that you fit, your grown up fits and your 3 eggs fit inside and are safe and cozy!  Snap a photo when you're finished! 

Challenge 2:  Can you build a nest out of play dough and nature?  Pretend you are a bird.  You must gather nature (leaves, twigs, grass, straw, etc.) to build your nest for your eggs.  Use your play dough as the "glue" to hold your nest together.  Your challenge is then to find 3 things you can use outside to be your eggs and add them to your nest.   (Ex. stones, acorns, tree seeds, etc.)  Snap a photo!

Challenge 3:  Can you build a nest in 1 minute?  Quick!  You are a bird and you need a place to lay your eggs right away!  Have your grown up set a timer for 1 minute.  What materials can you use to build a cozy and safe nest in 1 minute?  Your challenge is you must you 3 different kinds of materials.  Ready?  Set!  Go!  Snap a photo when you're finished!

Challenge 4:  Can you build a tiny nest?  Your challenge is to build the tiniest nest.  Working in different rooms, your grown up will built a nest and you will build a nest.  Set a timer for however long you want to build your nest.  When the timer goes off, compare your nest to your grown up's nest.  Who built the tiniest nest?  Can you measure your nest?  Is there a bird that could fit inside your tiny nest? Snap a photo! 

Challenge 5: Build a Nest race!  With your grown up, look around your home an add things in piles for nest building.  You could use blankets, pillows, string, newspaper, anything!  Your brothers, sisters, mom, and/or dad can all play!  There should be matching objects for each player.  (So if 3 people are playing and one of your objects is a pillow, you should have 3 pillows; if you choose to use blankets, there should be 3 blankets, etc. )   Then find a safe space to race.  Take your piles and scatter them around your race space.  Then when you say "go!" each player must gather one of each object and build a nest.  Who can build their nest the fastest without missing any of the objects you gathered? 

I hope you enjoyed your nest building challenges today!

Tuesday, April 14

Hello friends!  Welcome back!

Did you have a nice Easter?  What was the best thing you did?  Take a minute to think of these two questions.
What was the same about Easter this year?  What was different about Easter this year.  Hmm...

For Charlie and our family, something the same was dyeing and hunting for Easter eggs!  Something different was instead of going to church, we watched a movie about the life of Jesus and how he rose to heaven!

Shout out to Lanie for sharing that great book about the bird's nest with us on the Facebook parent page.  Thanks, Lanie!  I enjoyed it!  I love how you read the pictures!

(Parents, "reading" the pictures means telling the story using the pictures for clues.  We learned in the beginning of the year not to say things like, "I can't read the book because I can't read words".  Children were taught to say, "I can't read the words yet, but I can read the pictures".)

Now for some updates on the bird nest we are watching.  Here are two videos from Emma:

Today I have a story for you!  It's called Mama Built a Little Nest.

(Parents, if you listen closely you will get a little John Denver concert in the background.  Ha!  My husband was singing to Charlie at bedtime. 😄 Sorry if it's distracting!)

Did you know there are so many different ways that birds build nests?   Here is a bird called a killdeer.  Can you guess where a killdeer builds its nest?

Any guesses?  On the ground!  They lay speckled eggs and lay them in rocks resting on the ground.  I wonder why they lay them in rocks?  Do you have a prediction?  Look at their color and their pattern.

                                                                                            

Now it's time to imagine.  If you were a bird, where would you build a nest?  Would you build it in a tree?  On the ground? On a ledge?  In a burrow?  Get you notebooks out and draw/write about where you would build the perfect nest for your baby birds!

Let's end today with a fun dance about shaking your tail feathers like a bird!

Optional cooking activity!

Parents: If you have these ingredients on hand, try to make an edible bird's nest!  Yum!  Perfect way to use some candy eggs you may have from Easter.  

12 oz. bag chocolate chips

12 oz. bag butterscotch or peanut butter chocolate chips

12 oz. bag chow mein noodles or pretzel sticks

candy eggs

Melt chocolate chips and butterscotch chips together.  Mix in chow mein noodles.  (If using pretzel sticks, break in smaller pieces first.) Scoop into balls and then shape into a nest shape.  Add candy eggs to center of nest.  Let rest until firm.  Enjoy!

Thursday, April 9

Hi friends!

Let's take a look at some of your webs and nests!

I can't wait to see some more nests as you discover them.  Charlie and I watched two birds carrying twigs to their nest inside a birdhouse we have hanging outside of our window.  We discovered the two birds are cute little chickadees!  Here is a picture of a chickadee.

Before we get started on our activities for the day, let's watch Jaida's Mystery Show N Tell!  Can you guess it?

Did you guess it?  I didn't!  I guessed it was a biscuit cutter!  What did you guess?

We are going to start with a classic story about a bird and the best nest!

Is this book fiction or non fiction?  Even though it's fiction, did you learn anything about birds from this book?  I learned that birds use hay, string, straws, hair, and stuffing to build nests!  Did you know that we can learn new information even from books that are fiction?  I'm going to add what I learned to my web!  

These birds decided to build their nests in some unusual places!  

     

 

Let's play I spy!

I spy a duck in a plant box.

I spy a nest on a ladder.

I spy a nest in a bicycle.

I spy a nest by a red light.

I spy baby birds inside a shoe!

We learned that birds use all kind of things to make nests!  Some birds use twigs, hay, hair and straw.  Some birds build their nests using mud.  Can you tell which nest is made from mud and which nest is made from twigs and straw?

  

I wonder which kind of birds live in the mud nest?  I wonder which birds are in the nest made from twigs?

(Parents, if you want to try to research this with your child, go for it!  The answer is swallows are in the mud nest and the twig nest is a robin's nest.)

Now it's time for you to build a nest! Find some things around your house that you could use to build a nest.  String? Straws?  Yarn?  What can you use?  Pretend you are a bird and build a nest for your eggs!  I can't wait to see a picture!  

Did you learning anything new today?  Is there anything you could add to your web?

For the weekend: 

Easter is this Sunday!  I am so excited!  Here is an activity for you to do outside, perhaps over the weekend when the weather is supposed to be nice again!    We learned before that Jesus died on a cross before going to heaven and a cross is a symbol of Jesus' love!  Have you ever been outside and seen a cross made from nature?  Hmm...I wonder if you can find any crosses in nature?

Here are crosses on plant leaves.  Do you see them?

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter! 

(Parents: I'll be back with another post on Tuesday since Monday is a scheduled "no school" day for Easter Monday. )