Birds! Birds! Birds!

Science and Art mesh so beautifully, especially when natural subjects are studied. In the case of birds we get to use our powers of observation as well as our imaginations to get inspired and create!

What can we observe about birds?

We see the parts of the bird… head, eyes, beak, body, wings, feet, toes, feathers…  We see some large birds, and some small. We see long legs, and some short. Birds are so many different colors, too!

We can sculpt birds by thinking about shapes we know. Roll a ball for the body, roll a tube for the wings. Press it together. Hi little bird!

We hear birds! It’s fun to listen and guess who clucks, quacks, gobbles, crows, tweets, chirps and caws! We are the swallows, the golondrinas. We love to make bird music!

What do birds feel like?

 We can touch feathers and feel how soft and tickly they feel on our skin. Feathers have to be very light so birds can fly. Birds fly fast! They flap their wings, soar, glide, circle, and swoop.

 We dip feathers into paint and imagine we are birds painting the sky as we fly, making soft trails of color on our papers.

Our little birds fly through the fluffy clouds.

 

We draw birds.

“He’s a really fast little bird. That’s the nest. It’s for a bird to fly. The bird is eating bugs. They say, ashoo ashoo! They are eating and fly to the nest. The birds are flying away. It got cold and the bird flied away to where it get warmer.”

We can create our own wings, too! We paint our wings with bright colors and add feathers to them. We can put on our wings and flap and fly.

 

Where are we flying to? Our nests of course!

This one is hard.

This one is soft.

Goodnight Little birds!

Whose nest is this?

A bird nest is the place in which a bird lays and incubates it's eggs and raises it's young.

Some nests are made of rocks. Some nests float on water. Nests can be made of sticks or mud. There are even nests that are made of spit!!

Creating nests is not an easy job. We have created nests at school. We've been very busy birds creating soft and warm places to play and grow in.

" Eagles must be tough because this nest is hard and uncomfortable!"

"This nest is for a dinosaur egg!"

"A nest is made for baby birds, the mommy and daddy

 bird makes it for their baby."

"Nests are in trees."

"My nest is warm."

"My bed at home in my room is warm."

 

 

Fun books that we have been reading in class.

Winter Wondering

We have so many questions about Winter! We use our senses and make observations, gathering information to answer our questions. What do you notice about the Winter sky? What colors do you see? Can you see the sun, or is it hidden in the clouds? Why are clouds sometimes white, and sometimes grey? Is it going to rain? Will it snow? What temperature is the air? Is the air warm or cold on your skin? Notice the trees. Where are the leaves? What do birds and animals do in the Winter? How do they stay warm? How do people stay warm? 

Winter has its own color palette! Students painted a sky of blue, white, and grey. Taking notice of the bare tree branches against the sky, students use charcoal to draw the vertical lines of tree trunks and outstretched branches in a Winter mural.

Students create a snowy Winter forest using sticks collected on our nature walk, and pressing them into the foam. Crumbling the foam over the landscape sent snowflakes swirling gently to the ground. 

This week in science we observed so many changes from the last time we were at school. We noticed that the sky is a different color each morning. We noticed the clouds and the fog. We heard the birds chirp and the wind move. We noticed all of the leaves on the ground and in our garden beds. We raked up so many leaves and picked some out of our garden. We harvested some lettuce and cauliflower. We checked on on our mushroom experiment and realized that the bag of mushrooms turned from dark brown to white!      

"I am painting the sky!"

 

"Our plant is growing."

Nature Hike:

In search of twigs and branches!!

Students observations:

"I've seen a bird that walks."

"I have seen a blue bird."

"It's cold outside, we should wear jackets."

"The water in our water table turned into ice because it was freezing." 

"Birds live in nests."

"The sky is grey today."

"The clouds are covering the sun."

"These sticks are small."

"My stick is to big for the basket."

"I will take these giant sticks to my house and add them to my stick collection."

"Birds use sticks to make their nests."

"Help me move this giant stick!"

Fun book that we are reading:

-Teacher Sonja and Teacher Can

From Here to There

"How did you get to school today?"

"I walked to school in the rain."

"I brought a rocket ship to school."

"My mommy drove her car to my school."

"I took an airplane to Chicago."

"I rode my bike to school."

"I came with my little brother in a stroller."

"Airplanes are loud."

"Say hello to my grandma, she is on that airplane!"

On an airplane!

The flight attendant asks, "Would you like some juice?"

"I'm painting my airplane all orange."

In a car!

"Cars have wheels."

"My car is going to go so fast!"

Making roads and tunnels for our cars 

Green means GO

Reds means STOP

Yellow means SLOW

Tires make tracks

On a Bike!

Transportation is the movement of people, animals and goods from one location to another. Vehicles traveling from one place to another include cars, bikes, buses, trains, people, helicopters, spaceships, airplanes and trucks.

Fun books about Transportation that we've been reading in class include:  

Freight Train By,Donald Crews

My Big Truck Book

This Train By, Paul Collicutt

We All Go Traveling By By, Sheena Roberts

We wish you all safe travels during your winter vacation!