Taking Care of Birds -Meadow Room (5yr.)

  The Meadow room children continue to investigate birds and birdsong.

 (Remember that many of their 'sounds of summer' bags contained bird songs and memories?) 

One day, their teacher Nancy captured a video of a cardinal trying to eat at a hanging feeder. The Cardinal has to flap his wings quickly, in order try to hover near the feeder while he grabs a bite of food. At circle, one child described it like this "He's humming (flapping), like a hummingbird! But he can't do it." The class observed the Cardinal for several days, watching him try different ways to get at the food. One day, he was hanging upside down like a chickadee or nuthatch, but this caused him to fall off the feeder. We laughed together, and wondered if the Cardinal watches other birds to learn new techniques. Nolan said "I have something that we should stop the Cardinal from doing. We need to stop the Cardinal from looking at other birds, and get back to his way."

A small group came to the studio to watch the video. They decided to help the bird, and here are their plans for how to do it:

see the Cardinal who needs help here

Watching the video, Tom said "He needs help, he's trying to... he's trying to flap it, while he's trying to get the food. So he needs something to sit on, to reach, so he can get the food. He can't get the food and flap at the same time."

Looking out the Meadow room window to see birds at the feeder

Afton would hold out her arm so the Cardinal could land on it.

Tom "We could make a long stick and hold it near the feeder so the Cardinal
 could sit there and reach the food."

Drew "We could make a special chair made of bird feathers for the Cardinal to sit on."

Fiona said "I could hold out my hand so the Cardinal could land on my finger."