Valentine's Day!

This week we had our Valentine's Day celebration. We made decorative envelopes to collect our valentines in and had a special snack. The kids were also very excited to deliver their valentines.

As part of our festivities, we reached back to Ancient Roman days to the Lupercalia festival on which   we can trace back some of our modern Valentine's Day traditions.  This ancient annual festival, observed in Rome from February 13-15, was to avert evil spirits and purify the city. 

Part of the tradition was for young men to draw the name of a young woman from a jar and the pair would spend the festival time together which might result in a happy match. Our more "friend-zone" version of this tradition had the students of 1-2A put their names in a cup and the students of 1-2M each drew out the name of a friend they would be buddies with for lunch and for our writing celebration. The kids had fun being paired up and enjoyed the time with their buddy-for-the-day.

Hope you all have a fun and restful vacation! Enjoy pictures below from our party:

Bird Beaks Exploration

This week, we took a closer look at the functions of beaks. Birds have a wide variety of beaks - long, short, big, small, sharp, smooth. We know they help birds get the food they need to eat, but how?
At our House Tables we set up stations with a simulated bird food source and some tools to function as different types of beaks. Small groups of students rotated through each station testing each tool option and discussed what they had discovered. Which beak is best for what foods? That's what we were going to find out!


At this station, rice submerged in water simulated insects embedded in the mud of shallow waters. Kids tried using tongs, forceps and a strainer to see which would be most successful in getting the food.
Winner - Strainer
The strainer works like the bill of a spoonbill, sifting through mud and water to find tasty morsels.

At this station, red colored water simulated nectar in flowers. Kids tried using a straw, a strainer and a cob holder to see which would be most successful in getting the food.
Winner - Straw
The straw works like the bill of a hummingbird, sucking up the sweet liquid.

At this station, sunflower seeds nestled in tiny crevices simulated insects living in rotting wood. Kids tried using a slotted spoon, forceps and pliers to see which would be most successful in getting the food.
Winner - Forceps
The forceps works like the bill of a woodpecker, poking in small holes and pulling out insets to eat.

At this station, thumb tacks pushed into wood simulated fruits hanging from a branch. Kids tried using a spoon, a straw and pliers to see which would be most successful in getting the food.
Winner - Pliers
The pliers works like the bill of a toucan gripping the fruits/berries and pulling them off the plant.

At this station, Cheerios floating in water simulated fish and small creatures swimming at the waters' surface. Kids tried using tongs, pliers and a fish net to see which would be most successful in getting the food.
Winner - Fish net
The fish net works like the bill of a pelican, straining the water and holding onto the food bits.

At this station, popcorn tossed in the air simulated flying insects. Kids tried using a spoon, a strainer and a shopping bag to see which would be most successful in getting the food.
Winner - Shopping Bag
The shopping bag works like the bill of a whippoorwill, opening wide to collect flying insects right out of the air.

At this station, rice scattered on logs simulated insects creeping among rotting wood. Kids tried using pliers, a cob holder and a nutcracker to see which would be most successful in getting the food.
Winner - Needlenose Pliers
The pliers works like the bill of warblers, picking among the cracks and crevices to capture insects to eat.

At this station,  grapes hidden under a layer of oatmeal simulated worms buried in the mud. Kids tried using a toothpick, a straw and a nutcracker to see which would be most successful in getting the food.
Winner - Toothpick
The toothpick works like the bill of a snipe, stabbing through mud to get at the food underneath.

Ornithology Experiment

For the past two weeks, the 1-2 students have been conducting some experiments about the feeding habits of local birds.  We talked to the kids about being Citizen Scientists - that is, local citizens gathering research about the birds in our area from our own observations. Mrs. A. shared an example from another school of a group of students who wondered if birds' feeding habits would change with the introduction of a decoy cat near the feeders. Those students shared their results with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. We then asked the students to think about ideas for an experiment we might conduct in our outdoor classroom. Kids had time to talk at their House Tables, share ideas with the group and ultimately vote on an experiment we would conduct ourselves.

The first part of the experiment was to determine the type of food most popular to our local bird population.  After showing the students the different foods we had to put in the feeders, we asked them to hypothesize which food they thought would be most popular.  To then determine the result, we put out different types of bird food: fruit & nut, sunflower seed, safflower seed, nyjer seed, no waste seed mix, mealworms, and a cheaper food with a lot of filler seed that we called "McDonald's" as it was our bird junk food option. : )  We were careful to measure how much food we put into each feeder and to tally the number of refills each feeder needed over the course of the week. Using that data, we determined which food was most popular among the birds. We decided to rule out the cheap mix and the sunflower seeds as our observations let us see that these foods, though most frequently refilled, were eaten mainly by our squirrels! The most popular food among our bird consumers was nyjer seed. We filled all of the bird feeders with nyjer seed and got ready for the next part of our experiment.

The second part was to see if birds would continue to visit our feeders if we put out a decoy owl nearby. Would the birds be afraid and keep their distance? Would the birds figure out it was a decoy and visit the feeders as usual? Again, students made hypotheses about the outcome they expected.  After mounting the owl on the fence near the feeders on Monday, we waited to see what effect if would have. What we noticed is that there seemed to be no change in the number of visitors at our feeders. They were NOT intimidated - they seemed to know our owl was a fake! This fact may have been revealed to them early on as it had been snowing and our decoy was covered with a layer of snow (which a real owl would never permit!).

All in all, we found answers to our questions and are enjoying the influx of feathered friends to our feeders. We noticed that with the passing of time they are becoming less intimidated by us as well and will fly a little closer when we are out in the outdoor classroom space.


Tracks in the snow - our first evidence of bird visitors at the feeders.

Our owl decoy:

Evidence of both bird and squirrel visitors to our low feeder:

Goldfinches perched in a tree near the McDonald's feeder while we were outside - getting braver about visiting the feeder when we are out.

Goldfinches visiting the feeders near the classrooms (all filled with their favorite food: nyjer seed):