Painting Nest Boxes

The kids were so happy to help paint the nest boxes!  There were some frightening moments for this teacher as paint was splattered on things, tracked on the floor and I even got some paint on myself. Oh well!  They did a nice job and took it very seriously.  The nest boxes look great!

 

Red Worms?

The High School shop teacher showed the kids the red worms that they are using to eat the leftover scraps from the lunchroom.  The worms eat the food and then they make soil or compost.  They also have many young and then there are more red worms to help make healthier soil for our upcoming community garden.

Kite Art

Hey!  Look who is flying their kite!

Name Art

Look closely and you will see each child

and their favorite bird.

Leprechaun Visit

The leprechauns came to our classroom and made a huge mess!  They left a note saying that they were looking for treasure in our room, but they couldn't find any gold.  Instead they sent us on a treasure hunt to find a treasure.  We followed the clues throughout the school.  Teachers said they saw some green that flew through like the March wind!  At the end of the hunt, the last clue said to look somewhere where we like to play.  We searched and finally found a treasure of gold-wrapped candy and green good luck coins!  It was a lot of fun!  Those silly leprechauns! 

Snow Geese and Ducks Galore!

If you would like to go on a spring outing, head to the Lake Andes National Wildlife Refuge.  It is 15 miles south of town and you do not need a state sticker.  Bring your camera, binoculars and picnic if you choose.  There are more geese there than I thought was possible, as well as a big variety of ducks, gulls, eagles and other birds.  Go to the headquarters and on the road that crosses the water you will see many of these birds.  Also just south of the headquarters is the picnic shelter and a trail.  I know your child would love it!  Here are some photos from my trip yesterday.  We are so fortunate to live near this refuge, so you may want to check it out!  Go play!  :)

Nest Box Building

Today we went to the high school shop to build bird nest boxes with the high school sophomores and some juniors  The kids wore their goggles and work aprons that we got from the Home Depot.  They also gave us wood, screws and wood glue for free!  That was very nice of them!

They got into their groups and started measuring the length of the pieces and then they sawed the pieces and put the right sized opening in one board. Then they had to drill the holes for the nails or screws.  Next they put them together.  The big kids were very nice to the kindergarteners and let them help as much as possible.  They also explained everything very well. 

One group did not use wood.  They used recyclable materials to make bird houses because it is good to reuse things.  They used plastic coffee containers.  They cut a hole in it, they filed it down, they put in a perch and then they used sand paper to remove the label.

The kids said that it was very cool and awesome to build these nest boxes!  Now we will get together and go out to Lake Alcazar and put the nest boxes in place.  Then we will keep our fingers crossed that a bird will move in.  When you go out to the lake, watch for the nest boxes and hopefully the birds.  We are hoping for a Wood Duck, an Eastern Bluebird or Tree Swallow and a House Wren!  We will be watching too and writing about it in our journal!

Before we went home today I was asked, "So...what are we going to build next?"  :)