22 March 2011

Chickadee-dee-dee-dee...

Elf wanted some flash cards so that he could learn about the various sorts of birds covered in the science curriculum. So I made some with some colour xeroxes. I cut and laminated them so that the children can study the material from the book without flipping pages back and forth all the time. Elf is pictured here with a stuffed replica of his "best friend in the whole world," the black-capped chickadee.

We also bought this guide book. If you live in Missouri and like birds at all, you'll want it! It's organized with coloured page edges. If the bird you're trying to identify is mostly brown, look in the brown section. Mostly red? Look in the red section. And as a special bonus, the female and male birds are listed separately if they differ greatly in colouring (female and male cardinals, for example). The pages show the areas in which the bird can be found and season (migration, summer, winter, or both).

We're also learning about bird calls by using a website. (That's a link to the song of the chickadee Elf loves so much. Just press "play" and listen to him!). So often before I would just think, "Oh, that's a bird." Well, different birds have different songs to sing entirely.



7 comments:

  1. What great taste Elf has, that birdie looks very sweet :)

    We'll be returning to homeschooling shortly after a foray into distance ed that has caused more trouble than a tissue in the washing...

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  2. Only a tissue? Messy but recoverable at least!! Hope to hear more about how stuff is goin'. But if you want to realllly mess yourself up, try washing a poopie disposable diaper with a full load and see what that gets ya. Yeah. I was NOT SMART on that washing day.

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  3. Came to say the bird stuff looks great. My 7 year old has to do a quick 'presentation' at Cub Scouts this week about a bird of his choosing. He picked the Golden Eagle to do.

    That being said, I am now feeling my heart lift a little with visions of a poopie disposable diaper in the wash. I've found some interesting things in the wash now that the older boys are supposed to be doing their own. Playmobil pieces, disposable flossers, and the occasional tissue. We've also had crayons that were not caught and wrecked havoc in the dryer.

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  4. We love birds. If you are new to them, there is an urban bird challenge that focuses on 16 birds. That way you can slowly build-up to a full count. They have resources here and Elf can participate in citizen science too! http://www.birds.cornell.edu/celebration/GettingStarted

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  5. Sounds like a GREAT book!

    Cute picture of the Elf and his little friend, too. :)

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  6. Laura, I shoulda blogged it. But I didn't.

    THANKS for the link, Tammy! Have signed up!

    Thanks, Blondee! I didn't post the pics of him goofing off and making faces. Take about 100 pics and one is bound to be cute! :)

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  7. That sounds like me with chickens! I used to have this big poster on all the different kinds and what their eggs look like. Now, I have no idea what happened to it. How could something that huge get lost?

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Non-troll comments always welcome! :)

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