I found this dead bird on our back porch this morning. I guess it flew into our sliding glass door.
After calling the girls and assuring them that it was dead and not just asleep, I went into teacher mode.
We knew it was a woodpecker but I pulled out my North American Wildlife guide to find out which species of woodpecker. We found the page on woodpeckers and the picture this bird most closely resembled. Then I had the girls read the description of the bird in the book and check our bird for the right markings.
They were excited that they were able to identify it as a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker. I thought it was cool too, because though we've seen downy woodpeckers and northern flickers, I don't remember ever seeing one of these, although they're supposed to be pretty common.
We measured it at just over 8 inches, and the girls touched it's beak and claws .... they just had to feel how sharp they were. We also talked about how God created these birds with beaks especially made for drilling holes in wood. We did all this with rubber gloves on... I'm kind of leery of touching dead wild animals.
Sissy wrote a a little report on the bird, and I printed the photos of it on plain white paper, which we punched holes in and put in her notebook with the report.
Now if I'd been REALLY into this, I would have dissected it and showed the girls the internal parts, but I did that years ago with Brother when we found a sparrow, and remembering the waves of nausea I experienced, I decided we had seen all of this bird we would see.
He was disposed of respectfully on the brush pile heap, where he will be cremated tomorrow when my husband burns leaves and brush.
I love it when life and school overlap.
6 comments:
Way to take advantage of opportunities that come up! I can't believe you actually disected a sparrow...that's beyond brave! I'm sure your girls will remember this little bird for a long time.
Nina I've read your comment. Very compelling. I also responded with a follow-up if you care to read it. Thank you for your response and your participation is appreciated.
BTW I ran out of white board space and remembered reading somewhere that I could use glass. So I tried it APPREHENSIVELY, on a small spot on my sliding glass door. I waited a few seconds, then tried to wipe it and it came right off.
I couldn't remeber where I had read it until today. Thanks for the tip the kids loved it. We even used the glass to play a game of Pictionary as well.
Thanks for stopping by.
Did you find out how the woodpecker keeps from damaging himself while he is hitting again a tree like a jackhammer? That was interesting to me as to how God has provided all types of means for each individual type animal. In this case, one that does an unusal thing to find food etc.
No I didn't Teddy, that's a good question, I may have to look that up. Why DON'T woodpeckers injure themselves? Hmmm......
Nina --
I ran across a dead bird today and it never occurred to me to make it a school event. You are so much better at this :-)
I would not have dissected it either but I did let the children all watch how to clean a dove on ENN through Vision Forum.. that should count at least for something..LOL!
God bless,
Sallie
Not better... just different. After all, I'm not teaching my kids French! I think that's way cooler than a dead bird. :)
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