We actually had an unexpected head start on our bird study when we joined the Ritz Kids at their Grand Lakes location for a bird study day. This was our first experience joining the Ritz Kids program. The Ritz Kids is an amazing program where not only do the kids get some freedom from their parents but they have fun learning about the area. For this specific topic Jaxon painted a bird house while they read books and played games all revolving around Birds.
Our Bird Study began with the book Feather's for Lunch. Which was suggested to us through a Thematic Unit on birds. Anytime I can find a Thematic Unit on a subject we are studying I love to include them as they have creative ideas on incorporating crafts, cooking, math and writing. This was Jaxon's first time ever learning about birds and I was not sure if we would find the study exciting. Inside the thematic Unit they provided one single page to be used as a Bird Watching Journal. Since we travel so much I decided to expand our bird watching on our trips and purchased this Bird Watching Journal to do so. I also picked up a couple books to learn more about bird watching and the birds we are observing. Feather's for lunch introduces the children to some of the most common birds found across the United States. The only deteriant of this book is that the pictures are paintings so they do not show the children a realistic picture of the bird they are studying. To solve this problem since I wanted Jax's to have the ability to see a photograph of each bird I searched elsewhere. I found that the National Geographic for Kids books does a wonderful job showing the children pictures and facts about the birds. For this study I picked up Ultimate Explorer Field Guide: Birds (National Geographic Kids Ultimate Explorer Field Guide) and National Geographic Kids Bird Guide of North America.
Though the Thematic Unit suggested we raise an egg in an incubator I was not that dedicated. So we opted to improvise by finding a nest in our yard and observing the birds through their entire cycle of life. It added a sense of excitement each time we checked the nest. From the beginning as we anticipated the eggs hatching all the way to the end as we were able to see the changes in the birds as they grew stronger and stronger.
So we found that sometimes nature needed some persuasion when it came to attracting the birds down to a level we could observe them better. So we started on our adventure of making all types of bird feeders.
As we continued our bird watching we began being able to identify birds by sight. Jax's began enjoying the challenge of figuring out which bird was which. As I searched for areas outside of our own yard to venture to I found a great program located just outside of San Francisco, at the Marin Audubon Society. The Marin Audubon Society has a program for Junior Birdwatchers ranging from Kindergarten to Fifth Grade. So we will see where this adventure takes us. We've decided to start with the Kindergarten level so we do not miss any of the steps. I always like to add any type of visual educational toy that can be used during our lessons. I came across these great plush toys made by Wild Republic for the Audubon Society to help Jaxs in learning the different types of birds along with hearing their individual calls.
To end our bird study we attended the Annual Lake Tahoe Bird Festival. It is held annually at the Taylor Creek Visitors Center by many organizations in the community to educate visitors on the local birds that migrate to the Lake Tahoe area.
The Tahoe Institute for Natural Science leads bird watches through the Taylor Creek area the entire day. It was a great opportunity for Jax's to bird watch with a group of people outside of our yard.
Following our Bird Watch we attended a Falconer presentation at the amphitheater put on by Marie Gaspari-Crawford. Of course these birds of prey held Jaxon's attention.
There were a long list of organizations that set up booths to help educate visitors on numerous subjects. The boy scouts caught Jaxon's attention since he was able to build his own bird house.
Again the Community in Tahoe has exceeded our expectations. We love how everyone in the community always comes together to pull off amazing events for our youth. We only wish more communities would do so.