Just a Bunch of Bird Brains...

I've really enjoyed our unit on birds. It's been pretty relaxed as I plan only the night before for the next day. It's literature centered, as most of our lessons are since we have no preset curriculum. Our curriculum is dictated by our interests and the books availiable to us. I really like it that way as it grants me total freedom to follow the leading of the kids.

Today, we read about the various styles of bird beaks. At snack time I gave the kids chopsticks and told them to eat their cheesecrackers using them. It was great fun to watch their gears turn. The lesson in all this was to point out how what a certain kind of bird can eat depends almost entirely on the sort of beak that's attached to it's face. It would have been easier to use their hands or a spoon to scoop up the crackers. Lillie surprised me by actually eating a few (adaptation, I suppose.)

Problem solving at work...Where there's a will, there's a way!The Brains of the Family...The kids also each made an accordion book about the different beaks they learned and their functions...

We start our unit on Lewis and Clark tommorrow and I expect it will be alot of fun.