Wildlife at CCS

Yesterday I heard about happy arrivals at Carter's house. Yes, they came to school already and had a gaggle of thrilled Grade One students around them watching their every move. Proud "papa" Carter surveyed the proceedings.

Yes, brand new baby snappers. Ain't he cute? (Is a Grade One/Two teacher allowed to use the word "ain't"?)

Oh I tried to label the specks that were those snappers in the bin, but apparently it didn't pop up on my pic here. They are huddled against the edge of the bin there...really.

One of the benefits of being the classroom closest to the front door is that we often get to answer the door and let delivery men and parents etc. in. I thought I heard a knock at the door and sent Brandon to go look to see if anyone was there. No, he reported, but there was a bird lying on the ground.

It's not an unusual experience, but this is the nicest looking feathered fellow that has run into the glass doors at the front of school.

I looked online and found this picture: it seems to be the female (on the left) yellow bellied sapsucker.

The kids were enthralled again. And briefly exclaimed "It's alive!!!" Too bad it was only me moving its head.

A kiss better :)

Ok, no he did NOT kiss it. And he's not as close as this pic makes it seem -- perspective and all.

Moving on to the next sense we were studying in class: touch. Each student received a brown bag with a little something inside that they were trying to identify by touch. I was surprised that more of them didn't cheat and sneak a peek inside their bags, but I think they got into the spirit of things and tried hard to just use their sense of touch.

They felt around for a few seconds and then passed the bag onto their neighbour and tried with a new one.

Most bags contained innocuous items such as a button or rock or sugar cube or feather.

Only one was slightly gross. This was the best reaction to it that I noticed from anyone :)

They were funny to listen to:



After they noted that they were back to the bag they had started with, we had the big reveal. Everyone got to show what was in their bag. This was the banana peel, yes the one bag which kids weren't as keen to grab hold of. Apparently it's kind of slimy. Who knew? ;)