Birds in the Woods was a Hit!
Kim Adelson
As you may recall, last year BHAS entered into a partnership with Capitol Land Trust, North Thurston Public Schools, and Puget Sound Estuarium to create and run an all-day outdoor STEM program for third-graders at the Inspiring Kids Preserve. Two hundred sixty students from Lydia Hawk, Pleasant Glade, and South Bay Elementary Schools came to the preserve over 6 days in the latter part of April and spent time interacting with nature and learning about the ecosystem. (The preserve contains forest, grasslands, and wetlands.)
Our station involved a simulated bird walk. Prior to the students’ arrival, we had placed 8 lifelike wooden bird models in appropriate locations (e.g. an Anna’s hummingbird hovering near a salmonberry flower, a red-breasted nuthatch standing upside down on an alder trunk) along a forest path and had recordings of the birds’ songs at the ready. After a brief introductory talk about what resources birds can (and can’t!) find in the woods, we went on a “treasure hunt”. After the children found each bird, we spent a l few minutes talking about its special adaptations. They then answered a few questions in a journal they carried with them.
The students seemed to really enjoy the 25-minute walk! They asked lots of questions and tried very hard to find each bird. We believe that they learned some interesting new things about birds: they were especially surprised that so many species eat insects and that so many are found on or near the ground. They left our station chanting “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” to each other with great enthusiasm.
We plan to repeat this activity next spring and will serve even more students at that time; the goal is to eventually have every third-grader who attends North Thurston Public Schools attend. So, keep your eye out early in 2024 for a request from us for more volunteers! We know that, if you join us, you’ll have as fine a time as we had interacting with students in an enchanted setting.
Photo credit: Kim Adelson with class, photo by Deb Nickerson
