This month the children were asking if it was possible to catch a bird and keep it as a class pet? This began a month-long journey of learning about all kinds of birds. We went out on a neighbourhood walk to Douglas park, where the preschoolers noticed an eagle sitting at the top of a tree. A local neighbour heard the children's excitement and told us that there was a nest way up there. Upon returning to the center this prompted many questions about eagles, how big are their wings, do they have feet, and if they had teeth or just a beak? Together we did some research to answer all of our questions. In our research we did comparisons of us vs the eagle. We measured and drew out the size of a male’s wingspan (6.5 feet!) and laid down on the paper ourselves with our arms outstretched and marked each child's arms so that they could see how big they were compared to the eagle. We also learned eagles have talons and compared our feet to the talons of an eagle. We were surprised to learn just how big eagles are!
Sometimes while we are playing on the playground we can see some tiny birds flying around near by. Some of the children expressed that they had bird feeders at home, so we got to work building our own using milk cartons from the kitchen. Once completed we added some bird seed and hung them up around our playground and the toddler playground. Sometimes in the late afternoon or early morning when it is quiet we can see the birds sitting at them and eating. While we were busy learning all about birds one of the Infant educators heard about our interest and told us that she owned a cockatiel named Winne and even brought in a photo and videos of her for us! She was so funny she even danced! We wonder what other types of birds people can have as pets and if anyone else has a pet bird?
