Using resources from the Ornithology Lab, students learned to identify common birds. With clipboards, bird books and binoculars in hand, we explored the field and the creek behind the school, and made a trek along the creek into Millard Fillmore Glen State Park. Students honed their birding skills, which they were able to put to good use on the May visit to Sapsucker Woods at Cornell. Many parents also became hooked on birds, and commented on how observant their children had become of birds around their homes.
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Each student picked a native bird, and Holly found folktales that featured each bird. We observed live birds and video to learn bird behaviors and movement. Working with Holly, students developed the concept that their bodies and faces were their instruments and tools of communication. They began to know their space and where their bodies were in that space. Each student developed a mask, based on careful observation of bird characteristics, to help "become" the main character of the bird legend. As students began to learn their legends and prepare to present them, parents were involved as coaches and trial audiences.
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We also introduced the work of Leonardo da Vinci and his attempts to imitate nature to develop a flying machine. Each student dreamed up and sketched a flying contraption, then teams were formed to demonstrate them.
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To show off the students' creations, the class wove multiple bird legends into a pageant exploring their bird personas and celebrating the bird world in general. Through the enactment of the bird stories, students now understand how birds have distinct personalities, and why ancestors found it easy to explain human behavior in terms of bird behaviors.
The students have learned confidence in oral presentation and how to maintain a bird feeding station, become fairly competent birders, and improved teamwork. Barriers of self-consciousness and insecurity were slowly erased as even the most reluctant, shy and embarrassed found their places on the stage.
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