Florida: Mockingbird

The official bird of the state of Florida is the Mockingbird, so that is what we studied today. I wish I could have found more books specifically about Mockingbirds, but we made do with what we had.

When Andy gets home tonight and hooks up our printer, Arin will color this picture of the Mockingbird. I wanted to go ahead and write up this post now, so I might add her colored picture later.

We started the day by reading:

Mockingbird by Allan Ahlberg (this is the lull-a-bye song, but since it mentions Mockingbirds, we went ahead and used it).

Birdsongs by Betsy Franco

United Tweets of America by Hudson Talbott (we skipped most of this book and only read the beginning, the Florida section, and the ending)

Birds: Omnivorous Birds by David Chandler (we skipped to just the part about Mockingbirds. We also had the opportunity to talk about omnivores, carnivores and herbivores)

The New Enchantment of America: Florida by John Allan Carpenter (We read the first two chapters of this book)

Later in the day we also read two chapters of Freddy Goes to Florida. Arin did really good with the chapter book today. She got her pillow and blanket and sat still beside me on the floor. A few minutes after we were done reading, she came to me and said, "Where's the chapter book? I have to read it to Ella!"

For our activities, we started by making a bird feeder. We used a recycled milk carton for this. I cut out openings in the carton and Arin painted it.

Next, Arin painted with some bird feathers.

Then, we made Cheerios bird feeders, which I saw here on Chasing Cheerios blog.

We also did two egg experiments. I hard-boiled an egg and put it in the refrigerator (with the shell still on). Once it was cold, I took the cooked egg and two raw eggs and put them on the table in front of Arin. I asked her if she could tell which egg was the cooked one. She looked, but couldn't tell. Then, I showed her that you can spin the eggs to figure it out. The cooked one will spin, while the raw ones only wobble. She loved spinning the eggs.

The next experiment we attempted (but half failed at) was the classic egg in the bottle trick. I am not sure what we did wrong, other than perhaps it was because the egg had been refrigeratoed instead of kept at room temperature, or perhaps we needed to use a glass bottle? Anyways, the egg sucked half-way into the bottle and then broke in half. Arin was still amazed, so I guess that is what matters!