Day 2 - Mon Oct 8: Time to bite the bullet!
I have been celebrating life birds with my students for years. It's usually in the form of a small treat. In the event of a mega-rarity or milestone number, it oculd even be a ful fledged party. My Calliope Hummingbird in Cape May County on Saturday definitely heralded in a shopping trip to get some celebratory supplies.
With legislation now limiting junk food at school, my selection process became much more difficult than previous years. I'm not complaining at all. It's just that healthier options are tough to find in large enough quantities to distribute to 140 middle school students.
Anyway, the first few minutes of each class on Monday were devoted to the Calliope Hummingbird. I launched prezels across the room to every smiling student. As it was our first celebration of the year, I explained the concept of a "life bird". Then, showed them a few slides of male Calliopes and related information.
Needless to say, most of them were impressed by the sheer beauty of the bird. They were further intrigued by its status as the smallest North American bird. The stats were translated into school supplies. It's as long as a piece of chalk. It weighs about as much as three large paper clips. After seeing the range maps of this tiny Western visitor, the kids were nothing less than amazed by its incredible journey!
Each of the classes hurled great questions at me. Some were expected inquires such as "Is it going to fly back home?" and "how did you know it would be there?". Others took me slightly off gaurd. One surprise was, "why and how do its feathers get so shiny?"
I could not have been more pleased with the result on my investment of healthy goodies. I usually try to light a spark of interest every day. Today, we almost had to evacuate the building and callin the local fire department!
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