Bird Sculptures & Donation to Audubon

Post Contributed by Jocelyne Adkins, Program Director/Educator

On Oct. 4th, we read "Olivia's Birds" by child author and artist Olivia Bouler. Olivia, age 11, was moved to action when she heard about the birds of the Gulf Coast, victims of the 2010 BP oil spill. Her first efforts were devoted to people who made monetary donations to the National Audubon Society to help save the birds: for every donation, Olivia painted a specific bird species to give to the donor as a thank you. Olivia created over 500 paintings and a number of these were included in her book Olivia's Birds.

Our students were deeply moved by Olivia's work to help save the birds. We decided that we could do something as well: using recycle materials such as plastic bottles, food packaging, broken toys and other “discarded” material, the students created bird sculptures that they auctioned on October 13th at Beye School's 1st Annual Fall Harvest Festival. You can see the students' sculptures in the photos below, taken at the auction. A big thank you to our students, Beye families and teachers who raised $135 dollars for the National Audubon Society's conservation efforts, through the sale of these amazing found-object bird sculptures! Beye Discovery students also raised an additional $200 for the Beye PTO, through the auction of their framed endangered species illustrations. Kudos!

Fall Harvest Festival Silent Auction. Foreground: Amanda Hendrixson, Beye parent, with son.

Andrew and Anika's Bird Sculpture

Joseph's Bird Sculpture

Montgomery, auction volunteer & Ms. Freisen, entering her bid for a bird sculpture

Xavier's Bird Sculpture

Kristian (dad to Leila) left; Montgomery, center; Leila, right

Donald's Bird Sculpture

Ms. Freisen with Bird Sculpture, by Norah & Ms. Adkins

Ben's Bird Sculpture

Emory's Bird Sculpture

Mr. Coppersmith's Bird Sculpture

Jackson & Ms. Adkins' Bird Sculpture

Norah and Ms. Adkins' Bird Sculpture

Dexter's Bird Sculpture

Bird Feathers & Flight

Post Contributed by Jocelyne Adkins, Program Director/Educator

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Beye Discovery students learned about bird anatomy and how certain characteristics allow them to fly. Bird bones are very light due to their hollow structure with “strut” like elements to make them strong. The photos below show actual specimens loaned from the Harris Education Center (Field Museum) that we shared with the students so they could feel bird bone lightness firsthand. 

Bird bone (Field Museum Specimen, Harris Education Center)

Bird Bone, interior view with struts (Field Museum Specimen, Harris Education Center)

Bird skull (Field Museum Specimen, Harris Education Center)

Students also learned that bird feathers are designed for flight too. Birds have 3 kinds of feathers: primary, secondary and covert. If the primary feathers (also known as flight feathers) are clipped, a bird is unable to fly. 

bird wing (Field Museum Specimen, Harris Education Center)

Each feather type has a different shape and arrangement: 

Primary feathers are long and are not symmetrical: the barbs are longer on one side of the shaft than the other. They are located on the outer wing. 

Next to the primary feathers are the secondary feathers, and they are long with barbs that are symmetrical on either side of the shaft. 

The covert feathers cover the top edge of the wing near the body and give the wing its curved shape. These feathers are short and symmetrical.

For their project, the students have depicted the different feather types, drawn on patterned papers and then painted to capture the feathery look of the barbs.

Daysha

Emory

Anika

Suzanne

Porter

Laila

Sylvia

Oliver

Leila

Heidi

Max

Hayden

Emerson

Jessica

Jessica with a negative image, produced on the under-sheet when painting her feathers

Ben

Cassie

Anika

These bird feather collages were exhibited in the main hall during the month of October. They were absolutely beautiful ~ kudos students!

Bird Study: Nests!

Post Contributed by Jocelyne Adkins, Program Director/Educator

Our focus on birds lead us to study their nests. We read select pages from a fact-filled picture book titled "Even an Ostrich Needs a Nest". In this book, author Irene Kelly introduces 40 species of birds from around the world and the materials they use to make their nests.

We then went outdoors for a nature walk to collect leaves, tiny twigs, and dried grasses to experiment with making small nests of our own. Back in the classroom, we also supplied clay, fiber fill and scraps of yarn and string, also of interest to specific birds in their nest building. Small round containers were provided to give shape to the nests which could be removed once the natural materials dried into shape. Of course, it is very tempting to put baby birds inside the nest, so many students used the clay for this purpose. Too cute!!!

Leila's beautiful free form nest

 

Isaac

Jackson

Anika

Andrew

Norah

Laila

Ben with mom (Paula), cutting fabric strips for his nest

Rochelle (mom to Donald), Donald, and Joseph

Ben's warm nest

Birds and bird eggs

Emory

Jaden

Mama bird with bird eggs

Leila's free form sculpture!

Bird Study: From Observation to Invention

 Post contributed by Jocelyne Adkins, Program Director/Educator

This week, we focus our studies on birds. Today, we read "The Bird Alphabet Book" by Jerry Pallotta, illustrated with beautiful watercolors by Edgar Stewart. Students were introduced  to a variety of bird species, from the Blue-footed Booby with it's sky-blue webbed feet, to Jacanas that walk upon lily pads with their slender and extremely long feet. Many different characteristics among the bird species were noted, especially bird beaks, feet and body shapes. Characteristics have been adapted due a specie's habitat and diet, which will be discussed in more detail later in the week with a visit from Nigen Almasi, a Naturalist form the Traiside Nature Museum (please visit our post on Oct. 7th to find out more).

For the project, students were asked to invent themselves as a bird, "If you were a bird, what characteristics would you want and why?" They used colorful paper and colored pencils to create the inventive illustrations below: fanciful to forceful, these are birds to take note of : ) Nice work students!!!

Daysha

Jackson

Laila

Sylvia

Oliver

Heidi

Patrick

Donald