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[glogdog]

gadeb - your poster looks great!  Your students have received and will continue to receive knowledge of raptors and nature that will stick with them the rest of their lives.  Like gardengirl said, you are helping to perpetuate RRP's mission, which states in part, to "help foster the next generation of preservationists."  Thank you.

[gadeb]

Thanks gg, tulsa, and glog!  Today I had an extra 10 minutes, so what better way to use that time than show my homeroom students the pictures from Robin on fb!  They loved it so much and had so many questions, that we actually spent about 25 minutes looking at pictures and talking about the eagles. They are a really sweet group of kids!  It is going to wonderful watching them discover so much about the eagles and foster a love of nature in them too!

[eaglesrock29]

gadeb, what a great display board you made!  How wonderful that you were able to share that with your last year and current students! 

teamcarnes, what a terrific photo of the "New Teamcarnes."  I can't wait to see their journal for the 2017 season!

You are both amazing teachers, among so many that share the Decorah Eagles with their classes.

Thank you both for letting us share in their experiences.  I just wish I had teachers like both of you when I was a kid (all those years ago lol).  But it's never too late to learn! 

[gadeb]

Thanks team and eaglesrock!  Eagles make teaching fun for sure!

We had some eagle time last Thursday and Friday before our very much needed fall break!  The kids loved it!  They discovered the difference between male and female adult bald eagles using Venn diagrams.  (fits right in with my science and language arts standards)  First, I gave them facts and they put them where they thought they went on the Venn diagram.  Then I provided two pieces of informational text - they read it and moved the facts around to where they belonged on the Venn diagram.  I think they were most surprised that the female is larger!  They were also surprised that the female catches fish too!  They thought only the male did since he needed to feed the family.  The size of the nest blew their minds! 

Friday, they took this information and wrote paragraphs comparing/contrasting female/male adult bald eagles.  (of course I started this class with a great video from last year of Mom doing a huge PS - they loved it)  Not a single moan or groan about writing since it was a topic that interested them!

Future lesson - watching the video to tell the difference between Mom and Dad!

Eager for the cameras to come on so we can watch them with the sticks!

[gadeb]

Another fun lesson today with our eagles.  The kids are loving watching M & D bring in sticks and grasses to the nest.  The last few days have been fun listening to them try and decide who is who based on our male/female lesson a few weeks ago.  So, imagine how excited they were when they came in today and realized we were having an eagle day!

We began by watching the video to learn about their differences.  Then, in small groups, they used their observation skills to classify photos as either Mom or Dad based on the observable inherited traits.  The conversation in the small groups was spectacular as they used facts to back up their decisions.  Next, we came back to our desks and looked at photos projected on the wall of both M & D on the nest.  They kids were quite good at knowing who was who in the photos of them together. 

[gadeb]

A few more pictures of our practice time with Mom and Dad!

[glogdog]

gadeb - Your class looks really into trying to figure out who is Mom and who is Dad.  Thanks for sharing these photos with us.  Watching Mom and Dad bring sticks to the nest is all part of their bonding now.  Nest building, stick moving, perching side by side on the same branch, resting side by side in the nest, touching beaks - all of these are outward signs of their partnership as they strengthen the bond between them.  I love when both of them grab the same stick as if to help each other in moving or placing it.  I watched Dad jump down from the skywalk branch this week simply to help Mom place a stick.

[gadeb]

Team, the map is such a great visual!  I love it!  Thanks for sharing!  I will have to put something similar up like this (steal/borrowed from you ) in the classroom so the kids will have a better understanding of D24's travels.  Math standard in fifth grade for adding and subtracting decimals can be used too! 

Stay safe D24, you have so much to teach all of us!

[gadeb]

These are my cute raptors that will get to enjoy our eagles the most this season.  It is my homeroom class.  I will work on getting a picture of the other two classes I teach, but I only have them for 55 minutes for each day.  However, the eagles will be projected on the wall all day when the action picks up, so all will enjoy!

[Rewrap4u]

These are my cute raptors that will get to enjoy our eagles the most this season.  It is my homeroom class.  I will work on getting a picture of the other two classes I teach, but I only have them for 55 minutes for each day.  However, the eagles will be projected on the wall all day when the action picks up, so all will enjoy!

These students are soooooo lucky to have you for a teacher gadeb! 

[glogdog]

gadeb - that is a homeroom they'll never forget!   

[gadeb]

Some eagle fun today with lots of academic integration!  First, we read about an eagle named Old Abe that was a mascot in the Civil War for the Eighth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The Civil War is a 5th grade standard for social studies. There is also a book about this that I will need to look into purchasing for future reference. 

Next, we watched the video on RRP's page of the building of the starter nest and discussed all that needed to be done.  Then we watched some videos of Mom and Dad bringing sticks to the nest.  Hit science standards with instincts and learned behaviors

Finally it was time to start building our own nests.  Math fits in here with the planning and purchasing.  In my directions posted in the picture below it says 20 minutes, well I ended up giving them about 45 minutes to build.  Also, the nests did not turn out like I had pictured them in my mind at all.  I was surprised the kids went for the pipe cleaners over the toothpicks.  I had pretty nests made of toothpicks in my mind.  They were anything but pretty, lol.

Oh, for those of you who met Emily at ATF, that is her working the store and selling the supplies.

Learned a lot and will change some things up next time, but the kids loved it!  The kids really learned quite a bit from this.  They want to do it again so they can apply what they learned and do some things differently.  I will probably throw a twist in it and have different materials.

Next lesson will probably be actually measuring out area to show how big and deep an eagle nest is.

[gadeb]

Pictures of the kids planning and building.  They were allowed to choose who they wanted to work with.  Oh, and it was crazy sock and hat day, so that is why so many of them look silly, lol.

[gadeb]

Testing the nests!

[gadeb]

More testing and the winner!  The winning nest held 74 pennies, so that was pretty sturdy!