This is an ongoing project that they have been working on for the past several months. The idea for our "Bird City" came up in our circle time. The children voted on whether this was a project they all wanted to undertake and the majority ruled. They began drawing up their plans for how they wanted to build the city. Ms. Natalie and myself assisted them by getting books, magazines, and videos on how to create a habitat for birds. The children made a list of the supplies they would need and we began to collect them from donations and purchase the remaining materials. We would like to thank all of the parents for their generous support and help with this endeavor.
So far the Pre-K class has made birdhouses which now house birds, built bird feeders, planted shrubs and vines to house bird nests, planted a vegetable, flower, and sensory garden, built an outdoor arbor and raised gardening beds, planted trees, and made suet bird feeders.
We are in the process of creating a pathway through our garden. Because we strongly believe that learning should be meaningful we have learned the letters and letter sounds for the birds and plants we are learning about. The Pre-K students are very excited about having outdoor picnics in our bird city so we purchased a new picnic table! We are all looking forward to having our lunches outside. The Pre-K students are taking a field trip to the Oklahoma City Zoo to visit the bird habitat and butterfly garden.
If you are interested in finding out more about the "project approach" which is the philosophy of learning our school implements there is a lot of good information on this site http://www.projectapproach.org/. We are always amazed at what the children can do when we support and encourage their ideas. Their creativity and dedication to their vision never ceases to amaze and inspire me. The sky is truly the limit when it comes to a child's imagination.
