Animal Classification--Birds, Part Two

Day Two: Read a great book about birds of prey in general or falcons or eagles specifically. We liked Raptors: Falcons by Julie K. Lundgren. While no cover picture was available online, the book is available from the Davis County Library System.

Then watch a few youtube videos about falconry. Fascinating. We watched several and didn't run across anything inappropriate, so it is a pretty safe topic to search. My son is in love with bald eagles, so we watched some videos about those as well as some videos about peregrine falcons--specifically about how fast peregrine falcons fly. They are the fastest animals on earth. I didn't know that before. Watching them dive is . . . breath taking. My children and I were all entranced.

Then move to the table to create a paper bag bald eagle. I used the idea posted here.

First you paint the flap of the paper bag. Then you color the other parts.

Then you cut and glue.

Miriam is holding up the one she made and the one I made. Yes, I made one! I'm amazed too. Hers ended up with two wings--I'm not sure where the other one was when I took this pic.

Miriam didn't have a painted flap because she dawdled too long while doing her chore and came to the table late. She was bummed.

Emeline was bummed in this pic because she thought she'd lost her eagle's eye. I found it when she stood up. She'd been sitting on it. We glued it on and Emeline perked right back up.

The children wanted to immediately make paper bag mice to use as "prey" and they played with their puppets constantly for the next three days, until every single body part had fallen off every single puppet and all that remained were the bags. Then I threw them away when no one was looking.

They were well-loved while they lasted.

PS--We didn't make mice that day, so my children compensated by having the "giant man-eating eagles" eat their schleik knights and princesses. Children are ever adaptive.