Last week, during Nature class in the Nature room, we heard a loud "thump" on the window. The llama class looked out to investigate what might have made this sound. We found this little songbird lying on the ground outside.
The bird, which we later identified as a Golden Crowned Kinglet, had been on it's way up North to it's summer nesting grounds in Northern Minnesota or Canada, when it hit the large windows of the Nature Room. We discussed what it meant to live near a migration route along the Mississippi River. The children decided that we should do something so that no other bird would hit the windows.
We read the book, The Dead Bird, by Margaret Wise Brown.
In this book, children come across a dead bird, and decide to give it a funeral. The llama class decided to do the same.
We learned that the Golden Crowned Kinglet typically nests in coniferous trees, so the children found a peaceful place next to a conifer to bury the bird.
The children took turns digging a hole in the dirt.
Then, while holding hands, they sang the bird a song.
"Make new friends, but keep the old
One is silver and the other gold.
A circle is round, it has no end
That’s how long I want to be your friend.
Here is my hand, and here is the other
Let’s put them together and we have each other."
How lucky am I to work with such amazingly sweet kids!
