Thursday, June 9, 2016

2nd Grade Birds of New York City

Each 2nd Grader looked through an excellent book, Field Guide to the Neighborhood Birds of New York City by Leslie Day, and chose a bird they would like to create a sculpture of out of clay. For each student, I printed out the pages with pictures and information about their chosen bird. They used these printouts as visual and textual references while sculpting their bird and its nest and eggs and then painting them when the clay was dry. Not being a birder, I learned a lot about the incredibly diverse and sizable population of birds who share our city through this project. I find myself noticing birds so much more and trying to identify them, thinking things like, “Hmm, look at that cute bird, I think that might be the Common Grackle that Robert created.” Hopefully the project had a similar effect on the students.



“Once you connect with birds, you will see them everywhere. They share the sidewalks with us. They build their nests on, above, and below the ledges of our apartments, brownstones, office towers, and bridge spans. They sometimes devour the pizza slice on the ground or the seed scattered by a neighbor, but they also consume the cornucopia of berries, flowers, and seeds of our city streets, backyards, and parks.”  -Leslie Day


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