The Bald Eagle

Hanging out with the sweetest second graders and learning about cool stuff makes my heart happy! 

This week was all about our national bird the bald eagle.  I introduced this new symbol by asking the students what they knew about the bald eagle and questions they wanted to find the answers too.  After a good discussion, I presented a highly engaging and interactive SMART lesson and low and behold we found the answers to many of our questions.  Next we set up our notebooks so we were ready to record our knowledge about this fascinating and fierce bird.  Students had six, which later turned into seven categories for note taking: appearance, diet, habitat, predators, what they symbolize/what you find them on, interesting facts, and babies.

Students worked in partners and practiced their close reading skills to become bald eagle experts.

Throughout the week we watched a few live bald eagle cams which was an AWESOME experience!  I think all of our jaws hit the floor when we saw the mama fly out of her nest and leave her three eggs.  Not to worry she was back in a matter of minutes to keep them warm from the Minnesota snow.   But those wings... WOW!

Our adorable student of the day waving Old Glory as we sing the Star Spangled Banner and watch our eagle cam.

Then we did a bald eagle fact or opinion sorting game (i forgot to snap a picture).

Next students got busy writing acrostic poems for BALD EAGLE(S).  My challenge to them was to go beyond one word for each letter and write a good juicy fact.  They did awesome and have proven they are super knowledgable about our national bird.

Students final projects turned out Ah-mazing!  They are definitely Winter Art Gallery worthy, but the timing didn't turn out quite right, which is just fine with me because our room is turning into a patriot's dream!