Franklin Preschoolers Take Flight

Today we had a busy day filled with our youngest group of students yet, and some fellow educators. 

We started by visiting the wonderful students of Franklin Preschool in Berkeley, CA and taught at three different classes. We asked them all the same thing. How do we know that a bird is a bird?

Is that soft stuff fur, or what?

Learning how to be gentle with Cooper the hawk.

Everybody gets one touch.

After some careful observation we started with our first clue as to what a bird is. They can fly!

Darrow and the kids aloft in the schoolyard.

So, we set off in flight from the nest to explore the playground and look for some birds. We were hoping that our observations would bring us closer to finding out what makes a bird a bird and not a lizard, or a butterfly? And, what did we find? An answer! A feather!

Scientists at work!

What do birds have and no other creatures have? Birds have feathers. So, we took the opportunity to unveil another treat from the Ken Norris Center for Natural History. A fully intact Cooper's Hawk wing. The students helped us count the feathers on this wing. 20 primary flight feathers!

Turns out practicing counting is fun if you count fun stuff.

Special thanks to all the teachers at Franklin, the brilliant students, and our good friend Shoshie, who teaches at Franklin, for organizing our visit.

In the evening we journeyed to Slide Ranch in the Marin headlands, a nature school for elementary schools in the San Francisco bay area. Darrow taught some of the staff about making fire with friction and we got to talk with them about how we lead our Bird School style walks with kids.

Slide Ranchers creating a coal with a bow drill kit.

Looking at birds through different lenses.

Watching a Black Phoebe at sunset on the Slide Ranch property.

Thanks to Justine Faust for bringing us to meet some inspiring naturalists in an inspiring place. A great and full day today and another two schools on the horizon for tomorrow!