Outdoor Hour Challenge: Chickadee Study, part 2

We began our chickadee study here. We had to come back to finish it a day or two later. My goal was to research and explain the difference(s) between the black-capped chickadee, which occurs in our geographic area, and the North Carolina chickadee, which I used to think was the one in our area.

The black-capped chickadee is slightly smaller than the North Carolina chickadee, and has a splash of white (or off-white) across the side of each side of the head, which is not present on the NC chickadee. These are minute differences, very difficult to discern on a bird that seldom stays still for more than three seconds... :)  We also enjoyed listening to the differences in the sounds between the two birds, but I think I mentioned that in the last post.

I also used the Chickadee Pastel Tutorial (by Hodgepodge Mom)with the kids and got them drawing. They really enjoyed that. Here are some photos:

With the laptop open on the table, I walked them through the steps of creating the drawing, making my own drawing while they watched, so they could have an example with the steps right in front of them.

 Then, with my example drawing in front of them, they set out to make their own drawings. We used small sheets of art paper so they can attach them to their nature journals later.

Each child's finished product was unique, and they did a great job. I believe this project really helped them to give attention to the features of the black-capped chickadee in a way that will cement the bird's appearance into their long-term memory! I really liked that.

I really enjoyed introducing the pastels for this study, and I now anticipate using them much more in the future. I'm sorry I don't have photographs of the finished products (after legs and grass and sky were added). I don't know what happened. And I can't photograph right now becausewe left my son's notebook at my friend's house where we do our co-op, so this will have to do. (I'm struggling enough just to catch up on blog entries I meant to make that I just want to get this done!)

So I hope you enjoyed this entry! :)