Our second week of Birds was less hands on, but much more musical, thanks to the fact that just about half of the German folk songs are all about birds. Ok, that is perhaps an exaggeration, but it seems like it. Here are the songs we learned:
Kuckuck, Kuckuck ruft aus dem Wald (Cuckoo, Cuckoo calls from the wood)
Es wollt' ein Vogel Hochzeit machen (A bird wanted to get married - very loose translation)
Kommt ein Vogel geflogen (A bird came flying)
Alle meine Entchen* (All my ducklings)
Der Kuckuck und der Esel+ (The Cuckoo and the donkey)
Wenn ich ein Voeglein waer'+ (If I were a birdie)
Fuchs, du hat die Gans gestohlen (Fox, you stole the goose)
*OK, we already knew this song
+"learned" should be applied loosely to these two songs, we sang them once or twice.
My favorite songs included lines such as "let us sing, dance, and hop" and "la la la, didi ra la la."
Joshua's favorite song included lines like these "Fox you stole the goose, give it back. Otherwise the hunter will get you with his gun," followed by references to die rote Tinte, or in other words, the fox's blood. Hey, it's way more mild than Grimm, so I'll let it slide.
We made some little bird feeders (pine cones, peanut butter, millet) to hang next to our bird house but I didn't realize that birds are busy eating worms and insects during the spring and summer and wont really be needing those seeds until winter comes around. Oh well. It's a good thing I'm not a paid teacher, because obviously I don't do my homework! They were fun to make anyway.
Here are some, but not all, of our favorite bird books. These were the less education books.
These were some of the education books - we did have some kid friendly books also, but I haven't bothered to take photos of them. They were helpful, however, in helping the kids and me identify lots of local birds. To add to our list, we have seen more robins, magpies, chickadees, a few finches, a hummingbird, chickens, and I saw a bird today with a red face, but I have no idea what it is.
Joshua is still working on his lego birds. If you can guess what these two birds are supposed to be, kudos to you. I'll have to come up with something to mail you. (The second one is missing quite a few elaborate and large tail feathers, if that helps you out a bit.) Don't let the flowers on their heads fool you. Those are just for decoration.
I think we will go ahead and move on to Reptiles and such. We have a scheduled outing to the Tracy Aviary with some friends near the end of the month, and a scheduled reptile show with the scouts in a week or so, so I've decided to put birds on hold for the moment. I suppose birds and prehistoric large reptiles have quite a bit in common, and depending on who you talk to, are even related. We'll pretend we're not making such a big jump, and then just finish up with the Aviary as planned.
Kuckuck, Kuckuck ruft aus dem Wald (Cuckoo, Cuckoo calls from the wood)
Es wollt' ein Vogel Hochzeit machen (A bird wanted to get married - very loose translation)
Kommt ein Vogel geflogen (A bird came flying)
Alle meine Entchen* (All my ducklings)
Der Kuckuck und der Esel+ (The Cuckoo and the donkey)
Wenn ich ein Voeglein waer'+ (If I were a birdie)
Fuchs, du hat die Gans gestohlen (Fox, you stole the goose)
*OK, we already knew this song
+"learned" should be applied loosely to these two songs, we sang them once or twice.
My favorite songs included lines such as "let us sing, dance, and hop" and "la la la, didi ra la la."
Joshua's favorite song included lines like these "Fox you stole the goose, give it back. Otherwise the hunter will get you with his gun," followed by references to die rote Tinte, or in other words, the fox's blood. Hey, it's way more mild than Grimm, so I'll let it slide.
We made some little bird feeders (pine cones, peanut butter, millet) to hang next to our bird house but I didn't realize that birds are busy eating worms and insects during the spring and summer and wont really be needing those seeds until winter comes around. Oh well. It's a good thing I'm not a paid teacher, because obviously I don't do my homework! They were fun to make anyway.
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| Can you see our bird house back there? |
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| My favorite line from "Little Penguin's Tale" goes something like, "Now everybody knows that a little penguin can get into big trouble dancing with the gooney birds." Actually, I didn't know that. I suppose these books taught me something after all. |
These were some of the education books - we did have some kid friendly books also, but I haven't bothered to take photos of them. They were helpful, however, in helping the kids and me identify lots of local birds. To add to our list, we have seen more robins, magpies, chickadees, a few finches, a hummingbird, chickens, and I saw a bird today with a red face, but I have no idea what it is.
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| I don't know what Joshua is pointed to, but I'm sure whatever it is, he called it a Fleischfresser Perregrine - Thanks to our Falcon show last week, any bird that is fast or is a meat eater is now a "Perregrine." |
Joshua is still working on his lego birds. If you can guess what these two birds are supposed to be, kudos to you. I'll have to come up with something to mail you. (The second one is missing quite a few elaborate and large tail feathers, if that helps you out a bit.) Don't let the flowers on their heads fool you. Those are just for decoration.
I think we will go ahead and move on to Reptiles and such. We have a scheduled outing to the Tracy Aviary with some friends near the end of the month, and a scheduled reptile show with the scouts in a week or so, so I've decided to put birds on hold for the moment. I suppose birds and prehistoric large reptiles have quite a bit in common, and depending on who you talk to, are even related. We'll pretend we're not making such a big jump, and then just finish up with the Aviary as planned.
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