The Owls Celebrate Earth Day!

Last week, our Owl Class celebrated Earth Day with a fun-filled week learning about ways to protect our beautiful, wonderful Earth. We began our week by reading an Earth Day favorite: The Lorax! While many were familiar with the 2012 movie, I was shocked to learn that many had never heard the original Dr. Seuss tale!

The story's last line...

gave us a lot to think about for the week!

After hearing the story, students had a great time thinking about how they would help the Earth if they were the Lorax (although they quickly realized they needn't BE the Lorax in order to help our Earth :) ). They had an even greater time creating their very own Lorax mustaches!

Favorite Earth Day activities took place on Friday, when all of SMS celebrated in style with the help of our fabulous PTO and Garden Committee!

Our first activity had us witnessing the effects of an oil spill---and then trying to clean it up!

Using feathers to show what happens to birds when they encounter an oil spill.

The Owls quickly realized that it was nearly impossible to clean up the mess. They all agreed it'd be MUCH better if a spill never happened in the first place!

The BEST part of our day came next when we were presented with a Raptor Show (or as our class quickly renamed it the "Owl Show"! We were SO lucky to meet and learn about the amazing birds of Jane Kelly's On the Wing!

First up, we met a BLACK VULTURE. If you see a raptor flying, look for the V shaped wings to know that it's a vulture (as opposed to a straight lined wing shape indicating an eagle!). Vultures are scavengers and are responsible for eating dead things.

The vulture was neat, but the real WOW factor came when we got up close and personal with our very own classroom mascot! 

Jane introduced us to a grey morph phase WESTERN SCREECH OWL. Scout was unfortunately hit by car (as are many birds rescued by On the Wing). One way to help save these beautiful birds from this untimely fate is to not throw apple cores (or anything of course!) out of the car window. Food scraps bring rodents close to the road, which in turn brings owls and other birds of prey to the road.

Scout has great camouflage!

Next up was the SAW-WHET OWL . These owls are the smallest owl species on this side of the Mississippi river (the little guy we met is an adult!). These owls do not "hoot", but rather make the noise of a saw being wet.

The next beauty was the BARN OWL. Famous for their "Who cooks for you" call, this owl has the broadest range of vocalizations. Amazing hunters, they can hear the heartbeat of an animal who is three feet under snow!

The last raptor we met was a EURASIAN EAGLE OWL named Leela. Related to the great horned owl, this massive bird can eat prey as large as mule deer! Around here, they regularly feast on skunks.

Check out that wingspan!

While it was hard to top that amazing presentation, the Owls still had a blast with their next activity. Conducted by an SMS legend, Mrs. Gaudet worked with our class to REUSE and RECYCLE! Using old magazine strips, students created beautiful paper bead necklaces. 

Later in the day, we took the time to closely examine the plants we have been growing and analyzed our experiments.

Earlier in the week, we had planted radish seeds to learn about root growth. 

As one of the fastest sprouting seeds, within days those powerful roots started heading down in search of water and soil!

We were quite amazed by the power of plants as the plants we planted with "no air", in turn acted as a greenhouse and started growing quite well!

The most shocking discovery, however, was our plants that have received no sun! They looked quite different from the plants receiving sun (something we'll explore in more detail when we return), but grew nevertheless!

 I think I can speak for everyone when I say how much fun we had celebrating Earth Day. Our students are motivated and energized to do their part as they reduce, reuse, and recycle!