What bird is this? Detective work by Fiordland Kindergarten children

At Nature Discovery yesterday up by the shed the children found a dead bird. We took photos and then laid it to rest.  We had much discussion about what had happened to it and what sort of bird it was.
Will thought it had crash landed and that it "might be a native bird a native tui"
Zack thought it might of crash landed on a rock and that it was a sparrow.
Lily"I think it hit the shed - the shed door opened and closed and it got squashed". She thought it might be a tui.
Teagan thought it got squashed by a rock, and she thought it might be a blackbird
Ruby thought it might have crashed into the fence, and that it was a bellbird/korimako
Gabrialla thought it had banged into the ground and that it was a bellbird.
Neve thought it was killed by a stoat who tried to eat it, and that it was a bellbird.
Sasha thought it was squashed by a rock and that it was a bellbird.
Bailey "I think he is a baby bird, a colourful bird.  I think a cat got him or he must have crashed into a tree."

Back at Kindergarten today the teacher's downloaded the photo and as we had been studying the birds in our neighbourhood we already had many photos of other birds, found in Te Anau. We used these to identify our bird.

We looked at the photo of a tui and it wasn't that because the tui doesn't have a red head.

It wasn't the sparrow because the sparrow was only brown.

The black bird didn't have any yellow or red, it only had black so that wasn't the bird we found.

It wasn't the korimako/bellbird because the bell bird doesn't have a white tummy.

We said no to the starling even though it was colourful it was mostly black, and Will said "It has to have red on its head and white on the bottom."

It wasn't the chaffinch Lily said "It doesn't have any yellow"

Bailey to the redpole photo "It doesnt have the same wings with the black on the top its not the thrush because the thrush has spots". 

Then we came to the photo of the goldfinch.

Will "It 's that one the goldfinch because its got red and black and yellow and white on its tummy."

I held up the photo of the redpole who has a red head.  Zack "It's got red on its head but is doesn't have yellow."

Ruby "Its the goldfinch because it has yellow on its wings."

Neve "It has a yellow wing and red on its head. I think its a goldfinch."

Sasha "Its not all black, and it has yellow and white and red.  Its a goldfinch."

Iris thought it was a goldfinch too because it had all the colours in the right places.

Bailey "It's the same, its the same, it has the browny bit on top, a red face like that one, it has yellow on the wing and a black bit on top and it has a white tummy, its a goldfinch, a goldfinch.

wow what great detective work by the children of Fiordland Kindergarten to identify our bird.

Risk taking & Improvising in Fiordland

Wednesday 16th October 2013

Today, Gabrialla pushed herself out of her comfort zone to climb to the end of the rotten log. She persevered until she reached her goal, not giving up even though it was a little bit scary.










Gabrialla's Story:
"I was having fun playing on the log.  John helped, he putted his hand here so I could push up on my tummy.  I started from there, all the way up to there. I putted my foot there and I holded onto the log. I feeled real good and I had fun."

It was Will's first day at Nature Discovery and he had a fantastic time making new discoveries.


Will's Story:
"I discovered this slide and I discovered the seesaw and the Nut (Gnuff) house.  The slide is made of dirt and grass.  It was on the bank.  I shared the slide with my friends.  It feeled like bumpy and dirty and it was good cos I discovered it myself."

Great improvisation Will!!!!

Lily made an umbrella to keep of the few spots of rain with materials that she found on the ground.



Lily's Story:
"One big leaf and one little stick, broken a little bit and put it in the leaf. I put my finger through it and holded it over my head, it was a umbrella."

Lily has an amazing imagination.  When we had story time inside the Gnuff house, Lily kept us all entralled with her stories.  Here are her stories that she told us - shortened versions that she retold the next day at Kindergarten.

Lily's Stories:
"I was in the Gnuff House and I told us a story.
The man was walking down the street and saw a car.  He said "hello".  He said "Arrgh, you are a alien." Then the man hopped in the car and the Alien drove away.  That was it.
And I did another story. It's called Butterfly field. The butterflies flying around the field.  The people don't know that the butterflies are flying around the field. And then next they catched one butterfly and then another butterfly and then one butterfly was left and finally they caught it in the jar with the others.  That's it - it's finished."

Another great day of discovery, improvising and imagination was had by all.