Fabulous Field Trip to Hardee County Wildlife Refuge

On March 7th, 2014, my Firsties went on a field trip to Hardee County Wildlife Refuge, in Zolfo Springs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creating Bear Cupcakes

Bear Biologist Shares His Knowledge

Baby Animals and Eggs, A Sure Sign of Spring

I have been absolutely amazed by the gift of teaching opportunities this year. God has truly blessed my students and I with teachable moments. This afternoon I was informing my class about a second grade student at our school who has her own Community Service Club called, Kids That Kare. We invited this student to come to our classroom to share about her club when we started our Community Service project. Her visit was scheduled, but then she became ill, so we had to reschedule for next week. While I was informing my class of a Kids that Kare meeting afterschool tomorrow, there was a knock at the door. It was the mother of the student who will be visiting our class. She knows I love teachable moments and popped in with a teeny tiny surprise. Her hands were cupped as she approached me to ask me if I'd like her to share. She opened her hands as if they were hinged like a clam shell. I got a quick peek, but wasn't sure what I had just seen. So I had to ask. It was a 5 day old bunny.

This student found soft shelled turtle eggs at his ranch and brought several in to share. He was very excited about his find and couldn't wait to share his animal knowledge. I didn't want to rain on his parade in front of his peers, so we had a sidebar about being careful not to disturb wildlife, returning it to where it was found and not to hold creatures captive, especially if an animal is protected. During the baby bunny visit Mrs. Smith and I had an opportunity to discuss this with the whole class, using the bunny as an example. This baby had clearly been abandoned.

Neigh-BEAR-hood Watch Kids Finish Their Bear Campaign Shirts

Bear t-shirts hot off the press!

 

These students are removing the cardboard from inside the shirts.

Here's a video of my students in their Florida Black Bear Campaign t-shirts they stenciled. They are reciting the Bear Project mission statement they wrote. An idea inspired through The Leader in Me. Our class wrote a mission statement about school for our classroom. Then the students each wrote their own personal mission statement. While brainstorming for their Florida Black Bear project, one of my students said our campaign needed a mission statement so people would know what we were doing.

Next task, a table covering for the Neigh-BEAR-hood Watch Kids Bear Project booth. The students will be decorating the table covering with bear paw prints. Such clever students I have.

Power of Persuasion

As part of my students' Black Bear Community Service Learning project they want people to decorate cupcakes to look like bears. The idea is that when people visit their Neigh-BEAR-hood Watch Kids' booth at our schools' annual Hoedown the students will teach people about bears while they make a bear cupcake. Well, we will need a lot of cupcakes, plus other ingredients for this project, so we wrote letters to Publix asking for help. The children wrote letters explaining their project and what they need to make the project a success. This made a great persuasive writing lesson, it was meaningful and had a real world connection.

 

Friday after school, this student and I went to the office to check my mailbox for mail. We were pleasantly surprised to find a letter from Publix.

 

We couldn't wait to see what Publix had to say about helping us with our project.

To our amazement Publix graciously sent our class a $100.00 giftcard. We will be writing lots of Thank-you letters on Monday. More purposeful writing. Yay! I love it when a project comes together!