"The earth has music for those who listen."
We went on a nature walk around the school property, and listened for the sounds of nature. The children heard geese honking and the wind blowing through the long grasses and tree branches. Then, the students noticed the bird houses mounted on each fence post.
They were dismayed to see the houses falling apart, knowing that the birds could no longer nest there. Maybe if the bird houses were fixed, the birds would sing. Then the bird songs would be the music of the earth! Aha! The project was born... the bird houses inspired our gallery display.
We took some bird houses down from the posts, and brought them inside to see if they could be salvaged. We took the pieces apart to inspect, and clean. They need to be cleaned every year in order to attract birds. The wood needed a little bit of weather proofing, and we looked in our bird house book to make sure that we could safely paint it.
The children helped screw the pieces back together. They loved using the "Red Robbie" and soon we had another centre set up with chunks of scrap 2x4, wood screws and screw drivers. We also integrated some literacy, when we compared nails to screws.
We also worked on creating some collage song birds, to add to the visual effect of our gallery installment.
With some help from a local farmer, we acquired some posts to put our refurbished bird houses on display. And voila!
The children hope to hear the song of the swallows, as they make their new homes in the bird houses. Soon, we will be taking these houses back outside and we will listen to the music. In the meantime, the display sits in our sunny foyer. So much learning went into this project! It was a wonderful process - process art.
Thank you for visiting our atelier.
