JAY – Did you know birds eat stones to digest their food?
Courtney Webster, 13, of Jay didn’t until she and two other students, Mariah McKenna, 12, and Dustin Hargraves, 13, began organizing a Jay Elementary School Bird Festival with teacher Rob Taylor this fall. All three youngsters are in the gifted-and-talented program.
Thursday night their efforts paid off, as an estimated 250 Jay elementary school students and their parents braved the cold for some hands-on learning about birds.
Not only did the more than 100 5-, 6- and 7-year-olds get up close and personal with a few feathery fowl in the Jay Elementary School gym, they also had the opportunity to learn about birds’ lives by participating in activities like Bird Hurdles, an obstacle course in which kids try to find their way “South” without running into cellophane windows or being attacked by a (stuffed) cat (thrown by one of the 20 or so Middle School festival helpers). Students also painted with feathers, played bird bingo and Jeop-birdy, ran in the Bird Olympics, and learned to carve wood with former Jay teacher Fred Blonden.
And of course, they got an object lesson on bird digestion, in an activity entitled “Grizzly Gizzards,” Mariah McKenna explained. The students were given baggies full of bird seed and told to try to grind the seed in their hands, she said, quickly learning that bird food does not grind easily. As frustration set in, McKenna said, the first- and second-graders were told to put stones into the bags, and watched in awe as the seed crumbled easily.
Jason St. Pierre, 6, of Jay said his favorite activity was the wood carving. What did he learn? “Birds go South,” he said.
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