Lincoln Third Graders Bird Museum Takes Flight

Friday morning Lincoln School third graders sat at their desks eager to show off their extensive knowledge of birds, their habitats, environment and thensome as they converted their classrooms into a bird museum, a culmination of a year's worth of study and research.

This is the second year the third grade was able to take part in this bird study thanks to a New Jersey Education Associaton HIPP Foundation for Execellence in Education grant which teacher Gail Dubofsky won for the school.

A bird habitat is set up on the balcony right outside Dubofsky's class window. Part of their curriculum this year included the study of all kinds of birds. Each student picked one type of bird to make the focus of all the projects and essays that were done throughout the year, said Dubofsky.

As parents walked into the classrooms each student was ready and eager to play the role of museum docent showing off his or her display which consisted of a diorama, a model of his of her bird, along with a research paper. All the students  wrote poems based on the bird of their choice which was put together into one large book for all the students in the third grade.

This year a hummingbird component was added to the bird sanctuary and the project was called "How Sweet It Is, Come Fly With Me" said Dubofsky. Some of the students chose the hummingbird to focus their research on while others chose birds like the purple finch or the golden crowned kinglet.

"This adds a level of excitement to the third grade curriculum," Dubofsky said of the study. 

The excitement surely shows as the students truly care about the birds outside their window. During their museum showing a crow flew into their bird sanctuary and the students immediately jumped up to get a closer look.

Dubofsky said they get plenty of birds coming into the sanctuary. In fact she has to refill the bird feeders just about every other day. This year they added red feeders with sugar water which is said to attract the hummingbirds.

Click through the photo gallery to see the students' works.