Big Whoop Part 6

Happy Birthday, Whooping Cranes!

We have watched the Class of 2008 grow from chicks, to juveniles, to young adult whooping cranes. We had a little birthday party for the cranes to celebrate all they have learned to do in one year:

•Learned to feed themselves
•Learned to fly
•Grown five feet tall
•Got adult voices and colors
•Flown over 1,200 miles learning their migration route
•Migrated home again with no human help

Sadly, two of the whooping cranes died in April. The researchers believe crane #803 was eaten by a bobcat. Researchers are not sure how crane #826 was injured (broken leg) and later died. He may have flown into a powerline.

To celebrate all that the cranes have accomplished in one year, the students made paper birthday cakes and ate blue crabs (blue tortilla chips).

Hanging out in Wisconsin

The whooping cranes that we have been following all year finished their migration back to Wisconsin. What are they doing now? We read a slideshow book by Journey North to find out. Then we acted out parts of the story. You can see the whooping cranes (children) roosting in our pretend wetlands and flying away from predators. You can also see the whooping cranes eating snakes, snails, and blue crabs. We watched a videoclip of the cranes dancing and some of our whooping crane children tried the dance moves.

Yummy blue crabs, snails, and snakes

Roosting in the water. Watch out for that predator!

This whooping crane child is roosting as one way to stay safe from predators. Some of the predators are coyotes, wolves, and bobcats.

Our new superintendent, Dr. Murphy, visited the Discovery Lab. The children told Dr. Murphy about the endangered whooping crane.

Whooping cranes will eat just about anything, including snakes.


Can you see the snake in the whooping crane's beak?

Whooping Word Wall

The Whooping Word Wall has been an ongoing project all year. As a culmination to our Whooping Crane project and a method for reviewing all that we have learned, small groups of children had a chance to interact with the words. Students used the crane puppet to read the words. Students used the words in sentences, talked about their favorite words, and drew pictures for some of the words. In case you are wondering about the X word, Xylophone, children played the xylophone in our Whooping Crane Musical.

a quickr pickr post

What are the Whooping Cranes doing Now?

The whooping cranes that we have been following all year finished their migration back to Wisconsin. What are they doing now? Read this slideshow book to find out.