A perfect day

I'm exhausted but I don't want to forget to share this so I will do it now. Today, many things happened that were beautiful. We have been doing a bird inquiry since as long as I can remember. These past couple of weeks we have focused specifically on the blue jay, one of the 9 birds the children know and recognize from our bird feeder at www.feederwatch.org. After lunch today, Mrs. K was reading the book "Two Blue Jays" 

We had read it before but it is such a great story so we were reading it again. We had the bird feeder on our projector screen and Mrs. K said she would tell them to look if a blue jay appeared. She had no sooner finished reading the story when we here this bird through our speakers. "JAY JAY!" It called about 3 times. The children got all excited and started shouting "That's a blue jay! I hear a blue jay!" I was incredibly proud of that moment. They have learned. They have grasped. They are recognizing outside of the teaching moments. But it got better! 

Then the blue jay appeared at the feeder. All the children were on their feet now. They were pointing and cheering and yelling and so excited. They heard the jay and now there it was saying "you guys were right! You did it! You heard my call and new I was coming!" Oh oh oh but it got even BETTER!!!!!! 

As the children see the bluejay, a few actually looked to us to share (shout/ yell in excitement) that the blue jay is relaxed because it's crest is down. wow. Seriously wow. I wrote a story last week for the with real pictures and information in a simpler format where we learned about the blue jays "crest" which is that tall part on its head. It actually tells you what the blue jay is feeling. When  it is flat back against the jays head, they bird is relaxed. Standing up straight means excited, and fanned out means frightened. So in about a 45 second window right after we read a blue jay story, these children heard and were able to recognize the blue jay's call. They got to see the blue jay on the feeder, and they saw and RECGONIZED how it was feeling. 

Today we saw learning. We were rewarded for our hard work and effort. We were given a gift today in that moment. I looked at Mrs. K right then and said "that kind of gave me cry ball". 

Absolutely beautiful. This is why I love my job! This is why I do what I do. This means something to those children and they are learning and loving it. 

Feb 21 update: I took pictures of the blue jay book I made:

(I am aware of my spelling faux pas on the following page, It was really late at night when I made this but the children haven't found it yet so I'm ok with it haha)