Jake is my science guy. For all his struggles at school with the basics, he truly enjoys learning and experimenting with science. When he's interested in something, he is so focused and engrossed in it. (We won't go into his attitude when he's NOT interested in something...) Anyway, we looked on the internet for the perfect project- one that was "do-able", not too hard for a second grader to grasp, and one that would pique his interest. And the project we came up with was... "Does the Color of a Bird Feeder Matter?" He set out 4 different colored feeders (dust pans from the dollar store- or should I say the 2 dollar store..) and measured how much bird seed was left after 3 days in each feeder (or "brd" as he spells it- even though I corrected him 400 times or so- ugh!!) He repeated this process 8 times. And the result was... (drum roll please...) that the GREEN feeder attracted the most birds (or as he put it- the green feeder "won"). Jake's hypothesis had been that the red feeder would "win" because he thought the birds would be attracted to the bright color. He now thinks that green "won" because "it is the same color as grass and brds (ahh!) like to walk around on grass looking for worms". Gotta love how his mind works!
Oh- the results... HE WON FIRST PLACE for second grade and was THRILLED! He worked SOOOOOOOOOOO hard on his project (the written part was so challenging for him), so I of course was as proud as I could be! He hung his ribbon on his Squakin' Talkin' Fur Real Bird prop (that sat by his project board)- saying that "he owes all his success to the bird!" Goof ball- And then he also attempted (rather unsuccessfully) to convince me that he now needs a REAL bird for home- NOT! We went to DQ to celebrate afterward. Way to go Jake!
