The Birdhouses of Mr. Noel Roach

On Friday, through drizzling rain, Kindergartners trekked out to Mr. Roach's house at the edge of town.  Ironically, upon our arrival, he appeared to be almost waiting for us while at work in his garage.  The children noticed he was painting a previously  assembled birdhouse with three sections.

The children found out that Mr. Roach begins  making all of his birdhouses using  a template.The pattern  he showed us "looked like a house" and had 5 sides.  The children also observed that the pieces of the "roof" were already painted green and had nails placed inside of them while drying.

Kai asked many questions about the circular saw looming in the back of the garage as well as  about the buffing machine peeking out of a tarp.  The children were also intrigued by the lawn mower resting on the other side of the work bench. ( I think a trip to the hardware store might be in the near future).

Although several warnings were given regarding the presence of wet pigment on the freshly painted house, some kindergartners had to check to see if the paint was dry yet.  Tell tale signs gave them away. :)

While touring the yard, differences and similarities of the many bird house structures were noted.  We compared the sizes of several houses and  counted the amount of door holes.  The children even found the structure  mentioned before our visit with the clue, "Look for the one with that has 12 holes."

We continued the scavenger hunt by looking for the birdhouse that was not made of wood.  We found it at the edge of the yard attached to a side fence.  Mr. Roach had said on a previous visit that his tea kettle had a hole in it and did not serve him any more so he decided to re purpose it as a birdhouse instead. Clever!  There was also a bird house made out of a gourd.

Mr. Roach showed us a neon pink sign propped on his front porch that read "Noel's 98th."  Mr. Roach had just celebrated his 98th birthday the week before and was given a grand party by his neighbors!  He modestly accepted our invitation to sing and the children all serenaded him with "the Birthday Song."  Maia and Olivia decided to shower him with multi-colored leaves.  He smiled and graciously accepted every one.  We finally had to say goodbye, not before the children quizzed him about "that thing in his ear" (a hearing aid device) and hear one of the children mention that their own Grandpa had one. We also took a group picture to help us remember our visit. 

This was a wonderful opportunity to be out in our Backyard Community, meet other people, share in someone else's  gifts and talents, and hopefully spread some cheer.