A recently retired Greene County first grade teacher is hoping to learn who placed a small “door frame” and bird bath with a bird sitting on it along the Raccoon River Valley Trail at the end of E. Wilcoxway in Jefferson.
The teacher wrote the following to GreeneCountyNewsOnline:
“Last fall my class and I took a walk down the bike path and noticed something unusual by one of the trees. It was a little “door frame” and bird bath with a bird sitting on it. As first graders are so inquisitive, we had lots of questions as to why this might be there. It was a perfect opportunity to share our thinking and “wonders” and it offered us opportunity to write.
“So we went back to our classroom, brainstormed lots of ‘I wonder’ questions and then wrote a classroom letter and placed it back by the tree. We waited a few days and much to the kids’ surprise, we found a letter in a baggie waiting for us. Someone had written us back…
“We took our new reply back to our room, read it and the kids were more than excited. Our mystery writer told us that the bird and bird bath were ‘Bluebird Cottage’. We were off and running with even more questions. We wrote just a few notes in October, always getting a reply.
“Then Covid hit and I was so sick and gone for two weeks, Then it was remote learning and the class routine and daily schedule had its own direction. We were not able to go back to Bluebird Cottage until this spring in late April. We wrote one or two more letters, always getting a reply.
“My reason for telling you this story is that I would like to write a letter and thank whoever put that little bird and door at the base of the tree. The kids got so much enjoyment from it.”
The teacher hopes that among GreeneCountyNewsOnline readers, someone can help solve the mystery of who put the so-called Bluebird Cottage there along the bike trail.
She knows who wrote letters to her students. It was a friend and retired teacher associate who walks a lot and had a granddaughter in the class. She was “all in” for making the first classroom letter into a fun pen pal opportunity for the students.
Anyone who knows who placed the Bluebird Cottage is invited to send along the information to GCNO at news@greenecountynewsonline.com The information will be sent along to the teacher so she can properly thank him or her.
