The Fast-Flying Bird and Other Mysteries

Travis has always loved reading.

But, we have FOUND his genre.

I've blogged before about the Nate the Great detective books we picked up from the library. We've read many of those over the past months, and Travis still enjoys them.

Last library trip, I picked up a chapter book from another detective series, the Doyle & Fossey series. Doyle and Fossey are a best-friend fifth-grade detective duo that solve a myriad of mysteries.

But they are not just detectives. They are science detectives.

Travis instantly fell in love with this book. He wants to either read it or have it read to him every night, and he insisted on us creating his very own lab notebook and lab coat so he could embark on his own science detective adventures.

Tonight, as we were playing in the backyard, a couple mysteries unveiled themselves, perfect for a science detective to solve. One of them is detailed below. The second one, The Case of the Cloudy Day, was a bit easier to solve as it turned out that the wind had blown clouds in front of the sun.

(We almost had a case titled The Case of the Missing Pencil, but that one was solved as soon as it began. The answer: kitchen table.)

The Case of the Fast-Flying Bird

Scientist Travis noticed a bird flying unusually fast. His mission was to determine what caused the bird to fly so strangely fast.

He studied clues. (With some help.)

He wrote down his observations.

He commissioned the help of his cohort, Scientist Noah, who located the treasure map from yesterday's backyard adventures. The treasure map didn't really provide much help, but Scientist Noah was quite pleased with his discovery.

He formulated hypotheses.

Listed on this page are several ideas about what could have caused the fast-flying bird. In most cases, he drew pictures as well.

First: Black Holle (hole)

Second: Pipe, Ants

Third: 3 Pine Trees

Fourth: Bird Egg

Next to each theory, he marked those which he and/or Scientist Noah deemed most plausible. (As indicated by either ST or SN.)

His final determination was that there was an invisible pipe into which ants were crawling, that led to the bird. Ants were jumping onto the bird and biting it, causing the bird to fly faster in hopes of getting the ants to lose their balance and fall off.

"Cace of the Fast Flying Brid Solved"

We are eagerly awaiting whatever mysteries tomorrow might bring.