Rain did not prevent Danny Howell from showing up to his wife’s first-grade classroom at KLE to assist the children in building birdhouses for their moms. He has done this birdhouse project for the past 10 years, and a little rain was not going to stop him from continuing the tradition.
Howell precut and sanded the pieces at home, but brought an uncut cedar board to do the first step in the process, math, with the students. He showed the 
board and explained how many birdhouses can be made from one board. Teacher Debbie Howell then told him how many students were in the class and the children were asked to figure out how many boards Howell had used to cut the required number of pieces. They also learned how to use a tape measure.
The second lesson Howell taught involved safety. He emphasized how important it is to use the proper safety procedures, and each child wore safety goggles to construct his or her birdhouse. Using the proper technique to hold the nail gun was an important part of the safety lesson as well.
With Howell’s help, children first wrote their names and the date on the bottom of their birdhouses, then put the pieces together with the nail gun. They also were taught how to use a regular hammer when adding the perch to the birdhouse.
By the end of the morning, each child had a birdhouse that he or she had made as a Mother’s Day gift for their moms.
