Bird watching as an alternative to chick hatching

Apr 7, 2000 4:03 PM

PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVE II: Students will understand that birds have feathers. Birds also lay eggs. The baby birds hatch from the eggs.

MATERIALS: It Could Be A Bird book, Egg: A Photographic Story of Hatching book.

MOTIVATION: Ask the children to name the birds they know. Ask them how they know it's a bird. Try to elicit the fact that birds have feathers and lay eggs.

ACTIVITIES:

Read It Could Be A Bird book. Discuss what this book tells us that all birds have in common. If this book is not available read another library book which provides this information. Older children may be asked to bring library books or information from encyclopedias and dictionaries to get this information. Ask children to relate their personal experiences.

Look at birds through the classroom window, in the school yard and in the neighborhood. Note that all of these birds have feathers. Try to locate birds nests from a respectful distance. Have students photograph or sketch these local birds. Place their pictures in sequence on a poster or an observational notebook. Have children draw pictures of birds sitting on their nests. Assemble a bird collage using back issues of magazines on this topic. Read Egg: A Photographic Story of Hatching. This book shows how birds breathe inside eggs, how birds within shells "talk" and the moment of hatching in close-up photographs.