Teacher Preparation

Overarching learning goal: By participating in this activity students will answer questions about birds through observation, and will be able to describe their location and motion.

Teacher content information: To get students ready for their bird watching, you could watch this video (or one like it):

Student and classroom organisation

Bird watching rules

Students will need a code of behaviour if they are to observe birds. Birds become frightened and fly away when:

There are lot sudden sounds.
The bird sees something moving quickly e.g., a running child, hands waving around, a bouncing ball.
People get too close to the bird.
The birds are being pointed at with an arm stretched out.

With students, make a list of rules to reduce birds getting frightened and flying away.

Outdoor bird observation

In this activity the class uses a checklist to stimulate observation and awareness of birds.

Take your class outside to a place where you know there are birds - it can be the schoolyard or the local park, anywhere with a range of trees, shrubs and open spaces. Place students in a line or in a circle looking outwards. Review the rules and remind them not to point with an arm stretched out.

Students won’t be able to make all the observations, so ask extension questions such as, 'Where do you think the nests are hiding?' Use a variety of methods to describe the location and motion of birds as they are observed. Ask your class to use their eagle eyes to look for the following:

A black or white (or both!) bird
A brown bird
A colourful bird
A small bird
A big bird
A flying bird (how does its wings move?)
A bird on the ground (how does it walk?)
A bird in a tree (why doesn’t it fall out of the tree when they don’t have hands to help them hang on?)
A bird looking for food (on the ground or flying)
A bird singing, squawking or chattering
A bird’s nest (where might the nests be hiding?)
A feather
What can birds do with their beak?
What can birds do with their feet?

Close your eyes

Ask student to close their eyes and listen. They are not to talk and remain silent so everyone can hear. Direct students to listen to the different and dominant environmental sounds. Avoid asking rhetorical questions, as they will answer and disrupt the listening example:

Listen to the parrot in the tree.
Listen to the barking dog.
I can hear some cars.
That is a magpie I can hear (don’t say can you hear the magpie).

When you’re finished and have found as many of the items on the checklist that you think you can manage, discuss with your class the results of your bird watching.

Which was the easiest thing on the checklist to find?
Which was the hardest?
What things did you see that weren’t on the checklist?

Busy birds

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Summary

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Students will...

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