Homeschoolers at the Library

Homeschoolers at the Library

Friday, December 11, 2015 @ 1 PM

Birds of a Feather

Parent Resource List

What We Did This Month

·  This month, we explored birds and bird migration! First we read from two books, Everything Bird: What Kids Really Want to Know About Birds by Cherie Winner and The Journey: Stories of Migration by Cynthia Rylant. These selections helped us learn a little bit about birds and how they migrate.

·  Next we played an online quiz game found at www.nationalzoo.si.edu/scbi/migratorybirds/education/kids_stuff/woth_game/. This bird migration game challenged us to get our friend Wanda the Wood Thrush home to Maryland from her winter home in Costa Rica. Each migration question answered correctly helped her get closer to her destination.

·  We then read through a mini-book titled “Where Are Our Robins?” found at http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/robin/jr/Book_Winter.pdf. This helped us understand how and why birds migrate and why they don’t. We discussed how our current weather may be affecting local birds.

·  Our final activity was to “Adopt a Bird.” This is found at http://www.fs.fed.us/outdoors/naturewatch/implementation/Wildlife/Migratory-Bird-Day-Educators.pdf and allowed each student to get to know a certain bird a little better. By going through several bird books, students were able to pick a bird they liked and record its basic characteristics, such as color, habitat, and behavior.

·  For our craft, we made bird feeders out of recycled plastic bottles and lids. A variation of this can be found at http://www.runnerduck.com/crafts/garden_crafts/2liter_bird_feeder.htm. Each student was given a small amount of bird seed to take home and we discussed why it’s a good idea to feed birds in the winter and how much the birds appreciate having food.

Take Home

·  Label Birds from Enchanted Learning http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/birds/label/birds/

·  Bird Word Search http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/birds/games/birdwordfind/puzzle.shtml

Books Used in This Program

·  Everything Bird: What Kids Really Want to Know About Birds by Cherie Winner

·  The Journey: Stories of Migration by Cynthia Rylant

Additional resources to use at home:

·  More DIY bird feeder ideas can be found at https://encore.mrcpl.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb1520259

·  More bird craft ideas http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/birds.html

·  For a bird cake feeder, visit http://www.minieco.co.uk/lmnop-magazine/

·  There are several bird activities found at http://www.fs.fed.us/outdoors/naturewatch/implementation/Wildlife/Migratory-Bird-Day-Educators.pdf and http://www.muhlenberg.edu/cultural/graver/K-12Outreach/TheBirdsAroundUsModule.pdf

·  Elementary worksheets found at http://bogglesworldesl.com/kids_worksheets/birds.htm

·  Bird Coloring Pages at http://www.coloring.ws/birds.htm

·  Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center http://nationalzoo.si.edu/scbi/migratorybirds/education/

·  Amazing Birds packet from Cornell Lab of Ornithology can be found at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/physics/lessons/elementary/pdfs/tm

If you are looking for nonfiction books about birds: j598

If you are looking for nonfiction books about migration: j591.568