Description
What our Birds lesson plan includes
Lesson Objectives and Overview: Birds teaches students all about the characteristics of a bird. Students will be able to identify and distinguish different types and learn to mimic their unique sounds. They will also discover interesting facts about a few specific feathered friends. This lesson is for students in 1st grade, 2nd grade, and 3rd grade.
Classroom Procedure
Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the yellow box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand. The only additional supplies this lesson requires in addition to the worksheet assignments are colored pencils and internet access. However, you will need to make sure you choose which bird sounds each student will study for the activity as well.
Options for Lesson
The “Options for Lesson” section on the classroom procedure page lists a few extra ideas or alternatives for the lesson. For example, you may want to have students work in pairs for the activity rather than by themselves. Another alternative is to distribute the coloring page at a different point in the less than what the guidelines suggest. You can gauge as you go along when would be best to hand them out. Another suggestion is to have students learn some of the sounds of different birds, then hold a class contest where each student tries to match the sounds to the correct birds.
Teacher Notes
This paragraph provides a little more guidance on the lesson. It suggests adding another assignment, if you have older students, in which you assign the kids a bird to research and present to the class. You can also use the blank lines to write any additional ideas or thoughts you have for the lesson before you begin.
BIRDS LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
All about Birds
The Birds lesson plan includes one instructional content page. The lesson starts off by asking what has two wings, two legs, a bird or beak, and feathers. Students will most likely know that the answer is, of course, a bird. They will then discover that there are nearly 10,000 different species of birds in the world. And they come in all different shapes and sizes. The smallest bird is the hummingbird. The largest, on the other hand, is an ostrich.
Students will then learn that scientists often group birds in a few different ways. This includes where the birds live, what they eat, and the shape of various body parts. For example, certain birds may be part of the same group if their feet or beak are a certain shape. There are also species that all live in tropical climates versus arctic climates. Some birds eat insect, other fruits and seeds, and others meat and fish.
Despite these differences, students will learn that all birds have several traits in common no matter the species. For instance, every bird species has feathers, two legs, and two wings. Of course, not all birds fly, but students will learn that birds have feathers for more reasons than just flying. These creatures also have either a beak or a bill and a backbone, meaning that they are vertebrates. They lay eggs that hatch after a certain period of time. Finally, they are warm-blooded, meaning that they can control their body temperature even when their environment changes.
Interesting Facts
Students will then learn some interesting facts about certain species from all around the world. Non-flying birds include the ostrich, emu, and penguin. While they cannot fly, their feathers help protect them against different types of weather. They also help them swim, dive, and float. Not only that, but feathers also help keep birds clean.
Feathers and hollow bones make up most of a bird’s body. This is partially why they generally don’t weigh very much. Their light weight also makes it easier to fly with their wings. In addition, these animals have very strong muscles. When it comes to flying, strong muscles allow for long flights.
It may surprise students to learn that not all birds fly the same way. Instead, birds fly differently depending on the type of wings they have. Some can soar through the sky while other must flap their wings constantly. Some wings are helpful for diving, and a few bird species can fly staying in one place!
Coloring Pages
The lesson also includes two coloring pages with seven different birds. Students can read a fact or two about each type under or next to the picture of that bird. The American robin lives throughout North America. It enjoys eating earthworms. Speaking of America, the bald eagle is the national emblem of the United States.
Another bird is the blue jay, which is a songbird known for its intelligence. There are only six different kinds of owls, and owls live all over the world. The snowy owl is a very popular bird. There are a number of species of ducks. Some ducks can stay under water for more than a minute.
The Atlantic puffin is a bird that looks kind of like a clown. Its huge bill has many different colors. Finally, there’s the woodpecker. A woodpecker is a fairly small bird, but it is powerful. There are several types of this kind of bird as well. The question at the very bottom of this page asks students what their favorite bird is and why. It could be fun to ask students this question while they color the pages.
BIRDS LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Birds lesson plan includes two worksheets: an activity worksheet and a homework assignment. The activity will be a fun way for students to learn about specific species from their classmates. The homework assignment will gauge students’ memory of the lesson material and reinforce their grasp of the content. You can refer to the classroom procedure page to know when to hand out each activity.
LEARN THE SOUND ACTIVITY
Depending on what you prefer with your class, you can have students work by themselves, with a partner, or in small groups for the activity. You will assign each student or group of students a specific feathery friend from the list on the coloring pages. Each one has an interesting fact below or next to it. For the activity, students will first read the fact about each bird and then color them. (You can send the coloring pages home instead if you wish.)
Students will then follow the instructions on the worksheet for the feathered creature you assigned to them. First, they will learn what sound their bird makes and try to imitate it. Then they will answer a series of questions about it. For instance, they will need to know the kind of bird, its color or colors, where it lives, how big it is, and so on. One prompt requires them to share other information about their bird that isn’t part of the other questions. They will use this page as part of their presentation when they present to the class their bird sound.
You are more than welcome to include other birds for the activity if you wish to do so. You may even find coloring pages of different birds that you can have students color and write about.
BIRDS HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
The homework assignment lists 10 questions. Each question provides several choices to choose from. Students will circle the correct answer for each question. You may or may not choose to allow students to look at the content pages to help them with this assignment if they need to review. There is an answer key for this assignment that highlights the correct answers in red. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits this page. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.
