An Environments Thematic Activity Guide

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1 Bird Watch An Environments Thematic Activity Guide B irds are so universal that even the youngest children are familiar with them. Because every environment has birds that are native to it, there are lots of opportunities for children to observe them and make real life investigations. Children will be curious about where birds live, what they eat, how they behave, and how they contribute to the environment. Children will also want to learn about the many different varieties and to notice likenesses and differences in colors, feathers, eggs, nests, life cycles, etc. Follow the interests of the children and expand or contract the activities as needed. Discussions and activities about birds provide hands-on opportunities for children to reinforce new-found knowledge. Through an extension of the bird theme, a layering of experiences and knowledge occurs that creates depth of understanding and often leads to curiosity about related topics. In addition, when the same theme is introduced in many ways throughout the curriculum, children have more opportunity to discover their own talents and learning styles.

2 How to Use this Thematic Activity Guide What s contained in this guide? This Thematic Activity Guide is written to help you introduce a bird theme across the curriculum. Introductory information will help you understand the value of the theme to the children and provides simple facts and words to broaden the exposure to the theme. Integrated curriculum activities are designed to incorporate the theme into all centers and curriculum areas. The suggestions include activities that will appeal to differing developmental levels and learning styles. To help you adjust the activities to suit the needs of your children and to make your planning easier, space for notes is provided. What materials do I need? Most of the activities and suggestions in this guide use materials and equipment commonly found in the early childhood classroom. Where necessary, you may wish to substitute alternative materials similar to those mentioned in the activities. For your convenience, any suggested items that are available from Environments exclusively are shown in CAPITALS and included in the materials list at the end of this guide. For more information regarding Environments products, call toll free EI. CHILD or visit online at For Additional Thematic Guides: See more thematic guides and other early childhood resources on the Environments Resources Website. Go to A Publication of the Environments Professional Group The Environments Professional Group is a team of educators and designers who come together to make the connection between the needs of early childhood programs and the developmentally appropriate products that meet these needs Environments, Inc. The contents of this publication are copyrighted by Environments, Inc. All rights reserved. Note: Up to 50 copies of this publication may be reproduced for educational use. Reproduction of this or any other Environments publication for commercial use or sale is strictly prohibited. Disclaimer: Environments, Inc., the Environments Professional Group, and Consultants cannot be held responsible for any damage or injury that occurs during the use of or because of activities in this publication. Appropriate caution, reasonable safety precautions, adult supervision of children involved in activities, and supervision corresponding to the age and capability of each child involved are recommended at all times. Do not leave children unattended at any time. Environments, Inc. 159 Bay Pines Road Post Office Box 1348 Beaufort, SC Phone: Fax: environments@eichild.com En ronments Call toll free EI CHILD Fax toll free EI FAX US Visit online: en ronments.com Bird Watch An Environments Thematic Activity Guide page 2

3 Exploring the World of Birds Why is it valuable for children to explore the world of birds? Birds are important to people and benefit the environment in a variety of different ways. They pollinate flowers, eat insects, scatter seed, and keep pests at bay. In addition, many people greatly enjoy observing birds, monitoring their behaviors, listening to their distinctive songs, providing homes and nesting boxes, and feeding and caring for them. Simple Bird Facts All birds have two wings. However, not all things with wings are birds. For instance, bats are mammals, and dragonflies are insects. All birds have two legs. All birds have a bill or a beak. All birds have feathers. Most birds make nests. All birds lay eggs. All birds communicate through distinctive calls. Do all birds fly? Most fly. All walk. Some swim. Words to Learn bird wing bill beak claw feather fly flock nest binoculars pollination migration prey preen territory Bird Watch An Environments Thematic Activity Guide page 3

4 Integrated Curriculum Activities These suggestions and ideas incorporate the bird theme in all centers and curriculum areas Language & Literacy, Science & Nature, Basic Concepts & Math, Block Play, Dramatic Play, Art, Music & Movement, Cooking, and the Home-School Connection. They include activities that will appeal to differing developmental levels and learning styles. Use the blank spaces provided to write your own ideas and notes. Language & Literacy Activities To build interest in and to introduce the bird theme to a small group, begin by hanging the BIRD WATCH BANNERS in the classroom and reading Little Green. After you have read the book, look at the pictures of birds with the children. Ask, What kind of animal do you think Little Green is? How do you know Little Green is a bird? List the characteristics they name on chart paper or on a marker board. Ask what other things they would like to learn about Little Green and other birds, and write down these answers as well. Use encyclopedias and dictionaries to look up and discuss words and concepts from the lists. Read About Birds to begin research. (For a more in-depth fact book for older children, choose Eyewitness Birds.) Talk about the birds in the book and look for similarities and differences. All have wings. All have beaks, eyes, and feathers. Colors, beaks, wings, bodies, and head shapes are different. Make a list of the findings on a chart. Do all birds fly? Do all build nests? Do birds swim? Why do birds sing? Record these answers also, so that you can refer to the chart as you explore the bird theme. Make up individual or class bird stories incorporating some of the newly learned facts. Some story starter ideas are I awoke one morning to hear a Red Bird singing just to me about. Let the children make up their own folktale about How the Blue Bird Became Blue, or How the Humming Bird Learned to Hum. Encourage them to create a story about how the Woodpecker was afraid to fly and how he overcame his fears. Tell the story of The Ugly Duckling. Look at pictures of other adult birds and their young. Notice how the birds change as they grow. Bird Watch An Environments Thematic Activity Guide page 4

5 Ask the children what they would do if a bird gave them a feather. Make a list of the answers as the children dictate. Discuss how birds use their beaks to gather food, to make a nest, to feed their young, to preen their feathers, to defend themselves. Discuss how birds benefit people eating harmful insects, pollinating some flowers, dispersing seed, and keeping other common pests at bay. Observing birds is a hobby for some people that brings them great pleasure. Make the book area into a cozy retreat where a bird might like to nest. Cover the wall with a mural of leafy tree branches and billowing clouds painted on light blue art roll paper. Fill the area with soft mats, cushy cushions, and tactile pillows to represent the different materials birds use to create nests. Artists as Scientists in the Writing Center Share the book Colors for Beginner Bird Watchers or show pictures of Audubon bird prints. Explain that a long time ago before there were cameras, the only way to accurately depict the many different kinds of birds was with paintings and drawings. Some field guides still often use this method. Set up a center with drawing and painting supplies for children to record the birds that they see. Science & Nature Activities Set up a display of bird-related items found nests, feathers, different kinds of seeds, nuts, and berries that birds would eat, bits of things they might use for nest building. Remind the children not to disturb anything the birds might be presently using bird houses, nests, etc. Invite children to become backyard bird watchers. Provide binoculars, notebooks, and field guides. Encourage the children to try to find pictures of the birds they spot. Ask them to write or draw in their journals or use dictated writing. Make a bird sanctuary. Find a protected area of the play yard, and add a bird feeder and bird bath. Put out bits of string, fabric snippets, and little puffs of cotton that birds might use in their nests. Keep a journal of the kinds of birds that are attracted to the site, and record what they use of the things that you put out. Let Bird Watch An Environments Thematic Activity Guide page 5

6 the children take turns cleaning and filling the feeders and bird bath. In winter, let the children make simple bird feeders. Spread peanut butter on pine cones, then roll them in bird seed and hang them in the play area. Read Daisy Comes Home, then using additional resource books like About Birds and Eyewitness Bird, research web-footed birds. Talk with the children about various kinds of water birds. How are water birds different from other birds? Add vinyl ducks to sand and water play. Basic Concepts & Math Activities Use bird seed to explore quantities and measurement. Provide the children with a bag of mixed bird seed to examine, sort, and compare. Add a balance and measuring utensils cups, scoops, spoons, etc. for the children to experiment with. Ask the children to make observations and comparisons about the seeds. Why do you think some seeds are small and some are large? Which birds do you think would like which seeds? Why? Observe birds from the classroom windows and on the playground for a week. Keep a journal. Graph the results of birds seen around the classroom. Count how many there are of each type to find out which ones are seen the most in the area. Ask the children to name their favorite birds, graph their choices, and tell you why they made the selections they did. Compare the two graphs. Is the one you like best seen the most? the least? or in between? Use a variety of picture cards and pick out the pictures of birds. Encourage the children to sort pictures of birds by habitat trees, water, familiar birds, birds from other lands, cold or warm climate, etc. Birds lay eggs. Make the connection between eggs and birds. Provide large cut-out oval egg shapes along with cut-out triangles and circles, paper, glue, markers or crayons, etc. Invite the children to create a bird using the oval egg shape as the body then adding other basic shapes for eyes, wings, beaks, feet, etc. Oval sponge paintings could also be used for the bird body. Bird Measures Birds come in all sizes. The smallest is a hummingbird; the largest an 8 ostrich. Cut a length and an 8 Bird Watch An Environments Thematic Activity Guide page 6

7 length of string. Pass the small piece around and ask children to use the string to measure their fingers and hands to see how tiny a hummingbird is. Then lay the 8 length on the floor. Measure the children. How many children would it take to touch the head of an ostrich? Block Play Activities Build homes for birds in the block play center. Ask the children to build nests or birdhouses for their feathered friends. Provide bird models, bird puppets, or children s own hand-made birds. Ask the children, Do you think a bird would rather live in a house or a nest? Why? Dramatic Play Activities Bird Watchers In the dramatic play center, provide binoculars, journals and writing implements, toy cameras, adventure dressups, crayons and paper to draw birds. Pretend You re a Bird Provide boxes and soft materials for lining them to make child-size nests. Children may want to place plastic eggs in the nests to tend. Supply children with bird-like dress-up props such as Environments ANIMAL ANTICS POPOVERS, CURIOUS CREATURE POPOVERS, and RAINBOW SQUARES MOVEMENT SCARVES. Art Activities Talk about how birds fly in the sky using air currents. Then make a bird mobile to hang from the ceiling. Children can make 3-D birds from a variety of art supplies from folded paper birds to birds constructed with creative materials like pom-poms, pipe cleaners, etc. Hang the mobile from the ceiling with coat hangers or dowels and string, and watch it move with air currents in the classroom. Paint with found feathers using them as paint brushes. (To sanitize the feathers before use, simply wash them in a solution of water and laundry soap. Then put the feathers in a tightly closed pillow case or washing bag and dry them in the dryer.) Bird Watch An Environments Thematic Activity Guide page 7

8 Make birds, nests, and eggs with play dough, cookie cutters, and clay tools. Use art sponges to create a mural with all kinds of birds in the trees, in the air, and on the ground. Remind the children to include things for the birds to eat. Ask parents to bring clean egg shells from home. Soak some of them in water with food coloring and allow them to dry on paper towels. Provide a mixture of white and colored egg shells to the children along with paper and glue. Encourage children to make an egg shell picture from crushed shells. Some children will want to make a free form design while some will want to create a representational picture. Display the pictures in the classroom and invite the children to talk about their work. Listen to bird calls as you work on creative endeavors. Music & Movement Activities Sing like a bird to some well-known tunes Wheels on the Bus or Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, for example. Simply repeat the bird call sound to the rhythm of the song quack, quack, quack, etc. Use musical instruments to keep time with the song s rhythm. Sing to the tune of Old MacDonald We looked up into the sky Ee-ii ee-ii-o And saw a duck go flying by Ee-ii ee-ii-o With a quack quack here And a quack quack there Here a quack, there a quack Everywhere a quack quack Ee-ii ee-ii-o (Honk like a goose, gobble like a turkey, cluck like a chicken, crow like a rooster, hoot like an owl, etc.) Fingerplay Fun Fly Away Jack, Fly Away Jill Two little blue birds sitting on a hill (Hold up two hands.) One named Jack and one named Jill (Shake one hand and then the other.) Bird Watch An Environments Thematic Activity Guide page 8

9 Fly away Jack (Put one hand behind your back.) Fly away Jill (Put the other hand behind your back.) Come back Jack (Bring the first hand back in front of you.) Come back Jill (Bring the second hand back in front of you.) Two little blue birds sitting on a hill (Hold up two hands.) Fly in and out the Window Children hold hands in a circle. Spread out far enough for a child to walk in and out between the children in the circle. One child is chosen to be the bird and weaves in and out as all sing. (There is a version of this song on the Three Little Kittens CD.) Fly in and out the window Fly in and out the window Fly in and out the window My little bird The adult will give a clap to signal the child to stop weaving and to stand behind another child and act out this verse.) Give a little peck-peck upon your shoulder Give a little peck-peck upon your shoulder Give a little peck-peck upon your shoulder My little bird The child that was pecked joins the first child in weaving in and out. The song continues, adding more and more children to the weaving line. The game is over when the line gets too long, the circle is used up, or the children lose interest. Bird Moves Invite the children to fly like an eagle, waddle like a duck, walk like a rooster, run like a roadrunner, paddle like a penguin, etc. Use movement scarves to flap like wings. Birds Soar Birds soar on air currents. Ask the children to create air currents by working cooperatively with a parachute to make it billow and wave. Bird Chorus Ask children to think of some basic bird sounds quack, chirp, peep, honk, hoot, etc. Then invite the children to make a noise like their favorite bird. All join in for a noisy treetop chorus. Bird Watch An Environments Thematic Activity Guide page 9

10 Cooking Activities Bird Food Snacks Children may make their own by filling small cups with a mixture of granola, sunflower seeds, raisins, fruits, nuts, etc. Ask the children, Would real birds like to eat these foods? Bird Nests Mix a little peanut butter with Chinese noodles just enough to make them stick together. Line a paper cup or muffin paper with the mixture. Put in a few jelly beans for the eggs. Enjoy! Home-School Connection Activities Let families know that the children are looking at and studying birds. Ask them to take a walk through their neighborhood with their child and talk about the birds they see. Encourage parent and child to record observations in a journal that can be shared with others in the classroom. Invite parents to make a simple bird bath with their child: put out a plant saucer filled with water. Encourage parents to help their child keep it clean and filled with water. Give parents directions to make the simple pine cone bird feeder for their home. Send home words and motions to the Fly Away Jack, Fly Away Jill fingerplay. See next page for Bird Watch Materials List Bird Watch An Environments Thematic Activity Guide page 10

11 Bird Watch Materials List This list of Environments products is designed to help you select materials which support the bird theme throughout the curriculum. The items are listed under the curriculum area they are most commonly associated with. The list correlates to the Environments Early Childhood Equipment & Materials Guide 2004 and Online Environments Stores where you will find detailed product information and pictures. To find products in the catalog: Simply look up the product on the page listed under Product Location. To find products at the online stores: Go to and enter the item number into the find products search tool. Language & Literacy Items Related Environments Banners Designed to enhance the exploration of early childhood themes, these banners promote curiosity and provide much opportunity for adults to interact with children. Banners can be used just as you would read picture books: informally pointing out and naming colors, shapes, and objects; talking about; imitating all chances to develop emergent literacy Tree Banners EC-85-P Bird Watch Banners EC-97-K Primary Sky Banners EC-101-H Related Books (in alphabetical order) About Birds EC-97-G Colors for Beginner Bird Watchers EC-97-H Daisy Comes Home Online Only Eyewitness Bird Online Only First Encyclopedia EC-72-P Good-Night, Owl! EC-10-D Life Cycles Book Set EC-96-B Little Green EC-97-F My First Dictionary EC-72-O Owl Babies Big Book EC-69-B Picture Dictionary EC-72-N Bird Watch An Environments Thematic Activity Guide page 11

12 The Random House Book of Poetry for Children EC-72-M Seasons Book of Poems Online Only Tomie depaola s Mother Goose EC-83-F Additional Language & Literacy Materials First Puppets EC-58-A Puppet Theater EC-58-P Flannel/Magnetic Marker Board EC-61-H Adjustable Chart Stand EC-66-A Spiral Chart Pad EC-66-H Write-and-Wipe Set EC-66-I Ream of Picture-Story Paper EC-67-K Dozen Pre-K Story Journals EC-67-M Dozen K-1 Story Journals EC-67-N Writing Center Accessories Set EC-67-T Soft Sky Mat EC-101-K Magnetic Board/Flannel Board Room Divider EC-115-A Cushy Cushions EC-121-B Cushy Cushions EC-121-G Fuzzy Wuzzy Texture Pillows EC-124-G Science & Nature Items Sand and Water Exploration Set EC-51-H EI Sand and Water Table EC-51-I Top for Sand and Water Table EC-51-K Animal Discovery Cards EC-90-B Life Cycle Tiles EC-97-E Binoculars EC-97-I Periscope EC-97-J Curiosity Cabinet EC-115-H Three Soft Ducks Online Only Basic Concepts & Math Items Big Balance EC-39-C Chicks and Eggs Play Puzzle EC-43-C Birds and Bugs Peg Puzzle Set EC-45-M Measured Serving Spoons EC-129-G Bird Watch An Environments Thematic Activity Guide page 12

13 Twelve Square Bowls Clear EC-129-I Set of Three Utility Tubs EC-131-M Block Play Items Fantasy Forest EC-26-C Maple Unit Building Blocks Nursery Set EC-27-J Maple Unit Building Blocks Preschool/Kdgn EC-27-K Dramatic Play Items Animal Antics PopOvers EC Curious Creatures PopOvers EC Focus Pocus EC-4-B Adventure Kit EC-10-F Adventure Vest EC-10-G Adventure Hats EC-10-H Art Items Art Sponges EC-53-J Set of Six Bowls EC-53-L Preschool Easel Brush Set EC-53-O Crayola Washable Paint Set EC-53-Q Classroom Collage Kit EC-54-A Two One-Gallon Bottles of Glue EC-54-G Ream of 9 12 White Drawing Paper EC-55-J Construction Paper Class Assortment EC-55-N Classpack of Large Crayons EC-55-O Dozen Boxes Classic Color Markers EC-55-P Set of 6 Tubs of Crayola Dough EC-55-Q Giant Clay Play Set EC-55-S Giant Leaf Sponges EC-99-H Light Blue Art Roll Online Only Bird Watch An Environments Thematic Activity Guide page 13

14 Music & Movement Items Funchute EC-77-K Rainbow Squares Movement Scarves EC-79-H Rhythm Instruments Set EC-79-O Three Little Kittens CD EC-81-G Naturally Creative CD s EC-81-U Single Cassette/CD Player EC-107-I Institutional Cassette Recorder EC-107-K Home-School Connection Items Take-Home Bag EC-57-I Hardcover Journal EC-57-I Reading Right from the Start - English EC-57-J Reading Right from the Start - Spanish EC-57-J Environments, Inc. 159 Bay Pines Road Post Office Box 1348 Beaufort, SC Phone: Fax: environments@eichild.com En ronments Call toll free EI CHILD Fax toll free EI FAX US Visit online: en ronments.com Bird Watch An Environments Thematic Activity Guide page 14

Lesson: Feathers in the Forest

Lesson: Feathers in the Forest Topic/Essential Question: How do trees provide food and homes for birds? Unit: Why Are Trees Terrific? Kindergarten Environmental Literacy Content Standards: Science 3.0