Bird Unit Activities

Here are some other bird themed activities we've been doing during this unit.

I made a chart with photos of twelve different backyard birds (I found the pictures on the internet, and made the chart in power point).  I made two copies of the chart, one has the birds' names on it and one just has the pictures only and I laminated them.  I made separate strips with the birds' names on them.  The 3 and 4 year old can use the chart with pictures and names on it to help them properly label the picture only chart.  They match a name on the strip with a name on the chart and place it under the correct bird.  The kindergartener and second grader label the blank chart with the name strips by memory and then use the other chart to check their work when they are done:

I found coloring pages on the internet (by searching in google) of the same twelve birds.  I saved them to my computer and shrunk them down to 1/4 page in power point and made a small "My Bird Coloring Book" for each of my kids.  They could use the bird charts from above or our Bird Field Guides to color the birds the appropriate colors.  I also left a line on the bottom of each coloring page for them to write the bird's name in.

I printed out another chart with names of the birds only.  I am using this for the kids to draw their own pictures of the birds:

I bought small decorative birds, eggs, and nests, and put them on a tray for patterning and free play:

I bought a copy of Backyard Birds magazine and typed up some question and answer sheets for my second grader to fill out.  Here is an example of the one from the Hummingbird article.  It helped him to recognize important facts from the article and he even helped my mom make new nectar for her feeders.

I have a Charley Harper Coloring Book of Birds (I love it so much, I am photocopying the pages for the kids to color so we can keep it around longer), I put pages out for them to choose to color:

We have a DK Backyard Bird sticker book too:

My mom found a bird's egg in the yard a few weeks ago.  My second grader was very interested to find out what type of bird laid the egg.  It prompted me to print him out a chart to fill in about various birds we have spotted around the yard, with one category being a drawing of the bird's egg.  He spent several hours on the computer reading about birds and their eggs.  If we hadn't found the egg, I never would have thought to teach him about identifying birds by the eggs they lay.  They finally identified it as a sparrow's egg.

If you are studying birds with your kids, you might consider:

identifying birds by their song

by their eggs

by their feathers

by their habitats (nests or birdhouses they prefer)

by things they eat