Title: Birds

Age Level: 2-4 grade

Teacher Background Inforination: Bird identification, characteristics

I. Major Concept: Identifying different birds, understanding why they migrate in the winter, and lose their feathers.

A. The students will be able to identify the different species of birds including the state bird. The students will research and summarize the information on that particular bird in which they were assigned. The students will then present their findings to the class, along with a photo of their bird.

B.The students will identify different patterns and like characteristics, and
then make a graph showing which birds have each different characteristic.

C. The students will write a story telling about their favorite bird, and share it with the class. The students will also make a food chain mobile, which will help them understand the prey and predator relationship.

A. White poster board, markers and string for the mobile.

B. Pictures of different kinds of birds, with some information about that bird attached.

C. Craph paper for the graph that will indicate which characteristics that the birds have in common.

IV. List of References:

A. For the Teacher:

1. Natures Notebook. Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.

2. The Birds Around Us. By Ron Hildebrand

3. A birds Body. By Joanna Cole.

B. For the students:

1. Student Handbook. Volume One, Designed and Produced by Alladin Books Ltd.

2. Bird Book. Created by Germaine Taggert.

3. Encyclopedias.

4. Use the Internet to acquire information.

V. Content Related Words:

Feathers, beaks, scales, warm blooded, habitat,evolution, reptile, migration, flyways.

VI. Projects and activities for students:

A. Science. I would divide the students into groups of three and have them research to find out everything they can on a specific kind of bird and then present it to the class with a picture of that bird. Some things they need to know are, what they eat, where they live, what it looks like,(size), and

about how plentiful that species is.

B. Social Studies. Instruct the students to find out how and when the Western Meadowlark became the state bird, and then have them write a paragraph about their findings.

C. Literature. The students will write a poem about their favorite bird, and read it to the class.

D. Math. The students will compile the data, and make a graph of like characteristics that each of the birds have.

E. Music. The students will listen to different birds sing, and then we will create our own bird music, by the children imitating the birds.

F. Art. After discussing the food chain and the prey/predator relationship, the students will make a food chain mobile. Another activity that can be done after studying the Western Meadowlark, would be creating our own Meadowlark, by using the attached worksheet.

VII. Culminating Activities:

A. To introduce the activities, I would take the students on a nature walk to look at the different birds and the noises they make.

B. I would then use my illustrations to show the students the different aspects of a birds life, such as it's habitat, what it eats, where it lives, migration, and the prey/predator relationship that it has with other animals.

C. A fun activity that can be done to conclude that unit would be a bird trivia game, to see how much the students learned.

VIII. Evaluation:

Check that students graph for accuracy, and completion.

2. Verify that when the students are doing the group work, that each child is participating. Each child should be responsible for finding some data. They should present their findings to the class.

3. Check the students story or poem about their favorite bird, for grammar errors, and verify that each student completes the required task.